Ammu review: Aishwarya Lekshmi and Naveen Chandra shine in this gripping movie on domestic violence

Amazon Prime’s original movie Ammu focuses on domestic violence and abusive marriages.

With Naveen Chandra, Aishwarya Lekshmi and Bobby Simha in lead roles, the film is directed by Charukesh Sekhar and produced by Kalyan Shankar and Kaarthekeyan Santhanam under the banner of Stone Bench.

It is streaming on Amazon Prime Video from Wednesday, 19 October. Here’s our review:

Ammu (Aishwarya Lekshmi) and Ravi (Naveen Chandra), a police circle inspector, are a newly married couple. Everything about their marriage is so perfect that Ammu believes that she is the luckiest woman to have a husband like Ravi.

She cooks delicious food for him and takes lunch to the police station. She’s the perfect wife.

But soon, Ammu realises that she is the only perfect aspect in their marriage. One day, she forgets to take lunch for Ravi. And that is when she is introduced to his other side. Later, for different and silly reasons, he starts abusing her, and tortures her physically.

Unable to figure out how to survive, Ammu decides to take an extreme step to teach Ravi a lesson. She seeks help from Prabhu (Bobby Simha), a criminal who is on parole to attend his sister’s marriage.

Ravi tortures Prabhu in the police station for not meeting the parole conditions. Prabhu needs help and so does Ammu. How these two manage to teach Ravi a lesson forms the crux of the story.

Effortless performances

The movie will hit you hard. Aishwarya Lekshmi essays a character that is contrary to all her previous roles. She is the perfect choice for Ammu. Aishwarya seems so effortless in her performance as she gets under the character’s skin.

Naveen Chandra needs a special mention here. Though he has been playing roles with grey shades for some time, in Ammu, he plays an egoistic husband who shows no concern for his wife.

His character Ravi is about male ego and masculinity; a wife-beater that we often come across in newspapers and perhaps in our neighbourhood. Being Ravi is not an easy job, but Naveen Chandra pulls it off.

Charukesh kept it realistic

The credit for making such a film goes to director Charukesh. The screenplay is amazing and the plot is down-to-earth.

The scenes of abuse are not shown on screen and instead, all that you hear are screams.

fighting against the odds & rising like a phoenix, that’s Ammu for you!
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The director has succeeded in portraying the reality: How a housewife’s world revolves around her husband after the wedding, and how the society humiliates and looks down upon a woman who wants to get out of a toxic relationship.

He showcases how many women silently suffer domestic violence for ages for the sake of their parents’ status, kids’ future and societal pressure.

Charukesh did a commendable job in putting all this together while not showing any act of violence.

Verdict

Ammu is an eye-opener for many women who continue to suffer in abusive relationships without giving a second thought to their own life and future. This is a must-watch movie.