Wayfarer Films’ Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra (dubbed from the Malayalam film of the same name; UA) is the story of a female superhero. Chandra (Kalyani Priyadarshan) comes to Bangalore as an ordinary woman working in a cafe. She crosses paths with Sunny (Naslen) who is her neighbour. She also befriends Sunny’s friends, Naijil (Arun Kurian) and Venu (Chandu Salimkumar). Nachiyappa Gowda (Sandy) is a conservative policeman who backs an illegal organ-trafficking ring. Gowda is after Chandra when he realises that she and Sunny are the murderers of a politician’s relative. Sunny soon learns that Chandra is endowed with supernatural powers. It then becomes clear that she is a yakshi. When she bites Gowda, he becomes a yaksha. Who finally kills whom?
Dominic Arun’s story about a different universe is quite interesting. Of course, it is specific to Kerala and hence it has limitations for the pan-India audience, more so because of lack of awareness among the Hindi film-going audience about the Hindi dubbed version. The screenplay, written by Dominic Arun and Santhy Balachandran, is interesting and engaging. The drama focussing on a female superhero may be novel but it may find less favour with the viewers in our society which is male-dominated. The historical aspect makes the drama even more entertaining. However, the pace of the drama is uneven. The second half, especially, is less entertaining. Another weak point is that the antagonist — Nachiyappa Gowda — is not as strong as Chandra. Dialogues are so-so.
Kalyani Priyadarshan is excellent in the central role of Chandra. Naslen is okay as Sunny. Sandy performs well as police inspector Nachiyappa Gowda. Chandu Salimkumar lends fair support as Sunny’s friend, Venu. Arun Kurian is adequate as Sunny’s friend, Naijil. Nishanth Sagar is okay as Chandra’s boss, Prakash. Raghunath Paleri, Vijayaraghavan (as Daniel), Shivajith Padmanabhan (as Gajendran), Nithya Shri (as Neeli’s mother), Sarath Sabha (as Murugesan), and Anna Ben (as Sunny’s ex-girlfriend, Anu) provide adequate support. Mammootty’s voice acting is lovely. Tovino Thomas, Dulquer Salmaan and Sunny Wayne lend star value (more for the Malayalam film-going audience) in cameo appearances as Chathan, Charlie and Kadamattathu Kathanar respectively. Soubin Shahir, Balu Varghese, Ahaana Krishna, Santhy Balachandran and Vijay Menon also make brief cameo appearances.
Dominic Arun’s direction is splendid. Anirudh Ravichander’s music is alright. Jakes Bejoy’s background music is nice. Nimish Ravi’s cinematography is wonderful. Visual effects are very good. Banglan’s production designing is of a fine standard. Chaman Chakko’s editing is quite sharp. Dubbing is proper.
On the whole, Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra is a very well-made film but it will not be able to realise its full potential in Hindi because of lack of awareness among the public about the release.
Released on 4-9-’25 at Inox (daily 1 show) and some more cinemas, and on 5-9-’25 at Cinepolis Andheri (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PEN Marudhar Cine Entertainment. Publicity: dull. Opening: so-so. …….Also released all over. Opening was average everywhere.
