What is the relevance of Lokah? This film appeared to be exploring irrelevant characters and themes from mythology and folklore of Kerala. Lokah tells the story of a Vampire named “Kalliamkatt Neeli” from the folklore of Kerala. In this film, Neeli is portrayed as a character which lives among the human beings. She is projected as someone beyond death. She lives a low profile life and interact with people, protect people from evil, and even fall in love with a young man named Sunny.
A closer and deeper examination shows that Lokah has a deeper level of meaning. When I watched Lokah a week ago, I got disappointed for wasting my time for watching some bullshit which does not reflect the state of the young people of Kerala. Why should a film talk about supernatural realm which has nothing to do with the lives and struggles of the current youth of Kerala in particular and Indian in general. I think that the youth of Kerala are going through two major problems: massive unemployment and not feeling at home in their own homeland. I think that this film “talks about the “homelessness” of the youth of Kerala.In short, Lokah discusses the interaction between two dimensions of reality like the natural and the supernatural. The natural is the state of self-deception and crisis but the supernatural is all about liberation and self-transcendence. The story revolves around a youngman named Sunny encounters a supernatural character at the city of Bangalore which is a kind of modern day world of deception.Lokah says that the characters of mythologies are still living along with us. We may or may not notice their presence. But they are around us. The supernatural is not just mythological. It is a possibility. Self-transcendence always remains as a possibility for human beings but we always tend to be in the realm of self-deception. The idea of supernatural is the indication that there is a possibility of self-transcendence.Lokah reminds me of the Cave of Plato or the world of the working class in Marx. Both are the worlds of alienation. Cave is a root metaphor of this film. It is shown that the superheros of this film gain their power as they encounters the world of caves. It is shown that the interiors of the cave are the places where the natural meets the supernatural.According to some anthropologists, human beings are basically cave men and women. The civilization has deprived us of the cave and its surroundings. Most of us have left the original cave of meaning and hang out in the caves of the modern world and technology. We feel more and more alienated and anxious. It seems that we are not evolved to live in big cities like Bangalore or any other metropolitan cities of the world. We live in such cities like the men of cave in Plato. We think that the shadows are the real and we keep interacting with it. We hang out in a strange world. Lokah gives a different view of cave which leads to self-transcendence. This is a cave where we feel connected to ourselves, the other and the world.Lokah is indeed a statement of the human possibility of self-transcendence. The experience of the eternal is possible for us still we tend to be in the caves of time and change. It tells us to view the world under new light. The understanding that comes from lokah is not theoretical or propositional but it “shows” the possibility of a new way of living.

Joseph Kala