In recent years Tovino Thomas has turned into that huge star that his assuredness on screen and incredible good looks always hinted at from the beginning. This is especially true with the recent huge, Netflix fuelled success of that impressively fun and innovative local superhero story, Minnal Murali. So, I figured this is a good time to write about a slightly lesser noticed work of his from a few years ago, Luca. What was surprising for me was how much I enjoyed this story of a tortured artist and the lady who comes into his life.

The movie opens up with the death of this artist in fact, in what looks like a case of probable suicide. The initial focus is on the investigating officer Akbar (Nithin George) and his troubled personal life; he is married to a dear friend Fathima (Vinitha Koshy), but memories of an earlier love gone unexpectedly wrong still haunt him and he believes he has nothing more left to give his wife. An amicable divorce is what they are aiming at, but no relationship like that can be ended without some pangs. He finds a diary which the artist’s probable girlfriend, Niharika (Ahaana Krishna), had sent to him a few days before his death. Before he can question her, he finds that she too killed herself the day before in her home in Bangalore. Is it a case of star crossed lovers deciding to end their lives in a macabre suicide pact? Or are there darker undercurrents of foul play at hand here? As Akbar goes through the diary, he, along with us, come to take in the story of how these two isolated souls found succor in each other and what led to the predicament at hand.

Luca is an artist and sculptor who lives in the Fort Kochi area. While accompanying her friend to an art show, Niharika, who does not have much of an interest in the arts, sees one of his installations and mocks it. Heard by Luca, he gives her a piece of his mind before she realizes the depth and beauty of his work and decides to go back and apologize. This leads to a slowly burgeoning friendship between the two which slowly blossoms into an intense love. Though the turn of events are predictable in this respect, the coming about of them is handled with innovative depth and feeling. Both of these characters have haunted memories from their childhoods which they carry into their adulthood and both try to soothe the scars of the other. Niharika has childhood sexual abuse in her past while Luca has an intense fear of death on account of his parents’ deaths at an impressionable age. Meanwhile, Akbar and Fathima try to grab hold of some dregs of comfort in light of their impending separation.

It may not be a perfect movie, but it sure is an effectively memorable one. This is immensely helped by the two leads. Tovino wins half the battle usually by just his charming presence on screen but he rises beyond that here to give a great performance as the tortured young artist. But it is Ahaana Krishna who I was pleasantly surprised by. Perhaps I wasn’t expecting anything, but she gives a remarkable performance as the very real and very believable Niharika. Neither an overtly saccharine sweet lady love nor a grim defeatist, she finds an excellent balance here. The supporting arcs are all pretty effective and add to the story. And while we may think we know exactly what has happened, the revelation when it comes in the climax is beautifully built up and expressed.  Along with Akbar, we too are left shocked by the way things have played out. It’s an ending which etches the film in the mind for sure.