Ammu movie review: Aishwarya Lekshmi-starrer is a chilling thriller about a woman’s fight against domestic violence

Aishwarya Lekshmi, unlike many of her contemporaries, has a constant urge to pick scripts that matter. Courtesy that, she is truly becoming a force to reckon with. After bankrolling Sai Pallavi-starrer Gargi, unarguably one of the best films of the year, she chose to headline debutant Charukesh Sekar’s Ammu – a chilling thriller about a domestic abuse survivor standing up for herself. Cut from the same cloth as films such Thappad and 47 Naatkal, Aishwarya’s Ammu is a very familiar tale of domestic abuse of a helpless wife but thankfully it takes a very interesting detour to present a refreshing end. Also read: Vijay Varma is sick of online hate after playing abusive husband in Darlings

Aishwarya Lekshmi plays Ammu. The film opens with a conversation between a young girl and Ammu, who is about to marry her neighbor Ravi (Naveen Chandra), who works as a police inspector. The little girl asks Ammu if she really likes Ravi, and if she’s ready for marriage. Ammu says she thinks she knows him and goes on to ask the girl why she would ask such a question.

In what’s one of the best scenes of the movie, Ravi’s character is beautifully introduced and it doesn’t take much time for the viewers to learn about his true colors. Ammu’s world starts to crumble when she learns about Ravi’s abusive and authoritative behavior. The rest of the story is about how Ammu deals with domestic violence and whether she succeeds in teaching her husband a lesson.

Ammu will definitely be one of the most important films of this year. It takes a very relevant issue that has been a topic of discussion for a long time and gives it a very interesting spin with the way it chooses to end the film. One could think of such a story and list down all the possible outcomes but this film’s ending would still leave you surprised. Instead of playing out like an awareness film on domestic abuse, Ammu touches upon crucial aspects that need to be taken into consideration when it comes to a woman’s involvement in a marriage. In one of the film’s most crucial scenes, Ammu cries her heart out to her mother and argues about being married so early. The mother jokingly replies, ‘you’re already 25’. In the subsequent scene, when Ammu opens up to her mother about Ravi turning abusive, she quotes the examples of her father and defends it by saying men have no other means to take out their anger and stress.

The film beautifully talks about how women are conditioned to domestic abuse across generations and most have even accepted it as a way of life. There’s also a beautiful scene about a woman’s right to abortion, and it couldn’t have come at a more fitting time than now when the Supreme Court affirmed women’s right to abortion in India.

It is quite brave of Aishwarya to headline such a project at a time when she can easily get away by playing the quintessential heroine. It’s as though she wants to make a statement with her films. Therefore, Aishwarya is carefully picking projects that rise above the usual definition of entertainment. As the helpless wife trying to muster courage to find a way out of her abusive marriage, Aishwarya plays her part so well. This is one of her best performances. It is equally gutsy of Naveen Chandra to take up this character and he plays the menacing husband so convincingly. Bobby Simhaa shines in a crucial cameo. Ammu began streaming on Prime Video from October 19.

Ammu

Director: Charukesh Sekar

Cast: Aishwarya Lekshmi, Naveen Chandra and Bobby Simhaa

ott:10