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Lokah Chapter 1 Chandra marks the arrival of a powerful female superhero and a landmark win for Malayalam cinema
Dominic Arun's Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra, starring Kalyani Priyadarshan in the titular role, is that rare superhero film where the action is female-led.
Malayalam film Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra has done the impossible. It has created space for a female superhero to exist in the blatantly testosterone-charged genre of superhero films in India. There is no male hero to save the day. Here, she is just a girl who wants nothing of the bravado or attention that comes with taking charge of the action. It is a clutter-breaking piece of work, one that has a killer storytelling instinct.
The confident world-building
She is Chandra, played with firm poise by Kalyani Priyadarshan. Her hair is dyed in streaks of red, and her ensemble is almost always black—form-fitted tops and pants. Co-written by Dominic Arun and Santhy Balachandran, Chandra is not the usual superhero. The emphasis is not on showing off how she can fight or who she can beat to dust. It is on the world-building, drawing on the myths and local legends that have existed for hundreds of years.
In one small scene, Chandra finally opens up to Naslen's Sunny, asking why it is so hard to believe that some stories (and their existing characters) can be real. Lokah backs up that statement with strong writing, as Chandra's past (as well as her reasons) emerge along the way. We come to just enough of her origin story to care for her and truly see her. The breadcrumbs of information also follow, but they are intelligently left hanging in the promise of the next chapter.
Chandra steps in to save the day
In doing so, Lokah never indulges in its myths and never over-explains its world to force the viewer into filling in the gaps. This is the biggest strength of the film—knowing when to stop with the information. The film is more interested in placing its protagonist firmly in a country, in a specific place. Bengaluru is as real in its small alleys, intimate house parties, isolated warehouses, and posh cafes.
It is also a real place, just as any other urban city in the country where eve-teasing exists. Chandra steps in when her female colleague is confronted by a jilted lover carrying a bottle of acid. She beats him to the ground. Later, when she almost becomes a victim of an organ trade, she has no choice but to play to her strengths and beat the men black and blue. This revelation is cross-cut with her origin story, and we come to know who she was and who she is at the same time. There is no backstory created separately; it exists as a continuation of the present.
A superb origin story
This manner in which Lokah contextualises its superhero and mythical elements into the rhythms and cries of a daily urban metropolis is a slap in the face of existing pan-Indian franchises, existing in a dreamscope of sorts. The (often outlandish) cinematic liberty taken by films like Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva, Krrish 3, or even Ra.One, to the empty grandeur of films in the YRF spyverse, all feel vacant and unnecessarily excessive in mounting the basic consciousness of a modern place and time.
Lokah breaks that dull prototype with great confidence and poise. The introduction to this new cinematic universe plays out with excellent attention to detail, almost like an intimate psychological thriller. None of the action or the world-building feels borrowed from the West. The myth is rooted in Indian tradition and culture. The conviction matches the grandeur, inculcating folklore to drive its action forward. Lokah is charged with the muted anger and fierceness of its female protagonist, Chandra, who will not stand the blatant misogyny that she has to face day in and day out. The sleek action sequences are a treat to watch, with Kalyani Priyadarshan's tall and astute frame used with great precision. Her Chandra guards fiercely and resists easy explanation.
Lokah is also a landmark win for Malayalam cinema, an industry that has proved time and again how to place the primary attention on the script above everything else. This is not a vehicle for action or for its female star; it is just a story told with great conviction and passion. 2021's Minnal Murali and now Lokah, the Malayalam industry has cracked the code, and how.
Lokah is a refreshing addition to the landscape of the superhero genre, and in extension, even the pan-Indian experiment that has become some sort of genre in the last few years. The rapturous reception of this Malayalam film, made for 30 crores, should act as a wake-up call for all the other film industries, showing that all the wind beneath a superhero's feet comes from the strength of the writing. The writing is the ultimate superpower, the guiding light of it all. Lokah flies high because of that exact strength. I can't wait to see what lies in store for this universe in the future.
