Peddi

On the whole, PEDDI rests on Ram Charan’s terrific performance and a few massy, clapworthy scenes. However, the film suffers due to substandard writing, laughable developments and a stretched narrative.

Ultimately, Peddi belongs entirely to Ram Charan, whose performance carries the film from start to finish. This is not a typical commercial entertainer but a story-driven drama that relies heavily on its emotional core.

At its heart, Peddi is not merely a sports drama but a story about dignity, identity and the fight for recognition. Buchi Babu Sana crafts an emotional underdog tale that follows Peddi (Ram Charan), a talented cricketer whose dreams are repeatedly thwarted by caste discrimination.

Buchi Babu Sana comes into his second film with a genuinely interesting idea at its core, and Ram Charan makes the most of it. But at 189 minutes, Peddi carries too much weight in the wrong places, and not enough where it counts.

Peddi brings forth a very important conversation in the trappings of a commercial film. How much should a person in this country lose, and how many pieces of themselves must they sacrifice to get something that should’ve been their birthright?

If only Peddi had matched its ambition with sharper writing, it might have been truly memorable. Instead, it remains a messy, uneven drama held together by a committed lead performance and a stirring musical score.

Directed by Buchi Babu Sana, who previously helmed the acclaimed Uppena, this ambitious multi-sport saga arrives with immense expectations and largely delivers on them, anchored by a jaw-dropping central performance and a story that refuses to settle for easy victories.