Surprisingly, the new Malayalam film Luca, directed by Arun Bose, is about a jholawala, last seen in the parallel cinema movement of the '70s and '80s. Yet, here he is the sensual artist Luca, played by the sexy Tovino Thomas, who doesn't even need a jhola, as he joins slum dwellers protesting illegal demolitions.

Bose's second feature, after his debut Alaiyin Thisai (The Way of a Wave, Tamil), Luca unusually splices together two genres, a romantic drama and a police procedural. He also explores two parallel relationship stories. The film opens with the police investigating the death of a young man; there is talk about a girlfriend, of his suffering from depression. Right after, the film gets into the police officer Akbar's (the handsome Nithin George) personal relationship with estranged wife Fathima (Vinitha Koshy), and girlfriend Janet. The first love song is not even of the hero Luca and his partner Niharika, but of the police officer Akbar. It's an unusual editing decision, raising your expectations of both relationships.