‘Amma Kanakku’ is the Tamil remake of Hindi film ‘Nil Battey Sannata’ and it has been produced by Dhanush and Anand.L.Rai. After highly acclaimed, award winning films like ‘Kaaka Muttai’ and ‘Visaranai’ this is another attempt from Dhanush’s Wunderbar Films to give a realistic close to life film, which wins the heart with its honest and touching portrayal of a single mother’ s struggles to achieve her dream about her daughter’s future.

Shanthi (Amala Paul) is a young widow who works as a maid in a Doctor’s (Revathy) house and also does other menial jobs to educate  her daughter  Abhi (Yuvasri) who is in tenth grade. Her only dream in life is to see Abhi complete higher studies and achieve big in life. But Abhi in turn is highly disinterested in studies as she is convinced that her mother could not afford the cost of higher studies and says that she will become a servant maid like her mother. The rest of the film deals with the struggles of Shanthi to make her daughter understand the importance of education and achieve a successful career.

Ashwini Iyer Tiwari, the director of the original has helmed the Tamil remake also. The debutante with the story written by Nitesh Tiwari and Tamil dialogues by director Subramaniam Siva, has succeeded in presenting a heartwarming account of a relationship between young widowed mother and her daughter and the struggles of a lower middle class single woman to ensure a better lifestyle and a good future at least for the next generation of her family

Despite being low on entertainment values, the film does not breed boredom. It is aptly cut with a shorter running time of just 109 minutes. The emotional scenes make an impact and thankfully does not touch the line of melodrama. It is a simple, sweet and realistic film and the story does not give room to any intensity and the script does not have any surprises,  shocks, twists and turns. The film gives the experience of reading a likeable feel good short story with the right dosage of emotions.

The writer-director also makes it a film close to heart with the realistic and measured portrayal of relationships between characters. Be it between the servant and her boss, teacher and students, friendship between students, and friendship that blossoms between the students and an elderly classmate.

The film could have made a better  impact if the creative team had paid more attention to capture the Tamil nativity factor. The  Government school setting and details regarding the school education portrayed in this film are far from reality. The mother speaks often about paying school fees, but the Government schools, especially for the Tamil medium sections offer either free education or get a bare minimum fee for students.

Also, there is a huge credibility issue when the mother enrolls herself as a student in the school in which her daughter studies. This is done by merely convincing  the Headmaster of the school who  enrolls a woman in her 30s, in tenth standard in a Government school, without having to seek the approval of higher authorities. This part could have been portrayed in a more convincing manner as it plays a vital role in the script. The same applies to the reasoning behind  Shanthi taking that decision that she herself study in her daughter’s school.

At the end, we could not help feeling that the makers could have put in more efforts to give a holistic and intense account of the struggles of a young widowed mother. Here it is limited to, financial constraints and the daughter’s disinterest towards education.

Amala Paul has given a lifetime performance in this film. She has perfectly expressed and emoted her dreams, affection, desperation and emotional turmoils caused by her daughter not understanding her intentions. The costumes and dialogues written in the dialect of a lower middle class Chennai native, support her in giving life to the character. Yuvasri is impeccable in her role of a bold, independent teenager who understands her mother’s sacrifices only at the end.  Revathy makes a mark with a short but likeable role. The kids who have acted as Yuvasri’s friends have given appreciable performances, especially the guy who keeps licking the tomato ketchup in a posh hotel, while his friend is ordering the menu. Samuthirkani seems to have enforced a dramatic body language and dialogue delivery for a strict and sincere school headmaster but this has sadly worked against his  intention to bring in reality and has actually made it look artificial.

Isaignani Ilaiyaraja’s songs do not warrant repeated listens, but gel with the proceeding and they're used minimally in the film. The Background score, strikes the right chord, especially in emotional scenes and lends a huge support to the director. Cinematographer Gavemic U Ary’s  has done a decent job with his lenses. R.K.Vijaya Murugan’s Production design deserves a mention for the realistic lower middle class houses and the government school.

Verdict : ‘Amma Kanakku’ is a mother-daughter tale made likeable by realistic emotional content, relatable performances and good music.