Movie Review: "Ammu" - A Tale Of Domestic Violence Against Women

Name: Ammu

Release date: 19 October, 2022

Distributed by: Amazon Prime Video

Running time: 136 minutes

Country: India

Language: Tamil

Director’s name: Charukesh Sekar

Synopsis

It is the story of a woman and her struggle to get out of her abusive marriage. Ammu, who comes from a conservative family marries her neighbour who is a circle inspector. In the movie, she is seen meeting her ‘soon-to-be husband’ formally in front of her and his family only once which is normal as far as arranged marriages are concerned.

The initial period of her married life is a bed of roses where she seems to be very much happy with her decision of choosing Ravi as her husband and she even confesses her love for him. But Ravi’s true personality is discovered only when she forgets to bring him lunch at the police station. Ravi is shown to be a typical husband who thinks her wife’s only job is to take care of him and if she commits even a trivial mistake she should be beaten up by her husband.

Ammu, seeing the bed of roses falls for his deception and becomes a submissive wife and thinks that the abusive nature of her husband is temporary. She also reveals the domestic violence she is experiencing with her mother when she is being asked,’ what did you do?’ by her mother. But unlike other conservative mothers, her mother asks her to do whatever she wants. She, once, tries to elope but then just like a submissive wife she blames herself for her husband’s abusive behavior. But then her way of taking revenge against her abusive husband brings a mind-blowing twist to the plot.

Themes involved:

Arranged marriage:

Arranged marriages are a part of India’s rich culture. In the movie, however, a very typical and conservative version of arranged marriage is shown where boy and girl meet each other only once, but Ravi and Ammu being neighbours and Ravi’s reputed job of circle inspector convince their parents to get them married, but Ammu makes the mistake of judging the book by its cover. 

Domestic Violence:

The theme of the movie is domestic violence, it shows that domestic violence still exists, breathes and survives in our so-called well-educated and sophisticated society. Circle inspector, Ravi who is very well aware of the fact that domestic violence is a crime, starts a volunteering program for the safety of women during the night time is the one who commits domestic violence against his wife and Ammu on the other hand a well-educated woman ignores her rights as a woman and fails to protect her dignity and individuality. 

A mother’s role:

Although a brief but very crucial role is played by Ammu’s mother, although the audience’s expectation is more than what is shown in the movie from Ammu’s mother’s character the good part is that her character is not that of a conservative mother who forces her daughter to make compromises to make her marriage work.

Marital rape:

Ammu doesn’t want to have kids but her husband forces her and rapes her to have kids. She takes pills but the pills get replaced by her husband and ultimately, she gets pregnant. The theme of marital rape is overshadowed and not discussed openly in the movie.

Aishwarya Lekshmi has done a great job playing the role of Ammu, her transformation from being a submissive wife to a tactful woman is amazingly portrayed by her. 

In the latter half of the film, Ammu’s story intertwines with Prabhu’s story who has committed double murders and is in jail, which contributes to the mind-blowing ending of the movie. The ending of the plot is beyond the audience’s expectations, her tactfulness in taking revenge on her husband leaves the audience in awe.

Written by: Harshita Bansal