'Lokah Chapter 1' Ending Explained: Who Is The Chathan?

The ending of Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra leaves us with more questions than answers. The film, which seems to be the first of many in a universe about vampires, goblins, and ninjas (apparently), tells the story of a vampire, the first female superhero of India (I don’t know if I buy that entirely), who kills all the evil people she comes across before she leaves and never returns. All these mythical creatures are immortals, but of course, they have their own weaknesses, and in this film, we learn the weakness of the vampire. The story is quite simple, because it’s essentially an origin story for a massive universe that has only just opened up. I truly appreciate the fact that Chandra is a character who is just a superhero and never feels like a “female” superhero in that she’s not stereotyped or forced into a box, even in terms of the action, but I don’t like the fact that the other two immortals introduced here are male. I know, it sounds like I’m being critical of something that’s still progressive, but my point is, we’re meant to think whatever comes next is going to be even cooler. But anyway, I won’t waste any more of your time, let’s jump straight into Lokah Chapter 1.

Spoiler Alert

Chandra tells Sunny that her real name is Neeli, and Chandra is just a name she’s adopted for her years in Bangalore. He realizes she’s a legendary mythical creature, a “Yakshi,” loosely translated to vampire, which makes her an immortal being who has been around for years. At the same time, we hear the man whose pen name is Joseph Dominic (the man who wrote “They Live Among Us”) narrate the story of Neeli to his granddaughter. Centuries ago, a tribal community lived in the forest, and a menacing king didn’t let them enter his precious temple. When a young girl decided to break the rules and go in, she found a little bell from the temple and put it on the deity of the tribal people. This made the king furious, and he believed she and her friends stole this bell. As punishment, he said he would kill the families of the kids in front of them. 

The families went into hiding in a cave, and the young girl came across a statue that we can assume is a goddess, whose head had been cut off. But this young girl ended up getting bitten by bats while she was in this cave, and at the same time, her family was found by the king’s people. Finally, when the families are being murdered, the young girl shows up, much more powerful because she’s been infected by a virus that makes her a vampire. Despite seeing her kill people and suck their blood out, the king kills her parents right in front of her, which leaves her enraged. She kills the king with one swift motion, which earns her the title Kaliyanikattu Neeli. She grew up to become the Chandra we know and then moved all over the world to stay hidden. Despite being a vampire, a creature considered evil because they drink the blood of humans, she acts as a superhero, killing those who are evil. 

When Chandra comes to Bangalore, there’s an organ trafficking gang running around. While she initially doesn’t want to get involved, she ends up interacting with the gang when one of the members tries to harass her colleague into becoming his girlfriend. She thrashes him, which hurts his male ego and, hence, the rest of the gang’s too. At the same time, opposite Chandra’s house lives a boy named Sunny, who is smitten with her at first glance. He and his two unemployed friends invite her over for a celebration, which is raided by the police. This is when she encounters Nachiyappa, a male chauvinist pig who is somehow a police officer. Nachiyappa knows there’s something odd about Chandra, and when he realizes that she is the one who hurt one of his guys, he decides to go after her.

At the same time, there’s a female police officer who works with them too, but she’s senior to Nachiyappa, often hurting his ego by yelling at him. One day, when Chandra isn’t home, Nachiyappa goes into her house and sees packets of blood. When Chandra shows up, he tries to fight her, but she’s too strong for him and bites him. However, before she can kill him, Sunny stops her. He gets shot in the stomach, and he wonders if she can bite him to save his life. Chandra tells Sunny that if a strong body, which doesn’t have any alcohol in the system, etc., gets bitten, they can turn into a Yakshi too. Nachiyappa happens to have a strong body free of disease, etc., so he turns into a vampire. 

Now, when someone just becomes a vampire, for a year, they’re extra strong and don’t burn up in the sun. It’s not a weakness for them, so Chandra is no competition for Nachiyappa. Of course, he kills his own mother, who never says a word to him, and the female inspector, whom he absolutely hates, and then it’s time for him to finally face off against Chandra. At the same time, Chandra murdered the brother of a politician, so he uses his political power to make it look like Chandra and Sunny are terrorists. I’m not sure how, in the end, Sunny can just walk out when his face was plastered all over the news, but I guess we’re supposed to forget about the terrorist thing. They send a “Garuda Squad” to capture them at the hotel that is specifically a place for the mythical creatures to find sanctuary. 

During Lokah Chapter 1’s ending, Chandra has killed all the police officers and comes face to face with Nachiyappa. As the sun comes up, she starts to burn as he chokes her in front of the window. He realizes the weakness is the heart and the sun. But Sunny shoots Nachiyappa, making him weak for a bit. She tries to get the knife to put it straight into his heart, which would effectively kill him, but Nachiyappa gets up and threatens to kill Naijil. Nachiyappa doesn’t care about petty subordinates like Chandra does; the real thing he wants here is to meet The Elder, Moothon, or the leader. He’s ready to throw the knife at Chandra’s heart before Sunny comes in the way (just like her lover from 1905). But the twist is that Venu steps in front of Sunny and gets stabbed in the back. Chandra then takes the knife out of his back and kills Nachiyappa (that was a bit too easy, no?). Don’t worry, Venu survives, too. 

In Lokah Chapter 1’s ending, it’s time for Chandra to leave, and Sunny and she say their goodbyes. The movie ends with him longing for her as she leaves the city, never to return, or maybe she will. There’s no way for Sunny to reach out to her, but maybe they’ll see each other again if another crisis arrives. The film ends with two credit scenes. The mid-credit scene introduces us to a ninja-type character called Charlie, who is an Odiyan. Along with him is a dog, which I honestly thought was going to transform into a human, oop. But that didn’t happen, so I guess he’s just a dog sidekick. This is teasing another film in the series. But the end credit scene is what’s actually important, because we see a Chathan, a goblin named Michael, who helps Chandra in this film, meeting with an investigator. This person tells Michael that some archaeologists and a monk went into the world’s deepest cave, and only the monk returned. This monk claims that he warned the others not to go deeper, but they didn’t listen to him. Turns out there’s one picture that was recovered from the cameras that were found. This picture is of a man who looks exactly like Michael but in caveman form. This is when Michael reveals he has 389 siblings, all identical to him. I wonder if some of them are evil? Or maybe caveman Chathan is protecting something. We’ll have to wait for Chapter 2 to find out.