Writer: Gafoor Arackkal
Cast: Jayasurya, Murali Gopi, Ramya Nambeeshan, Joju George, Muthumani, Chinnu Kuruvila, Dinesh Prabhakar, Asmita Sood
Language:Malayalam
The film delves into the lives of a group of married couples over an evening and a night as they get together after a gap of fourteen years. All the husbands and one of the wives among the characters had studied together in college and another lady friend of theirs, on whom the host (Murali Gopi) is infatuated with, joins them pretty late. The chemistry between all of them causes problems for the other two wives who are pretty much outsiders.
Lukka Chuppi is pretty much set in one location, a river-side resort home, after the initial five minutes. That kind of adds to the claustrophobia and it did remind me of 'Bheja Fry', even though the nature of comedy is much more subtle. The quality of making is evident during the opening credits itself as the way the sound is mixed reminded me of Annayum Rasoolum (Yeah, dialogues are quite hard to decipher). It was thus no surprise to me when I saw Resul Pookkutty, Oscar Winner, credited for sound design. Sync-sound was used in the film and I deeply regret not catching it at the cinemas. It was released a week after Premam and, unsurprisingly, it didn't do well at all in the financial sense amidst all the hysteria surrounding Premam. If you suppose that married people are its chief target audience, then it was anyway hard to get them to see it at the cinemas since it is not suitable for children as they will certainly get bored.
I was not really that enamored by the trailer since there have been many cringy get-together films recently. The trailer doesn't really convey the realism in the film and kind of hides the marital tensions aspect of it. Decided to watch it based on a recommendation from a friend (not that dependable) and the fact that it got selected in the Indian Panorama section of Goa Film Festival swung it for me. Performances in it are excellent (Asmita Sood kind of stick out like a sore thumb) and the script is really good with very life-like interactions and dialogues. It earns enough credit in the bank during the first half of the film to tolerate some of the things and contrivances that they include in the second half. The Indrans character was not really needed and it did look awkward compared to the rest of the film. I would have preferred if they ended it in an 'everything got fucked up' manner instead of the happily resolved ending that we get.
Overall, it is a great watch with great technical quality and excellent performances. The director and writer made their debut with this film and I hope to see them again in future. Lukka Chuppi was picked up by Prithviraj's 'August Cinema' for distribution and I commend him for taking the risks that he is taking with his production house. He doesn't do safe films, unlike other actors who get into production and distribution, and you can more or less watch a film just for the fact that 'August Cinema' is associated with it. Not to say that I liked all of their films but they are all worth giving a go/chance.
Rating: 4/5
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