Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra

I’ll be honest — I had developed superhero fatigue. In fact, a general fatigue for anything big-scale and action-driven on the big screen. A movie that fit that bill was not my obvious choice. And looking at how juggernauts like Coolie (starring Superstar Rajinikanth) and War 2 (with Jr NTR and Hrithik Roshan) received underwhelming responses, it seems I’m not alone. So when I first saw the trailer of Lokah: Chapter 1 — Chandra, my reaction was: “Not the movie I want to watch right now.” Look at the films that have actually struck a chord with audiences recently — without over-the-top marketing or manufactured FOMO. From Tourist Family to Dragon, Thudarum to Hridayapoorvam, and even Soup from So — audiences have embraced heartfelt, emotional stories. That goes against the post-COVID “wisdom” that only large-scale spectacles will sell tickets.

Folklore carries with it the natural burden of old ways of thinking and the inherent tendency to not stray from what has been handed down over the generations. Often, when filmmakers take inspiration from folklore, knowingly or unknowingly, their approach to the material too is weighed down by the past. In ‘Lokah Chapter 1 : Chandra’, folklore appears to have inspired the people behind the film to think anew, not just in terms of the film, but for the Malayalam film industry as a whole. A particular bit of folklore that almost every other Malayali has grown up with, but has been forgotten in recent years, courses through the veins of Lokah in its original form in a flashback sequence for the ages, which has some of the best use of intercuts. It is also a lesson in using well-timed flashback sequences, delaying that revelation until close to the halfway point, leaving behind some major impact. This revelation will send a chill down the spine for most Malayalis, but it is doubtful whether it will resonate in the same manner outside Kerala.

Trust Malayalam cinema to come up with a fairly ingenious multiverse rooted in Indian folktales and legends in Lokah Chapter 1, and trust the makers to have the protagonist as a kickass superheroine in Chandra (Kalyani Priyadarsan). Inspired by Yakshi, an enigmatic, powerful female figure from Kerala folklore, director and co-writer Dominic Arun turns her into a vampire with red tresses and on a mission to do the right thing. Survival is dependent on a regular supply of blood, living in the shadows and biting into baddies the world over for centuries. Once in Bengaluru, Chandra catches the wandering eye of Sunny (Naslen), who lives in a building opposite hers. Thankfully, love is not high on the cards of Lokah. Instead, the film impresses with its world and character-building as Arun focuses on a wonder woman with a tragic past and one whose mission—at least in her new home—is to smash the patriarchy.

Brahmastra: Part One—Shiva cost 400 crore rupees. Game Changer cost about the same. Adipurush is estimated between 500 and 700 crore. So much spent, so little to show for it. You can buy all the stars, all the screens, but you can’t buy taste. Money goes a lot further in Malayalam cinema. Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra has a reported budget of 30-33 crore. With this modest amount, director Dominic Arun and co-writer Santhy Balachandran build a sturdy, vivid world, full of personality and charm. The natural comparison is with Minnal Murali (2021), another deft, low-budget Malayalam superhero film. But in its fusing of Indian folklore with breezy Hollywood heroics, Lokah is really the film Brahmastra desperately wanted, and failed, to be. Lokah begins with Chandra (Kalyani Priyadarshan) escaping a burning building and the woman sent to kill her. Her crashing through a window segues into animated, era-spanning opening credits. Already this is a change from the standard Indian action film: no elaborate entry shot, flight instead of fight. The practical nature of the filmmaking carries over into the storytelling—a fantasy film whose heroes have the good sense to be wary and retreat when necessary.

Dominic Arun’s new superhero film Lokah: Chapter 1- Chandra has a lot of merits but one of its boldest swings is the philosophy behind its villain. After all, every superhero needs a super villain. You take ubiquitous folklore like Yakshis which is bread and butter of every kid and every family in Kerala, so much that it is welded into its literature and pop culture (the iconic Srividya’s role in Kadamattathachan briefly appears in the film). And then when you need a villain to go against this Yakshi-as-a-superhero, you go for the latest but eternal bugaboo of the Indian state. The ideal man of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the practicing Hindu, fit and prim, following the sang’s defined code of Hindu culture, skeptical of every liberal idea, every free spirit, and sexist, misogynist, casteist to the core. How Dominic Arun and co-writer Santhy Balachandran craft him as this sneering pureblood mad man is one of the greatest aspects of the film.

Maybe it’s not saying much that Dominic Arun’s Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra is the most progressive pan-India blockbuster I’ve seen. In the competitive aftermath of the Baahubali films, we have seen umpteen stabs by many Indian film industries, where the reverence for Hindu mythology, nationalism, Islamophobia and/or common-place misogyny is dialled up for a big-budget film. It’s a lazy, patronising and dishonest strategy aimed at the layman (arguably with more spending power compared to the average Indian woman). Perhaps, it’s not surprising that a few months ago, another film from the same industry (L2: Empuraan) – a mainstream action film began by depicting the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, 2002. In the same film, the opposition leaders contesting a state election, are shown to be arrested on instructions of an establishment that seems to play on the Hindu majoritarian sentiment. And thus it was almost poetic, when Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax officials conducted raids in the offices of the producers and director of L2: Empuraan, going on to prove the makers right.