‘Peddi’ movie review: Ram Charan and AR Rahman power a weakly-written sports drama
The Telugu film 'Peddi', directed by Buchi Babu Sana and starring Ram Charan, is a sports-themed drama centered on the struggles of sugarcane laborers in Andhra Pradesh. Despite strong technical contributions from A.R. Rahman and R. Rathnavelu, the film is criticized for its weak screenplay.
Why it matters
It highlights the ongoing trend of high-budget Indian regional cinema attempting to blend social realism with mainstream sports drama tropes.
Pudathama enti malli? (Will we be born again?), Ram Charan’s character Peddi asks at several points in his new Telugu film directed by Buchi Babu Sana. More statement than question, the line underscores the protagonist’s belief that life comes only once, and his determination to stop at nothing to achieve his goal. Buchi Babu frames Peddi’s fight for his own identity and that of his village like a sports biopic, powered by Ram Charan’s performance, A.R. Rahman’s music and R. Rathnavelu’s evocative visuals. The 189-minute film travels back to the 1990s. When a member of the Indian Olympics Association, played by Boman Irani, witnesses an extraordinary spectacle in and around Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh, he is drawn into Peddi’s story. At its core, the film is centred on the struggles of sugarcane field labourers in the region. Yet, its storytelling borrows liberally from sports dramas across languages, evoking everything from
The review provides a balanced critique of both the film's technical strengths and its narrative weaknesses.
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