Ammu may be regarded as a film that does its job. This film serves no purpose other than to raise awareness about specific elements of domestic violence.
Ammu begins simply enough: our titular heroine Ammu (Aishwarya Lekshmi) marries Ravi (Naveen Chandra). She was raised in a traditional household, and her situation is as good as it gets for a woman in her situation – Ravi is a police circle inspector and an excellent match, according to her parents.
They grew up in the same neighborhood, and their families have known one other for years. Ammu eagerly agrees to the wedding, comforted by the knowledge that he will take excellent care of her.
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That he does. Ravi is the ideal spouse in the first 30 minutes of the film, and Ammu falls in love with him. You start to wonder if the filmmakers were playing with your head when they gave you the Ammu teaser and misled you into thinking the movie was about domestic violence. His truth, however, is finally revealed, and we learn that the character of a perfect gentleman and a caring spouse is an alter-ego that he established to conceal his sociopathic inclinations within the four walls of his home.
Ammu is shocked just as she is settled into her new marriage and believes she is well acquainted with her new spouse. She believes Ravi’s snapping at her was an isolated incident. He will not do it again. She is incorrect. Ravi escalates his mistreatment of Ammu, hitting her across the face. And what does she do when it eventually happens? She informs her mother, Kalpana. Ammu’s first query from Kalpana is, ‘What did YOU do?’ Kalpana recalls her mother’s words of wisdom: “Suck it up. Only men are like that.” Kalpana, to her credit, tells Ammu to do what she believes is best.
The violence escalates in the days that follow. Ammu now has a damaged lip and a black eye. She is terrified and shaking at a bus terminal with a piece of packed luggage. She is unable to decide whether she should stay or go. And it is at this point that she encounters a genuine gentleman, a beggar portrayed by Raghu Babu. In exchange for a pack of biriyani, he promises to counsel her during the crisis. However, he does not intervene when Ammu decides to return to Ravi.
She convinces herself that there is a gap in her devotion and love for her spouse. And she mistakenly feels that if she can fill the gaps in her unconditional love for Ravi, her misery would be over. The beggar is dissatisfied, but he dislikes mansplaining. He understands that change must come from inside, therefore he does not tell her what she should do.
Aishwarya and Naveen delivered powerful and dedicated performances. The film has various episodes that decode the stages of domestic violence.
It begins with minor behavioral deviations and, if not addressed early on, progresses to fatal and irreversible disease. However, the video quickly deviates from a wife’s dream of exacting revenge on her husband. She does not strive to settle her difficulties through available legal and societal channels; instead, Ammu devises a complicated strategy using a double-murder prisoner Prabhu (Bobby Shima).
Director Charukesh Sekar gets us believing in realism for the bulk of the narration before switching to the imagination.
While domestic abuse is a reality that millions of women experience throughout the world, it is not always possible for a victim to devise a sophisticated ruse like Ammu’s to get revenge on her abuser. The tonal shift is abrupt and even feels dishonest in light of the unpleasant subject matter.
Ammu may be regarded as a film that does its job. There is nothing more enticing about this film other than its usage of raising awareness about certain areas of domestic violence. And this film does this in a basic, even predictable, manner. While Ammu conveys the miseries of domestic violence survivors, the film lacks maturity, depth, and a distinct point of view. It appears to be excessively apparent and one-toned.
Ammu is available on Amazon Prime Video.
