Ammoru (1995)

The main Telugu box office success of 1995, esp. for its special effects. Bhawani (Soundarya), a lower caste orphan and devotee of the goddess Ammoru, is responsible for the arrest of the evil Gorakh (Reddy). When Gorakh is released from prison, vowing revenge, Bhawani is married to a doctor (Suresh) who happens to be related to the villain. The doctor goes abroad to study, leaving his wife unprotected. When Gorakh’s sister Leelamma tries to kill Bhawani, the goddess Ammoru (Ramya) descends to earth and takes the form of Bhawani’s maid servant in order to protect her. Gorakh finds a way for the servant to be dismissed, kills Bhawani’s infant son and tortures her husband, with the help of the evil spirit Chenda. Eventually the goddess returns, and in a spectacular finale featuring the special effects, kills Gorakh. Beginning with an idiom resembling the mythological, the film transforms into a domestic family drama while maintaining its allegience to folk legends about female village deities. The big-budget hit was also known for its music often using folk tunes and established the newcomer Soundarya as a major star. A dubbed version in Tamil, Amman, was also a hit.