Lokaah Chapter 1: Chandra Movie Review- Malayalam (2025)

Movie: Lokaah Chapter -1: Chandra (2025)

Director: Arun Dominic

Production: Wayfarer Films

Cast: Kalyani Priyadarshi, Naslen & Others

Music: Jakes Bejoy

Editor: Chaman Chako

Cinematography: Nimish Ravi

Language: Malayalam 

Release Date: 28/08/2025

3.5/5

“Where Vampire Diaries meets Kerala’s mystical lore — a supernatural saga with an Indian heartbeat.”

01. All about Lokaah Chapter -1: Chandra.

As of now Indian cinema is evolving or gladly seeing an unprecedented age that is bringing in all these unknown concepts to the cinema goers or the audience. We have come out of that era where commercial elements like rocking steps, full on heroism or unwanted routine comedy track drives the films, it's now the content that's driving Indian cinema- but is the content making worth or a mess is what each new cinema tells to us. 

Lokaah is a superhero, NO- wait, A Superwoman film that deals with a centric character Chandra who's a vampire & has got a purpose in the town of Bangalore, who recently flew from Sweden & gets into all trouble based on the unfoldings there. We all know what a superhero or a superwoman does- they have a purpose & find a way to save/rescue the needy & rest that happens around, happens for the sake of content in the film. I don't want to spoil your reading experience by giving in more details about the plot- you can watch to see what it has for us. 

02. How is Lokaah different from all other recent Indian Superhero movies?

Lokaah is a purely content driven film with all the parameters that make it eligible to qualify as a superhero film or so called Cinematic Universe kind film. What MCU & DC are doing in Hollywood is something we Indians are missing to bring on to the screens due to lot of limitations as per the choices of traditional audience for cinema here. But this film didn't care of any such things or there isn't much Indian version or local-isation of the story or the superhero film here- hence this wins. 

It's purely about Chandra, her supernatural powers, her purpose & her world with her members or buddies of the team like in Guardians of the Galaxy- fresh, humorous & cosmic. The unfoldings on how she's introduced, her team members are brought in makes us to believe that's a great writing or execution. 

03. What all make us loop in for Lokaah. And about technical departments. 

Characterization - Yes, the film is purely dependent on characters & their encounters that tell us the lore in a uncanny way. Kalyani as Chandra, Naslen as Sunny, Sandy as Inspector Nachiyappa make us loop on the film. It's a good watch to all those who's interested in fiction, mysterious content with Superhero backdrop. Malayalam cinema doing this is very surprising & a great catch too. 

The screenplay with proper detailing until end & the suspense handling too is neatly executed. Direction by Arun appears new for Indian audience & also enthralls to fullest. The way he connects a typical Kerala folklore with a cinematic universe concept & a superhero backdrop is very interesting. That doesn't appear out of place nor like artificially Indian-ising the film- which can be commendable. Production by Wayfarer Films by Dulquer Salmaan should be lauded for bringing in a new era to Malyalam cinema. Music by Jakes does fine. Editing needs some betterment - there is some lag between frames or abrupt cuts. 

04. Are there any negatives?

Ofcourse every cinema has that & this isn't any exception. Ones who never saw any superhero film might be very much excited for the new concept, but ones who saw, especially those of Vampire Dairies or Guardians of the Galaxy are gonna say- we saw this before! We know what happens next! So straight away this isn't any very new film but a great try for an Indian cinema or may be I can confine further to Malayalam cinema. 

The inclusion of multiple supernatural things like the mysterious powers Neeli alias Chandra gets as a young tribal girl & turning into vampire & also having a chance to spread the virus etc etc (DON'T WANT TO REVEAL MUCH OF THE PLOT AGAIN) appears too repitative for the habituated superhero film goers. That isn't too intriguing. Action was there in the film to just satisfy the audience but not as a real missing puzzle. Many cameos did the work but lost with inconsistency. Tovino's character felt too funky & humorous, Naslen was also used as a comic filler most of the time- without real seriousness - all these again bring back the unit's attempt to make it a film for commercial cinema audience rather than their main principle of - STRUCK ON CONTENT ORIENTATION. 

We can expect the cinematic universe to be great, but knowing this as backdrop again hits back on a boring cycle of repitative templates - blood, vampires, bodies, action, mystery & repeat. Just these alone cannot be a superhero cinema. 

05. FINALLY?!

It's a new age cinema for Malayalam audience & partly Indian audience as we already have movies from Prashanth Varma like Zombie Reddy, Hanuman & from Nag Ashwini with Kalki etc, but this scores a point more for not bringing only history or Ithihasa into the main plot, rather replacing it with a folklore. 

People who got too excited watching this for first time will long for the universe series to unfold, whereas others will just watch for sake of faring it on parameters of a cinema. 

Finally - am not a huge fan of too much of fiction, unwanted mystery which is too far from reality nor over elevating the protagonist etc in which ever language or industry it is, say English or Hindi or Telugu or Malayalam, I will only search for content. In these films, I personally feel complexities go on increasing & are limitless giving no scope to tare it with a normal weighing scale. 

But my opinion shouldn't make the cinema a dull one if it's too good on point with content. Hence this wins majorly or upto 70% atleast. It's a great try & waiting for the other chapters to unfold.