Ammani Review
Director: Lakshmy Ramakrishnan
Cast: Lakshmy Ramakrishnan, Nitin Sathya, Subbalakshmi
Watching a meaningful film made with honesty, without being preachy comes under the rarest of the rare category in Tamil. In Ammani, Lakshmy Ramakrishnan has played three different roles with striking perfection.
Being a responsible writer, she has conveyed a relevant message to the society. As a director, she has woven all those feel good factors within the commercial format of film making. And above all she charms us with her impeccable performance playing the lead role. To be precise, Lakshmy has hit the bull’s eye with Ammani!
As a widowed working mother, Saalama’s (Lakshmy) life is filled with woes that her elder son is an alcoholic while the younger one is a puppet dancing to his wife’s tunes and the newly arrived grandson is just waiting for the right time to get her pension money.
Saalama showers unconditional love on her sons and grandchildren. she wallops her drunkard son and the very next day, she feeds him with the same hands. She quarrels with her grandson on the first meet and few minutes later, cooks sumptuous mutton curry for him.
Saalama is one among the bold women, whom we meets in our day-to-day life but goes unnoticed because we have no time to appreciate their struggle. We have Mother Teresa and Jhansi Rani in our country but women like Saalama is also fighting tough battles on a day-to-day basis.
Then there is this 82 years old Ammani (Subbalakshmi), who leads her life by selling waste plastic bottles but only with great enjoyment and less expectations. Twenty years from now, Saalama’s life could be analogous to Ammani because she has already written the will for her two sons and only six thousand remaining in her pension amount. As an audience, we can feel the emotional trauma of Saalama and that’s where, Lakshmy shines as a writer and performer!
What really works for Ammani is the gentle screenplay without any gimmicks or drama.
Among many beautifully written scenes, loved the subtle part where Ammani takes the empty brandy bottle kept under Saalama’s pillow. Facing too many problems in her life, Saalama drinks and this scene is handled with maturity!
Another out-of-the-box situation, which really impressed is the scene where Lakshmy imagines how her death should be and introduced a Kuthu song to celebrate the moment.
In the opening scene of the film, a man runs far from Saalama’s house and the decibel of his voice varies as if we were there for real, such is the quality of sound design provided by Tapas Nayak in Ammani. K’s background score perfectly suits the mood of the film, especially the Mazhai Ingillaye number rightly inspires us in the situation where we would have weeped, provided Ammani is a regular film supported by a template score.
Similarly, Imran Ahmedh’s top angle shots are breathtaking and given the fact that the film was majorly canned inside a tiny house in Vyasarpadi, he has done an amazing job. Also, all the shot divisions are perfect that we couldn't think of a scene where a particular angle is irrelevant. When was the last time, we saw a movie with such great finesse?
Another advantage for Ammani is that the film is completely engaging with the 90 minutes running time and there was no dull moment. If you are a genuine movie buff, book your tickets and spread the word!
