Spoilers ahead…
The first half takes a long time to underline Ammu’s situation – the scenes, though effective, are fairly predictable. The real subversion occurs in the second half.
Charukesh Sekar’s Ammu opens with an arranged marriage scenario. Ammu (Aishwarya Lekshmi) is brought in front of Ravi (Naveen Chandra) and his family. There are no doubts about the alliance, as the families live in the same neighbourhood and know of each other. It’s just a formality. Ravi’s mother tells Ammu to behave as she normally would. But something about the occasion makes Ammu more subdued than she’d usually be. Earlier, she wondered whether she liked Ravi. The answer was tentative. “I think so,” she says. Now, the elders ask the couple-to-be to stand next to each other. She still has an “I think so” look. In a startling cut, we move from this scenario to Ammu and Naveen after marriage, after they’ve just had sex. Like many scenes in the film, this is reflected in a mirror, which acts as a distancing device. What we are seeing is real – and yet a lie.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/telugu/movie/review/ammu/
And you can watch the video review here:
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Baradwaj Rangan 
brangan
October 19, 2022
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krishikari
October 22, 2022
Watched this last night in Tamil rather than Telugu which is the original I think, but now they dub in all languages and its difficult to decide so I spend a few minutes trying to figure out which language to watch it in and ended up with Tamil plus english subtitles. Only read your full review after and have to agree with everything you said, including the comparison with Darlings.
It was indeed very beautifully done especially the mother daughter scene, but what did you think of the railway station biriyani scenes? I loved Aishwayra Lekshmi in every scene including the high drama ones, I was filled with dread for her each time he came home in the evening. They were really effective in conveying that terror. Ever since Mayanadhi I felt she should be in these very central roles, she really has so much presence, quietly commanding every scene. (She was just wasted in Jagame Thandiram.)
What I did not buy in the end is that a police officers career would be ruined over proof of domestic violence or beating a man in custody. This does not happen anywhere in the world, they just get transfered or even promoted and the woman is in even more danger. I think it would be more convincing to show Bobby Simha’s Prabhu having to go back to jail and Ammu going back to her family and trying to start over. The police officers who tried to help her would have had terrible career consequences too. I understand that the endings the characters got would be ideal but this just wasn’t a good enough revenge plan.
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Jay
November 2, 2022
This wasn’t the domestic abuse movie u should have watched from malayalam. it should have been the movie, Jay Jay Jay Jay hai . That is getting all the good reviews.
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