Ammoru Film Analysis

In South Indian film culture, there is a widespread practice of idolizing movie stars, the best example being Rajnikanth. Fans go out of their way to catch repeat shows of their favorite films. Another such practice is the form of extreme devotion which is invoked in fans at times either in the form of bhakti or by appealing to some other sentiment in them. This has often been criticized and scrutinized by film critics who claim that this is a method used by film-makers to make their films big hits in the box office as the ‘magic hit formula’ does not always work.

In western movies, classic realism in films appealed to the disembodied spectator quite contrary to the Bollywood and South Indian films which seek to embody the spectator. Through

With the use of filmic devices like mis-en-scene, music and narrative structure the horror emotion began to be better elaborated in the 90’s devotional films. I would again like to site the example of Ammoru in this regard.

Through the film Ammoru we also notice that the makers are constantly subverting and assimilating the goddess aspect. There are many instances in the film which suggest that the village goddess has now eclipsed to a great goddess but there are also instances which suggest that the movie-makers want to constrain the goddess as a lower-caste and village deity. An interesting departure in the film which can be seen is the practice of sacrifice of animals which by the devotees. This was not seen in the earlier devotional films. Scenes of possession by the power of the goddess is one such interesting departure.

One central theme in most Tamil devotional films is that of women suffering, often at the times of an oppressive patriarchal family structure along with pregnancy and the difficulties of the birthing process. In Ammoru, the central character, Bhavani is inflicted with terrible torture and is nearly killed but the goddess appears at the right time and manages to save