Kotha Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra

Story: A mysterious Chandra crosses paths with three aimless young men and a ruthless police officer. Even though she is advised to lie low, trouble soon finds her as she stands up against the injustice around her.

Review: Among all the Onam releases this year, Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra has been deemed the most ambitious. And why would it not? It's the first female superhero film in Malayalam cinema. But after watching the film, it's clear that Lokah’s ambition doesn't just rely on that tag alone.

Director Dominic Arun, who previously helmed Tharangam, along with co-writer Santhy Balachandran, creates a world that mixes the tale of immortals with age-old folklore. Weaving folklore into the narrative or naming their protagonists Sunny and Chandra may seem too simple or direct of a symbolism. But these choices also make the film seem more grounded. Therefore, the opening quote with which the film starts – All legends have an element of truth – carries an added weight.

From the leads to the guest stars to the supporting actors, the cast is unanimously solid, be it a wonderful Sandy as the ruthless cop Nachiyappa or Vijayaraghavan. When the latter narrates Chandra’s origin story to a little girl, his narration of the tale plays an equal role in the impact of the sequence as the haunting visuals onscreen. In a role that's a far cry from her previous roles, Kalyani manages to bring out the soul and humanity in the larger-than-life Chandra. As for Naslen, not a single line that he utters comes across as rehearsed. He delivers the most basic lines with perfect timing and commendable spontaneity.

In recent times, it so happens that star cameos often tend to overshadow the core conflict of a film. In Lokah, certain celebrity cameos do feel overstretched, but they are incorporated well into the narrative without taking us away from Chandran's story. And since their arc will also stretch to the subsequent films, it’s too soon to pass a judgement on them. The writers deserve special credit for writing the ‘good people’ in the film with dignity. But unfortunately, the grey-shaded characters of Lokah could have been better written instead of being more or less one-note.

Lokah isn't without its minuses and compromises. It takes some time to get going, with a few comedy stretches in the first half not really working. At multiple instances, the Malayalam dialogues lack a natural flow. However, to its credit, the film does a good job of keeping us engaged without letting us delve too much on its negatives. And the positives are many. Nimish Ravi’s cinematography is striking and an obvious standout while Jakes Bejoy’s background score is energetic and ethereal, as you would expect the soundtrack of a superhero film to be.

All said and done, Lokah is more about gradual but consistent world-building rather than instant payoffs. It lays the groundwork for a superhero cinematic universe in Malayalam cinema, and it does that with sincerity.
-Roopa Radhakrishnan