Peddi Movie Review: Bold, Bizarre & Unforgettable

In a remote Andhra village that the government refuses to acknowledge on any map, Peddi Pehelwan (Ram Charan) works as a daily-wage laborer by day and wrestles in illegal mud pits by night. His superhuman strength and unorthodox style catch the eye of local strongman Gournaidu (Shiva Rajkumar), who sees in Peddi a weapon to challenge the corrupt bureaucratic system led by Appalasoori (Jagapati Babu). But when a ruthless mining contractor, Kiran Singh Baiswal (Boman Irani), threatens to erase the village entirely, Peddi must channel his athletic gift into a fight for survival-and identity. The plot unfolds through a series of escalating confrontations, both in the wrestling ring and in the political arena, culminating in a final showdown that tests whether raw muscle can defeat systemic erasure.

Let’s start with what works: Ram Charan. The man has transformed his body into a monument of sinew and grit. Every grappling scene, every shoulder tackle, every moment he lifts a boulder or a man-it’s visceral, grounded, and breathtaking. Peddi doesn’t rely on wirework or CGI enhancement; you feel the weight of every throw, the crack of every bone. The wrestling sequences, choreographed with input from real pehelwans, are the film’s undeniable highlight.

Buchi Babu Sana, who gave us Uppena and Virata Parvam, has an eye for texture. The village-muddy, dusty, half-built-feels lived-in. He captures the quiet dignity of laborers, the simmering rage beneath their silence. Janhvi Kapoor as Achiyyamma is underused but effective in her limited emotional beats, especially a scene where she stitches Peddi’s wounds without a word. Shiva Rajkumar brings brooding menace; Jagapati Babu is reliably slimy. Boman Irani, speaking in accented Hindi-Telugu, chews scenery with theatrical glee.

But here’s the rub: 189 minutes is an unforgiving runtime, and Peddi earns every groan it provokes. The first hour is methodical, almost lethargic. A subplot involving Divyendu Sharma as a comic-relief sidekick (Ram Bujji) feels stitched in from a different movie-his wisecracks land with a thud in an otherwise grim narrative. The middle act meanders through bureaucratic montages that, while thematically necessary, lack dramatic momentum. By the time the interval arrives, you’ve seen three training sequences and two political speeches.

The action, when it comes, is exceptional. A sequence where Peddi fights five men in a narrow alley-using farm tools as weapons-is a masterclass in spatial choreography. But between these peaks, the film wallows. Ravi Kishan’s Ranadheer Sisodia, a political heavy introduced in the third act, adds complexity but also another 20 minutes to an already bloated runtime. The TMDb rating of 6.009 reflects this ambivalence: critics admire the ambition, but audiences wince at the padding.

Performances are solid across the board. Ram Charan’s Peddi is not a talkative hero; he communicates through grunts, glances, his body. It’s a performance of immense physical intelligence. But the script doesn’t give him enough quiet moments to reveal vulnerability. Boman Irani’s villain, by contrast, gets florid monologues about “unrecognized people being easier to erase.” The final act devolves into a predictable beatdown-satisfying but emotionally hollow given the build.

Pros

• Ram Charan’s physically committed, career-best performance
• Wrestling and action sequences are raw, kinetic, and brilliantly choreographed
• Strong supporting performances, especially Shiva Rajkumar and Boman Irani
• Thematically bold-tackles statelessness, bureaucratic violence, and caste dynamics
• Buchi Babu Sana’s direction captures rural texture with authenticity

Cons

• 189-minute runtime is excessive; second act drags severely
• Janhvi Kapoor’s character is underwritten and relegated to passive support
• Comic relief (Divyendu Sharma) feels tonally jarring
• Pacing issues: too many training montages and repetitive political scenes
• Third-act resolution feels rushed and formulaic after meticulous build-up

Peddi is a film of muscle and heart, but also of excess. It tries to be both a sports drama and a political epic, and while it succeeds admirably in parts, the whole doesn’t cohere. Ram Charan’s raw, magnetic presence makes it worth a watch for action aficionados. But for the average viewer, the 189-minute runtime demands patience that the screenplay doesn’t always reward. An ambitious, noble failure that leaves you respecting its intent more than its execution. Watch it for Ram Charan’s physical transformation and the stunning wrestling sequences-skip the middle hour.