PEDDI Review - Emotions and Ram Charan's efforts make it a decent sports drama.

Ashwin Ram

Writing/ Direction: The core conflict, which is the politics of Peddi, is on the lines of Dhanush starrer Karnan, where the bus is replaced by a train here. However, the journey and the drama is different here. Shiva Rajkumar utters a dialogue that goes like ‘Winning is not always important, playing matters the most’, this sets the base for Ram Charan’s perseverance in trying out various sports in different stages of his life. Also, the purpose for it is strongly written, which makes the dramatic quotient worthy. Jagapathy Babu plays a vital role in keeping up the story’s emotional value, his scenes make us empathetic towards the subject. The crossover athletics aspect is an interesting idea, but tricky at the same time, thankfully director Buchi Babu Sana’s reasonable writing helps the transitions to be smooth enough, though not perfect. The high moments work well, the elevations done through dialogues are clap worthy and some cinematic implementations used to improve the intent do help in the film’s favour. Downside, the film is lengthy with Jahnvi Kapoor’s love track being absolutely nasty. There is a limit for glamourising a girl and she has been overexposed for no reason here. The screenplay could have been crisper, especially the draggy nature in the first hour demands trimming. The second half moves on a convincing note with enough masala to drive the flick, the graph is also challenging without being so heroic which makes the movie impactful. But the peak moment where the protagonist’s speech takes place on the winning stage, ends up being underwhelming, a couple of points mentioned make sense,  but the overall monologue fails to land.

Performances: Ram Charan is the soul and strength of the movie, his efforts are evident on-screen. He scores big time with his body language, going all-out for the sports angle. Out of the supporting artists, Jagapathy Babu and Shiva Rajkumar have been given important roles, and have done what is exactly needed from them. Boman Irani and the artist who narrates the flashback help for the commercial punch, elevating the hero time and again. Removing Jahnvi Kapoor would not have made any difference in the subject, she is just present physically for some sleaze-fest.

Technicalities:  Technically, the film is a disappointment, starting from AR Rahman’s lacklustre album. Except ‘Chikiri’, the other songs are a dud. The background score is so generic and nowhere near his standards, especially during some fight sequences, the music and the visuals are on completely opposite poles. Rathnavelu’s camera work is a mixed bag, the heroic segments are pleasing, but the grand ones, the portions involving sports miss out on finesse. VFX is also faulty in a bunch of places, such a haphazard work from the concerned team. Navin Nooli’s editing is mediocre, some transition shots are thought-provoking, particular when the racing track shifts to railway track, but the overall runtime should have been worked out for a better engagement.

Verdict: Carries a solid emotional baggage, plus the crossover-athletics is an unexplored concept, however the execution of the sports scenes are just basic. Also takes time to depart due to needless deviations.

PEDDI - Emotions and Ram Charan’s efforts make it a decent sports drama.

Rating - 2.75/ 5.n