''Rajakali Amman'' is a 2000 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

-language

devotional film This is a list of genres of Literary genre, literature and entertainment (Film genre, film, Television show, television, Music genre, music, and Video game genre, video games), excluding :Visual arts genres, genres in the visual arts. ''Genre'' ...

written and directed by

Rama Narayanan Rama Narayanan (3 April 1949 – 22 June 2014) was an Indian film director and film producer. In the 1980s, he was known as a director who specialized in shooting commercial films in which animals played vital roles, while in the 1990s, several ...

. It stars

Ramya Krishnan Ramya Krishnan (born 15 September 1970), also credited as Ramya Krishna, is an Indian actress predominantly known for her work in Telugu and Tamil films, along with appearances in Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi films. Early life Ramya was born ...

as the goddess Amman alongside Karan and

Kausalya Kausalya (, ) is a queen of Kosala in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. She is the first senior queen consort of Dasharatha, who ruled Kosala from its capital Ayodhya. She is the mother of Rama, the male protagonist of the epic. She is a secondar ...

Plot

Goddess Rajakali Amman is the

gramadevata A gramadevata () is the tutelary deity of a given locality in Hinduism, primarily worshipped in the villages of India. Of diverse origins, gramadevatas are regarded to protect the inhabitants of their villages from bandits, epidemics, and natur ...

of a local town. She decides to leave her original shrine when a local zamindar tries to steal the jewellery that is used to adorn her idol. She walks away until she reaches the next town and meets 2 orphaned siblings, Gopal and Meena. Meena gives her milk to drink while Gopal entertains her with music from his

pungi The pungi, also known as bīn or Murli, is a musical instrument that originates from the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a reservoir into which air is blown and then channelled into two reed pipe, reed pipes. It is played with ...

, since he is a snake charmer. The goddess, touched by their empathy, promises to protect them and manifests herself into a stone idol. Many years later, the adult Meena and Gopal, live happily with their pet snake and continue pleasing, worshipping and conversing with Rajakali Amman. They all flourish because of the blessings of the goddess, who also returns to her original shrine, but these days will be over when Meena marries an evil man named Seemadorai, who fakes being nice and seduces Meena. Despite the goddess' disapproval, Meena marries Seemadurai. Seemadurai's relative Ramesh and her sister kill Gopal. Determined to save her devotee, Rajakali Amman enters Ramesh's house as a woman named Gayathri who returns from the USA. Meena learns about the fact of the goddess and Rajakali Amman finally tries to remove all the sufferings of Meena. While Meena is worshipping the goddess, Seemadurai tries to demolish the shrine until the goddess attacks him by stinging his eyes. Meena tries to save her husband from Rajakali Amman but her

sindoor Sindoor (, ) or sindura (,) is a traditional vermilion red or orange-red or maroon Cosmetics, cosmetic powder (substance), powder from South Asia, usually worn by marriage, married women along the part of their hairline. In Hindu communities, ...

gets washed away in the rain. Rajakali Amman proceeds to kill Seemadurai until Meena's pet snake uses its own blood as sindoor. This stops Rajakali Amman from killing Seemadurai and the latter, now realises everything and begs for forgiveness while crying profusely. The goddess forgives and blesses him and Meena to live a long married life. Meena still continued to meet Rajakali Amman often.

Cast

as Goddess Sri Raja Kaliamman/Gayathri * Karan as Seemadorai alias Kannayiram *

as Meena * Jandaa (ghost) as Jandaa * Nizhalgal Ravi as Guru * Vadivelu as Gopal * Y. Vijaya as Seemadorai's elder sister * Charan Raj as an astrologer

Soundtrack

Soundtrack was composed by S. A. Rajkumar.

Reception

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' wrote "The story is old, the way the characters enact their roles is ancient, and melodrama is predominant, especially in Vadivelu's expressions." Malini Mannath of ''Chennai Online'' wrote, "This film with its snakes, good and evil, and the Goddess all seem to be in the director's favourite genre. Not a very intelligent audience in mind when he made this film! What is surprising is that such a film could come from the production house of a K. Balachander!". Lavanya of ''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by businessman K. N. Guruswamy and launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printers Mysore, a privately hel ...

'' wrote, "Like other Thyagaraja Bhagavathar movies, Raja Kaliamman is a melodramtic but lacks subtle narration".

References

External links

* {{Rama Narayanan 2000 films 2000s Indian films 2000s Tamil-language films Films directed by Rama Narayanan Films scored by S. A. Rajkumar Hindu devotional films Tamil-language Indian films Films shot in Madurai