Ammoru


Ammoru is a 1995 Indian Telugu-language mythological fantasy film directed by Kodi Ramakrishna. The film was produced by Shyam Prasad Reddy under MS Arts Unit. The film features Soundarya and Suresh in the lead roles with Ramya Krishna, Rami Reddy, Baby Sunaina, Vadivukkarasi, Kallu Chidambaram and Babu Mohan portraying supporting roles.
The film revolves around Bhavani, who is a devotee of goddess Ammoru, the rest of the film revolves around her devotion towards the goddess who saves her from evil forces. The film's soundtrack was composed by Sri. The film's cinematography was handled by C. Vijay Kumar. The film became successful at the box office and received positive acclaim for visual effects. The film was dubbed and released in Tamil as Amman and in Hindi as Maa Ki Shakti. The film was remade in Bengali as Debi by Swapan Saha.

Plot

Bhavani, a lower caste orphan and a fervent devotee of Goddess Ammoru, is responsible for the arrest of the evil Ghorakh for him killing a young girl by burying her alive. Ghorakh is released from prison, vowing revenge. Bhavani is married to a doctor, Surya, who happens to be a relation to Gorakh. Surya goes abroad to study, leaving his wife unprotected. When Ghorakh's mother Leelamma tries to kill Bhavani, with the help of Leelamma's creditor, the Goddess Ammoru descends to earth, kills Leelamma's creditor and then takes the form of Bhavani's small maid servant in order to protect her. Bhavani's maid servant tortures Leelamma, her husband and her daughter. One day, Surya returns to India after his foreign business and Leelama tries to blame Bhavani that she is having an illegal relationship with another man in his bedroom. But the servant saves Bhavani and keeps Leelama's daughter instead in her bedroom. The daughter is married to that man by Ammoru.
Meanwhile Ghorakh was released from jail due to Gandhi Jayanthi and decides to take revenge against Bhavani who was the reason of his arrest. First he tries to kill Bhavani by giving her poison when she was pregnant. But goddess Ammoru, who is in the form of the servant girl saves her. At last Ghorakh finds out who that good spirit is who makes his power useless. Ghorakh finds that Bhavani's servant is goddess Ammoru, who saved her and the child in her womb. At last after the child's birth, Ghorakh plans to dismiss the servant by making Bhavani say that until Bhavani puts a bottu on the goddess' forehead and asks her to come, she should not come. Ghorakh kills Bhavani's infant daughter and tortures Surya, with the help of evil spirit Chanda. Bhavani prays to goddess Ammoru to save her, but the goddess doesn't react to it. At last she puts her hand on the Goddess's trident and she bleeds. Ghorakh pulls her in a bid to disrobe her, causing some drops of Bhavani's blood to spill on the goddess' forehead and she returns in her fiercest form and kills Ghorakh. She then changes her form to the servant girl. At last, Surya and Bhavani realise that the servant girl was the goddess and she returns Bhavani's child to Bhavani and blesses all of them.

Cast

Development and casting

Shyam Prasad Reddy, who was disappointed with the response of his previous production Aagraham decided to make a film in Telugu with extensive use of visual effects after watching . Shyam chose Y. Rama Rao, who assisted Kodandarami Reddy as director and Chinna was cast as a sorcerer, however he was replaced by Rami Reddy. Eeshwar Reddy who directed films like Mee Sreyobhilashi and Manorama worked in the camera department of the film. Ramya Krishnan was selected to portray the role of the goddess and Soundarya, who was doing her debut Telugu film Manavarali Pelli was selected to portray her devotee after she was recommended by Babu Mohan.

Filming

The filming began on July 1992 at Ayinavilli at East Godavari district. Despite Y. Rama Rao being announced as director, Shyam replaced him with Kodi after Shyam was not satisfied with the film's outcome. Kodi revealed that when he was offered to direct the film, he had to read books related to visual effects to improve his knowledge. Vijay C. Kumar, who handled cinematography said that he had to use blue matte for the graphics related shots and the graphics part was handled by Lin Wood. Despite not having a big star cast, the film was shot twice and took three years to complete with the budget of 1 cr 80 lakhs.

Soundtrack

Chakravarthy was initially chosen to compose the music, but since he was unwell at that time his son Sri was selected to compose.
The film's success established the trend of mythological fantasy films with visual effects in Telugu cinema with Kodi directing similar projects like Devi and Anji in his career. The film proved to be a launchpad for Soundarya, who went on to become a popular actress in Telugu cinema.