KING OF HIS COSMOS

With the smashing success of Leo, Lokesh Kanagaraj's 'Lokiverse' is perhaps one of the best things that has happened to south Indian cinema

- LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN

Ever since it began in 2008 with the superhero film Iron Man, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been swiftly expanding, with 32 interconnected films and more in the works. Today, it is the highest-grossing film franchise of all time, having grossed almost $30 billion worldwide. However, it did not begin with a big bang. “We never set out to build a universe,” said Kevin Feige, one of MCU’s architects.

Tamil filmmaker Lokesh Kanagaraj, however, had set out to build a universe. The third film in the Lokesh Cinematic Universe (LCU) or Lokiverse— Leo—is a smashing hit, much like the first two. The first, Kaithi (2019), grossed ₹105 crore in the box office, and the second, Vikram, (2022) grossed ₹435 crore; Leo, within five days of its release, raked in ₹400 crore worldwide. The LCU is an action-packed world where vigilantes and law enforcement officers are pitted against powerful drug lords. In Kaithi, Inspector Bejoy (Narain) and ex-convict Dilli (Karthi) take on the drug mafia. In Vikram, a black ops agent Amar (Fahadh Faasil) tries to bust a drug syndicate responsible for the supposed death of black ops commander Vikram (Kamal Haasan). And in Leo, Parthiban (Vijay) is a former gangster turned cafe owner who becomes entangled in the drug war.