There is nothing quite like the Amman film. For the uninitiated, this particular kind of film (loosely translated as devotional films) revolves around the battle between good and evil. There is fantasy, drama, mass, and a whole lot of eye-watering colour, all neatly wrapped by a seething rage that manifests in infinite, innovative killings by the protagonist. But this is also where the Amman film breaks away from the conventions of any other action film. The woman — or the guardian goddess — does the killing here, and the rage is delectably feminine. Sundar C’s Mookuthi Amman 2 is a take on this generational setup. The Nayanthara film routinely checks off all elements associated with the genre, but the drama, along with the rage, is watered down.
Sakthi (Nayanthara) is a police constable living in Chennai with her adopted mother (Urvasi). She fends off goons by day and weird spirits by night who direct her to restart life in a remote village. We know something that Sakthi doesn’t, which is that she is the human incarnation of guardian deity Mookuthi Amman. Nayanthara, who looks and feels the part, is incredibly convincing in these portions, weaponising her genteel innocence to good effect. When Sakthi and her mother land up in Mailanji, their troubles follow them in the form of a politician (Duniya Vijay), who is the devil incarnate himself.
Mookuthi Amman 2 is a film that embraces all the excesses of its genre. Which means, if we have a villain who dabbles in the occult, you better believe he shows up in a flowy red-and-black gown with a fez on his head. And when goddesses descend among us, taking over the bodies of mere mortals, they are marked by an ethereal glow and a coy smile, sacred lemons (a fruit commonly associated with the local goddess) in their hands. There are incessant depictions of blood — rivulets of it sometimes flowing to open a secret chamber, and sometimes mixing to signify past bonds. The snakes and bats turn up as if on cue to remind us of the kind of film we’re watching, and a lot of it remains too on the nose. On the one hand, much of this campy, kitschy visualisation feels like a nostalgic ode to the imagery we grew up watching on screen. On the other, it is precisely this familiar aesthetic that makes us wonder whether we are responding to nostalgia or simply watching old-fashioned storytelling.
The most interesting part of Mookuthi Amman 2 is how it uses women of power and relentless rage to prop its story forward. If Regena Cassandrra plays Bhaira, a woman who was wronged by the goddess at the centre of the conflict, in a deeply intriguing backstory that explores the complexities of motherhood, Mookuthi Amman is herself portrayed as a flawed deity, one who is capable of recognising her own missteps.
We also get a unique Avengers-like touch to this madcap universe when the film assembles goddesses to depict a sense of sisterhood that these movies have historically championed. In the Amman film, the goddess typically descends upon Earth to help an emotionally and physically endangered woman. The film does an interesting take on this concept, but the VFX is so sloppy that it unfortunately evokes the kind of AI animal imagery that we're so used to scrolling down, stripping it of any emotion or connection. Any rage that these women depict is channelled into visual and aural excess, and none of them seems real for us to care.
Nayanthara tries her best to hold the fort, all through the dowdy VFX and ill-timed comedy tracks, allowing her character's innocence and rage to flow, even when the writing lets her down considerably.