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 Ramya Krishna in the title role and Soundarya in the lead roles with Suresh, Rami Reddy, Baby Sunaina, Vadivukkarasi, Kallu Chidambaram and Babu Mohan portraying supporting roles.
The plot follows Bhavani (Soundarya), a devotee of goddess Ammoru (Ramya Krishna) who protects 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" (2005) by Swapan Saha.
Plot.
An epidemic grips a village in India, the people of the village plans to worship Goddess Ammoru. At night, when the people worship the Goddess, the Goddess comes down to Earth in the form of an old woman, and takes shelter in a fervent woman's house. The Goddess takes an oath that she will rid the village of the epidemic and will not move out of the house. The Goddess shows her true form, and the woman, who remembers the oath, commits suicide by jumping into a well, the House in which the Goddess now permanently stays, is converted into a temple.
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. Leelamma and her family try to kill and torture Bhavani but the attempts are a sometimes success and also a bust. In one of the attempts, Bhavani is married to a doctor, Surya, who happens to be a relation to Ghorakh. Surya goes to the USA to do a business, leaving his wife unprotected. When Ghorakh's mother Leelamma tries to kill Bhavani, with the help of Leelamma's creditor, 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. The servant of Leelamma changes his mind and stays with Ammoru. One day, Surya returns to India after his American business and Leelamma 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 and helps Bhavani give birth to the baby daughter. 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 Kumkum 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 an 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 The Goddess 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 The Goddess returns Bhavani's baby daughter (whom she saved from Ghorakh) to Bhavani and blesses all of them.
Production.
Development and casting.
Shyam Prasad Reddy, who was disappointed with the response of his previous production "Aagraham" (1991) decided to make a film in Telugu with extensive use of visual effects after watching "" (1991). 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" (2007) and "Manorama" (2009) 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" (1994) was selected to portray her devotee after she was recommended by Babu Mohan.
Filming.
The filming began in 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.
Legacy.
The film's success established the trend of mythological fantasy films with visual effects in Telugu cinema with Kodi directing similar projects like "Devi" (1999) and "Anji" (2004) in his career. The film proved to be a launchpad for Soundarya, who went on to become a popular actress in Telugu cinema.