Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra
Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra is a 2025 Indian Malayalam-language superhero film written and directed by Dominic Arun and produced by Dulquer Salmaan under his banner Wayfarer Films. It stars Kalyani Priyadarshan in the title role along with Naslen, and Sandy, Chandu Salim Kumar and Arun Kurian in the supporting role. The story revolves around Chandra, a mysterious woman who arrives in Bengaluru who was summoned by Moothon to fight the evil. Her life changes after she meets a young man named Sunny and his friends and gets entangled with corrupt inspector Nachiyappa and the gang associated with him.
Pre-production began on 12 September 2024, with principal photography commencing under the working title Production No: 7, and was completed by 30 January 2025, lasting 94 days. The title Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra was unveiled on 8 June 2025. Nimish Ravi, Chaman Chakko, and Jakes Bejoy formed the technical crew as the cinematographer, editor and music director respectively. Actress Santhy Balachandran is credited for additional screenplay.
Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra was released theatrically on 28 August 2025. It received critical acclaim upon release and set several box office records, making it the highest grossing Malayalam film of all time, and the first Malayalam film to cross. It is one of the highest-grossing Indian films of 2025, one of the highest-grossing Indian superhero films, and the highest-grossing female-led Indian film.
Plot
In a war-torn city, Chandra fights a female assassin sent by Ishtar and escapes from a ruined building.In the present, Chandra is summoned from Sweden to Karnataka by Prakash and learns that the summons came from Moothon. She obtains a fake passport from Tom Isaac, an acquaintance, who also mentions about They Live Among Us, a book credited to the pen name Joseph Dominic and described as a detailed chronicle of supernatural beings similar to the Aithihyamala.
In Karnataka, Chandra lives quietly, working night shifts and is seen visiting the Holy Grail Café, owned by her ally Johny. Across the street lives Sunny and his friends Venu, a MBBS dropout student and Naijil. Sunny develops feelings for Chandra, though she remains distant.
Her powers are revealed when she intervenes to protect a co-worker from Sundar, a member of an organ trafficking ring led by crime boss-turned-politician Gajendran and supported by Inspector Nachiyappa, a misogynist. Nachiyappa becomes suspicious of Chandra after learning that she had attacked Sundar violently. Later she also saves Sunny from an accident and is subsequently invited to Naijil's birthday party. Their cat is scared of her presence and Chandra is visibly uncomfortable with the sight of blood.
Sunny begins to suspect her after seeing Kumar, a known criminal associate, regularly deliver sealed containers to her. His doubts increase when Naijil briefly disappears, though it is later explained he was detained by police. Chandra is later abducted by Sundar and his men but she manages to kills them and escape. Sunny, attempting to rescue her, witnesses her agility and strength. She confirms to him that she is a Yakshi, causing him to faint.
Somewhere in the city Verghese Kurien, who tells his granddaughter the legend of Kalliyankattu Neeli: a tribal girl whose village was destroyed by a king enforcing caste segregation and who, after being bitten by a bat, developed supernatural abilities. After the king's men killed her parents, she killed them in revenge and became a guardian figure and a nightmare for wrongdoers. She was later recruited by Kadamattathu Kathanar to serve Moothon; Kathanar deceived the public into believing he had captured and subdued Neeli. Verghese is revealed to be Joseph Dominic, author of They Live Among Us, and Chandra is revealed to be Neeli herself, now immortal.
Sunny later wakes up in Chandra's room and discovers her vulnerabilities when he witnesses her skin being burned by sunlight and healing by consuming packed red blood cells, the very contents of the containers supplied by Kumar. Later, Nachiyappa confronts Chandra while investigating the murders of the organ trafficking gang members, and during their fight, she bites him. Sunny and his friends arrive during the struggle, and Nachiyappa accidentally shoots Sunny before fleeing. Chandra then takes Sunny and his friends to the abandoned Michael’s Clinic. Subsequently, media reports label Chandra and Sunny as terrorists due to the attack on Nachiyappa and the deaths of the gang members. Chandra tells Sunny to inform the media and police that Sunny had nothing to do with it, and it was all Chandra's fault, if he is arrested.
Nachiyappa begins mutating into a yaksha as a result of Chandra’s bite. Verghese visits him, warns him of Chandra’s true identity, and collects a blood sample of his. At the clinic, Chandra explains her weaknesses—sunlight and her heart, which is fatal if directly attacked—and clarifies that her bite can transform only healthy individuals into yakshas, while others succumb to a rabies-like illness. As a teetotaller in good health, Nachiyappa is able to survive and adapt to the transformation.
Two policemen raid the clinic, during which Chandra is shot in the head. She is rescued by Michael, who is revealed to be a Chathan keeping a low profile as a street magician. He uses hallucinatory magic to disorient one officer and deflects a surgical knife into the other’s leg. Michael leads them back to the Holy Grail Café, where he reveals a basement safehouse that has been bloodied by a mysterious person in one of the rooms. Chandra shows Sunny a photograph of her lover, Michael Joseph, a British officer from 1905 who resembles him. It is also revealed that Johny is a descendant of Kathanar. Meanwhile, Nachiyappa begins to enjoy his newly acquired powers and develops a god complex. He attempts to bite his mother in an effort to make her immortal, but she dies.
Meanwhile, the cafe is surrounded by the government’s Garuda Force, who try to appeal to Chandra in surrendering; unwilling to do so, the Garuda Force barges in to the cafe. Chandra successfully takes them down but is quickly targeted by Gajendran’s men, who shoot her heart, fatally injuring her. However, she heals herself by consuming a blood packet provided by Sunny and defeats them. Nachiyappa, who has fully transformed into a yaksha, confronts her in front of Sunny, Naijil, and Venu. After a bloody fight, she kills him by stabbing his heart with a dagger, though Venu is injured in the back by Nachiyappa. Afterwards, she retreats underground, saying Sunny that he is unable to contact her.
In the mid-credits scene, Charlie, an Odiyan, is revealed to be the mysterious person in the basement of the cafe. He previously eliminated traffickers from the syndicate who came for a parley. In the post-credits scene, Michael is being questioned by a man about a group of archaeologists who disappeared inside a cave after traveling with a monk; the monk went only partway, while the archaeologists ventured deeper and never returned. Only a camera was recovered, containing a photograph of a violent-looking man identical to Michael, who reveals the figure is one of his 389 siblings.
Cast
The film features several other cameo appearances throughout, including Anna Ben as Anu, Sunny's ex-girlfriend, and Abraham Vadakkan as Scaria, Anu's boyfriend. Vishak Nair appears as a man at the pub, and Soubin Shahir, Santhy Balachandran, Ahaana Krishna, Balu Varghese, and Vijay Menon appear in cameo roles. Mammootty shown his arm as Moothon, with voice-over.Production
Lokah Chapter: 1 Chandra is the seventh production venture of Dulquer Salmaan's Wayfarer Films. It is intended as the beginning of a full-fledged Malayalam superhero cinematic universe titled Lokah, a project being mounted on a large scale with a possibility of multiple chapters. Dulquer Salmaan aims to build an indigenous cinematic universe rooted in local culture, folklore, and mythology. Kalyani Priyadarshan and Naslen joined as the main cast. Kalyani had practiced martial arts for the film.The film is written and directed by Dominic Arun, known for Tharangam. Dominic Arun revealed that the idea for the film was discussed as early as 2020 and developed organically, emphasizing that creating a female superhero was not a deliberate attempt to break the mold. Santhy Balachandran has contributed to the additional screenplay and dramaturgy. The technical crew includes Nimish Ravi as the cinematographer, Chaman Chakko as the editor, Jakes Bejoy for music, Banglan as the production designer, and Yannick Ben handling action choreography. Melwy J. handled the costume design, collaborating with Archana Akhil Rao for specific sequences, including Kalyani Priyadarshan's looks. Jom Varghese and Bibin Perumballi served as executive producers.
The film's pre-production began on 12 September 2024, and the principal photography commencing with a muhurat pooja ceremony on the same day under a working title Production No: 7, marking Kalyani's first film with Naslen and her second feature with Dulquer Salmaan's production banner. The shooting for the film was completed by 30 January 2025. Shooting lasted for 94 days. The film's title Lokah – Chapter One: Chandra was unveiled on 8 June 2025, with the cast including Chandu Salimkumar, Arun Kurian, Vijayaraghavan, Raghunath Paleri, Sarath Sabha, Nithya Shri, and Nishanth Sagar.