“Lokah Chapter One: Chandra” (2025) is the first movie of a new Mollywood franchise set in a universe where legends are true and exist in the contemporary world. Chandra (Kalyani Priyadarshan) is the alias of a mysterious woman who is constantly on the move and more fearsome than she appears. When Sunny (Naslen), her neighbor across the street, falls for her, he tries to get closer to her, which means trouble because there is a group kidnapping people and stealing their organs who have also shown an interest in Chandra. When they finally catch up to her, who will live, who will die and what other legends and myths are true?

“Lokah Chapter One: Chandra” takes its time in the beginning to establish what is going on. It starts without explanation at a war zone with Chandra escaping with an item just to establish that her character is a badass accustomed to extreme circumstances so when she later takes a job as a waitress at a local eatery, it is clearly a cover. Her boss calls himself Dracula, but the restaurant is not vampire themed, and he does not play a role in the overall narrative. She is mostly emotionless and keeps to herself, but when a psycho starts harassing her coworker, Rose, the pace starts to pick up. Priyadarshan could carry the movie by herself. Even when she is doing something ordinary like covering her window with paper—does she know Gladys—she is the most interesting person on screen.

Meanwhile Sunny (Naslen) is the effective comedic relief as the neighbor. He is a layabout who hangs out with his best friend, Venu (Chandu Salimkumar), who is a total pothead, and Naijil (Arun Kurian), who is the most proactive member of the group. They are experts in future faking to seem ambitious but prefer low key house parties and are neighborhood, loveable figures, not hated for their lack of work ethic. People say humor is subjective, especially according to region, but this movie’s humor is universal as all the moviegoers were laughing out loud over their daily life. The friends had great chemistry and feel familiar. Everyone knows someone who is like them. Sunny is not just an annoying guy fighting above his weight class in vying for Chandra though as things get real, he faints. Chandra somewhat reciprocates, and “Lokah Chapter One: Chandra” does not reveal her reason until late in the story.

On the villain side, the organ trafficking is related to a corrupt police system, and Inspector Nachitappa Gowda (Sandy) is an incel with a regressive agenda who sees everything through a disapproving and jaundiced eye. Even the gang fears him, and when he protects women, he victim blames them. He resents his boss, who is a woman and the only person who treats him like a lowly subordinate. Chandra intrigues him as a woman who can take one man out, and he sees her as a challenge that he is eager to destroy. Sandy nailed the role so even though he is the underdog, he seems so dangerous that it is credible to feel dread as he starts to deduce Chandra’s weaknesses. Sandy depicts Gowda as arrogant, not stupid.

“Lokah Chapter One: Chandra” is at its best when present day Chandra’s life is paralleled with her childhood. Durga C. Vinod plays Chandra as a child to show how she got her powers, which was as much fun as watching her use them in the present day. When Chandra is at full strength, the movie is unstoppable and delicious. The US is currently growing weary of superheroes, and one reason is that the story focuses more on the hero, and not on the hero pulling off amazing feats to save people. Chandra feels like getting back to basics with a hero that turns the tables because no one expects her to be a formidable foe and committed to her mission. That trope never gets old.

Unfortunately, “Lokah Chapter One: Chandra” does not let the audience enjoy it for long. Considering the opening and parallel sequence, the subsequent events feel contrived to create a situation where Chandra actually has a challenge to face. There was another way to get there but decide to make Sunny annoying and not let her be great. Exposure to the evidence at the crime scene could have started the same chain of events. It is not her first rodeo, and it got tiresome that she kept going down. Sure, she was distracted trying to protect Sunny and friends, but the reincarnation storyline needed to be introduced earlier so her sudden downgrade would not undercut the titular character’s efficacy. She could handle missile fire, so the denouement needed to be more challenging, or she needed to be more effective.

Instead, Chandra needs help, and it becomes an excuse to introduce new characters to help her, Sunny and the gang or to further the subplot of how her powers work. A man (Vijayaraghavan) tells a bedtime story to a young relative, which turns out to be about Chandra’s childhood. He is a character that could have played a more active role without feeling as if Chandra was getting downgraded. She is also interested in learning more about him. If he appears in future installments, it will be worth the wait. Fans of the genre love a man who does research.

People with knowledge of the Indian pantheon of gods, goddesses and famous actors will have an advantage as more characters are introduced. To the ignorant, Chathan (Tovino Thomas) seems like Gambit or a superpowered magician who happens to have a crush on Chandra.  Apparently, he is a goblin, and Americans venturing into international film and television are going to be confused because goblin has so many different characteristics depending on the region where the writer is from. Stay for the post credit scenes because apparently there are even more people in line taking turns for the spotlight and waiting in line.

Director and cowriter Dominic Arun and cowriter Santhy Balachandran have done a great job of making their own world that diverge in various degrees from the mythological source material, but their enthusiasm and ambition may need to be reined in, so they don’t rush through their best material and shortchange characters. It is possible that they intentionally decided not to reveal a lot about the hierarchy or Chandra’s support system, which includes Prakash (Nishanth Sagar), for the sequels, but it would be better to get more on them than new characters if the latter are not going to be around for long.

Visually the fight scenes are satisfying though “Lokah Chapter One: Chandra” does not take the Fred Astaire approach to filming action scenes. There is a lot of slo mo, but when Chandra moves quickly, the camera jumps around and mirrors her, so it feels as if everything is getting seen, but it is still obscured. The switch to the storybook format and animation was seamless and did not feel like cheating while staying within budget. The best ally of any fight scene is understanding pacing so though impressive, it maybe was not a good idea to open in a war zone. The story and characters are easy to get invested in and will leave the audience looking forward to more.

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How excited was I that it turned out Chandra is a vampire/goddess, a Yakshi and/or Kalliyankattu Neeli. I’ve never heard about the latter two, but I understand the first. I love vampires. I suspected she was one because of the cooler delivery, the Dracula reference, implicit acknowledgment of her age, the weird smell, her body temperature. I did not know it going in. If I had, I would have been more excited to see the movie, but nowadays too much of the plot is given away in trailers, and I’m glad that it was a surprise. I love a new mythology and am looking forward to learning more about them. While I was frustrated that an older vampire could not easily dispose of a new one, when people are younger, they are stronger.