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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful: Nice re-working of South India's mythological stories, 28 August 2004 Author: Mrs_Chowdhury from UK
To be honest, I'd not heard of the goddess Amorru. This is a nice little story about good triumphing over evil. Bhavani is a simple village girl who gets her dream hubby (Doctor, US work permit) in the village of her birth. She faithfully worships the goddess Ammoru. Unbeknownst to her, she is the target of a vengeful village harridan and their oddball family, including a villain who has sold his soul to the Demon Channda in order to gain immortality, as one does in these films.And so she is faced with all manner of trials and tribulations, including an attempted rape, etc. But Ammoru always saves the day and there is finally some top-notch ultra violence at the end where the Devi does some baddass actions to make sure the right ending happens. South Indian film often gets ignored or brushed over when people talk about Bollywood. It's a pity, because the stories are at least trying to be different from the usual mush of inept romantic family dramas produced by their northern counterparts
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: This film shows the relationship between Dravid and Aryan Hinduism, 20 November 2001 Author: Steve Wilson (steve@sethur.f9.co.uk) from London, England
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Ammoru offers the Western student of Indian religion a fascinating glimpse into both traditional Dravidian religion, its relationship with orthodox Aryan thought and the way that Indian Cinema developed its unique flavours from traditional mythological drama.The Aryans, the top three castes of India, are believed to have invaded India around 2,000 BC. They brought with them a religion similar to that of Greece, Rome, Persia and even Ireland, with whom Sanskrit shares a common linguistic origin. The lower castes originated from the earlier Dravidian people, who built the cities of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, and possibly ancient Elam as well. Dravid now means Southern, because in the wake of the invasion these peoples fled south, but there may be a link with the words Dryad and Druid, because these peoples had a nature religion similar to ancient Greece and Ireland, and these words come from the same root as `tree'. Over 4 millennia, Dravid thinking influenced the development of Hinduism considerably, but there is still tension between the two traditions. All Hindus now believe in reincarnation, for example, not an original Aryan notion, and methods of meditation in the forest seem unique to the earlier peoples. Now, however, they have been incorporated into orthodox Hinduism, and local, tribal, non-Aryan customs are often viewed with distrust and contempt by the Brahmins.Ammoru is a Telugu movie, a language which, like Kannada and Tamil, is not Indo-European. In it we see a Dravid girl recognise her village Goddess as an aspect of the universal feminine force, known in Tantra and Shaivism as Shakti. There then follows a series of miracle-stories, no doubt from traditional sources, but updated to the modern day. Between significant stories, or at significant moments, songs intervene. This is not a reflection of Bollywood directly, but a return to the traditional myth dramas that have been performed in India for Millennia. These lasted for hours, and individual portions of a myth were shown, then a song would allow explanation (and time for costume and scenery changes).At the end of the movie the magnificent special effects prove that Ammoru is the same as Saraswati, Kali, Lakshmi and others. This justifies the vision of the original village girl and, importantly, places Ammoru as an equal with Aryan Goddesses.Above all, it has led me to worship Her! The final scenes, as the Goddess kills the black magician and then transforms into various Goddesses before becoming the little girl again is stunning. Ditto the earlier procession and dance in which the little girl sings the revelation of the true nature of Ammoru while dancing in a wild trance. Quite frankly, for Pagans this is the best movie I've seen since, well, since, well, there must have been, well.......
I liked this movie, 8 October 2005 Author: mikey_milouk from United Kingdom
I liked this movie i have not seen many movies of this genre and I agree that buy western standards the special effects are not great but I think it is charming never the less! I have watched about four times now. It's style made me think of old Hammer Horror films! I was shocked to find that the main female actress died in a aeroplane crash with her brother in India 2004, I thought see was very beautiful, and had a great on-screen presents.If I had to criticise one aspect it would be the rapist character who is asked in to rape the main female character to discredit her as immoral to her husband, the goddess of the village Ammoru substitutes her with the daughter of the head of the house, this character then has to marry him after he raped her! This was not an issue at all in the movie! but maybe the meaning is confused in the English sub-titles or there is a large cultural difference in attitudes to rape?
1 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Toto, I don't think we're in Bollywood anymore, 15 August 2009 Author: TheatreX from Louisville, KY
I am a westerner that finds Indian movies fascinating. Not your sappy romantic comedies, but the really odd and sometimes frightening stuff. This film was sort of a departure for me, and while I see people lumping this under the "Bollywood" type film, I don't think it is, technically. I think the term Bollywood gets used to encompass all Indian cinema, and from a lot that I've read, that's not correct.This is a South Indian film, not in Hindi but Telugu, and is the tale of a simple village girl who worships the Mother Goddess Ammoru, and while she falls victim to all kinds of horrible things, Ammoru is there to protect and care for her.The young girl, Bhavani, has witnessed an evil man burying a virgin alive to gain powers, and she has had the police called on him, and he's been taken away. Bhavani has fallen in love with a young doctor and is to marry him, however, I think the young doctor may indeed have the same mother as the evil man whose been jailed, & the mother vows vengeance against Bhavani. At first the oddball family tries to convince the villagers that Bhavani is mad, then tries to poison her, then tries to have her killed, but Ammoru always manages to appear, sometimes in the form of a child, to keep Bhavani from harm.The special effects in this movie are actually quite good, for the most part, and I was rather stunned to see a trident-like object shoot out of the bindi of Ammoru (kind of like the silver ball in "Phantasm"!!!) and take out one of the evil doers. There's even some strange voodoo-like ritual and also some rather wicked (and surprisingly gory) effects toward the very end.This is rather a beautiful film to watch, has some stylish effects & sequences, and the music & dancing is much different from your typical Bollywood stuff, in other words, it's more native & traditional, so I did enjoy that. I'm not quite sure even how to categorize this film, if I had to...religious horror thriller? Maybe...at any rate, this is well worth a look if you can get your hands on it, and if you like Indian films. 8 out of 10.
2 out of 4 people found the following review useful: Um............ interesting., 19 November 2001 Author: Steve Dorsett (stevedorsett@hotmail.com) from London, England
Okay, obviously this is a Bollywood movie, a genre which I have no experience or knowledge in, but as it was on TV I thought I'd give it a go. The plot centres around Bhavani, a young girl who is the carer to the shrine of Ammoru, the mother goddess. She falls in love with a man of high standing, whose family object and do all that they can to stop the union in some violent and bizarre ways. Bhavani must call on Ammoru to save her from her plight. That's a rough idea of the plot, which seems to be just a set up for the amazing special effects around which the film was touted. Unfortunately, compared to western special effects they are not that amazing at all.Typically with Bollywood, there is much singing, and for me, they were the highlight. There's one very dramatic action filled scene at the end, all hell breaking loose, and suddenly it bursts into song. It sounds ludicrous, but I thought it was fantastic. You'll understand if you see it.All in all an interesting little movie. I would recommend this to anyone who fancies something a little different. It's not for everyone, but as someone who had never seen a Bollywood film from start to finish, I rather enjoyed it. - 6/10
0 out of 1 people found the following review useful: A distinctly different slice of Bollywood, 18 November 2001 Author: niz from Melbourne, Australia
AMMORU manages to combine all the usual Bollywood pre-occupations (marriage, familial bonds, hinduism) with an amazingly wild mythological fantasy storyline, some great CGI special effects, and quality production, to form one of the most interesting films to come out of India in a long time.The prologue, as we watch a Shiva-style goddess become Ammoru, the protector of a village, sets the tone well, with the actress giving an engaging Brigitte Lin style performance. Unfortunately, she has little else to do for much of the film.The central drama concerns a girl who witnesses an evil sadhu attempting to bury a virgin alive, in a bid to gain magical power and riches. The sadhu's mother, unhappy he has been jailed for life, vows to get her revenge on the girl, and proceeds to make her life a misery. This first half of the film works well, with great performances by the evil family, and the special mystical effects used sparingly but effectively.It shifts tone for the second half, with Ammoru manifesting herself as a child to save the girl, and the sadhu himself being released early and seeking his own revenge. The film eventually begins to submit to standard Bollywood conventions, but redeems itself by upping the fright-factor and the crazy special effects, and bringing back the original adult incarnation of Ammoru to kick some ass!AMMORU will be of interest to world viewers, as it gives a fascinating insight into the strange culture of southern India, a world where demons, goddesses walk among us as avatars, and it manages to do it without resorting to lowest-common-denominator movie-making as in 99.9% of the other movies coming from the sub-continent.
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