Rama.Narayanan's devotional movies seem more targeted towards children rather than the devout with each new entry. With overperforming animals and cheap, gaudy graphics, the under-10 seem likely to be the only demographic that will find anything even remotely watchable in his movies. His latest venture Annai Kaaligaambaal is no different. It has the all-powerful goddess, two devotees who are saved by the deity, ineffective, stupid villains and an elephant that, barring its appearance, is human in all respects.

Parvathi(Ramya Krishnan) and Eeswari(Anu Prabhakar) are sisters and devotees of goddess Kaaligaambaal(Ramya Krishnan). In a different town, Madhu(Livingston) and his aunt are an evil pair who don't think twice about killing a blind girl who Madhu has cheated. An old lady Ranganayaki(Jayanthi) warns Madhu's aunt that the baby born to Eeswari will be the cause of her death. She also offers the solution of Madhu marrying Eeswari and never impregnating her so that she never bears a child.

After monkeys and snakes, it is apparently time for elephants to show off their capabilities! So, with the help of cheesy graphics, we are presented with an elephant that is not just a fan of Rajnikanth but watches his movies on the first day, swirls its trunk for a Padaiyappa-style salute and wears a turban Baba-style before fighting with the bad guys. And when its not doing any of those things, it spends its time playing cricket! True to its legendary memory, it has flashbacks and refuses to accept bananas from a kind shopkeeper without paying for them with money it earns by working! The size of the elephant makes it impossible to hide the use of graphics in these scenes, resulting in some really amateurish movie making.

I'm not sure Rama.Narayanan realises it, but his movies seem to end up making the goddess look really ineffective(until the climax ofcourse). For most of the movie here, her devotees endure several things(including being cheated, tortured and and even killed) while the bad guys lead a happy life, all with no intervention of any kind from the goddess. This even though Ramya and Anu are buddies with the goddess, talking to her everyday while she teases them playfully by appearing in disguise! Even after the goddess makes an appearance, she takes her own time extracting revenge on the villains. It is only in the climax that good finally triumphs over evil but that is not the message taken home by someone who walks out of the movie before it ends(which is a very likely possibility!).

Considering the amateurish nature of the rest of the movie, the story itself is very complicated. That by itself isn't a bad thing but the complexity here is driven by the acts of its characters, which are completely illogical. There are definitely much simpler ways for the characters to achieve their ends than the convoluted paths they take here. The movie does admittedly contain a surprise in Jayanthi's motive but the revelation leads to more questions than answers. The less said about the characters the better. For instance, Anu Prabhakar fights for her husband(who has tortured her and proven himself to be evil several times over) by demanding that the goddess get out of the house! Here's a woman who needs her priorities set right!

Its a wonder why Ramya Krishnan, who still looks great and has proved that she can act, is relegated to roles like this. She has the divine and fiery looks needed for the role. Anu Prabhakar is adequate. Livingston relishes his role as the villain while 'Venniradai' Moorthy figures in some crude attempts at comedy. Deva's songs fit the mood of the movie.