A cricketer, a wrestler, a runner — and one of the most committed acting performances Telugu cinema has seen in years. Peddi is flawed, uneven, and absolutely worth watching for its star alone.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ — 3/5 | Verdict: Worth Watching — For Charan Alone
Director: Buchi Babu Sana | Music: AR Rahman | DOP: Rathnavelu | Release: June 4, 2026
There are films that are great. There are films that have great performances. And then, occasionally, there are films where a single performance is so overwhelming — so physically committed, so emotionally raw, so completely all-in — that it lifts an imperfect movie onto its shoulders and carries it somewhere special. Peddi is that third kind of film.
Ram Charan, post-Oscar, post-global superstardom, post-everything — comes into Peddi and delivers the most grounded, transformative, human performance of his career. This is not movie-star acting. This is acting. And for that alone, Peddi demands to be seen.
The story — village, identity and the dream of a railway halt
Set in a Vizianagaram village in the 1990s, Peddi follows a cricketer-for-hire in a village so off the map it does not even exist in government records. Its people have no official identity. No papers. No recognition. They are, in the eyes of the state, nobody.
Jagapathi Babu’s character, Appalasuri, has spent years fighting for a simple thing: a railway halt. Not a station. A halt. And he cannot get it because the village does not officially exist. When that fight is taken up by Peddi — pushed into it by love, by loss, by something that wakes up inside him — the film finds its emotional spine. From that point on, Peddi stops being a sports drama and becomes something rarer: a film about dignity.
Ram Charan — three sports, one career-best
🏏 Cricket — The hired gun: sharp, mercenary, magnetic 🤼 Wrestling — The transformation: raw, bruising, unforgettable 🏃 Sprint — The redemption: lean, desperate, beautiful
His physical transformation for the wrestling sequences is jaw-dropping. His Uttarandhra dialect is authentic enough to convince. But it is in the quieter moments — the grief, the shame, the slow rebuilding of purpose — that Charan shows something his earlier films never quite asked of him. Vulnerability. And he delivers it without flinching.
The supporting cast — powerful in parts, wasted in others
Jagapathi Babu reappears in Charan’s universe as an idealist — gentle, worn down, heartbreaking. His pre-interval sequences carry genuine emotional weight. His exit from the story, however, is handled with less care than the character deserved.
Shiva Rajkumar as mentor Gavarnaidu makes a strong impression. Janhvi Kapoor plays the village belle with warmth in the first half but practically disappears from the second — her romance track feels front-loaded and disconnected from the film’s emotional core. Boman Irani’s framing device strains credulity from the first scene and never recovers.
✅ What Works
- Ram Charan’s career-defining performance
- The wrestling and cricket sequences
- Rahman’s background score — emotionally devastating in key moments
- The village-identity premise — powerful and original
- Rathnavelu’s kinetic sports cinematography
- A climax that earns every tear it draws
❌ What Doesn’t
- A sluggish first hour that plays like a template entertainer
- Janhvi Kapoor’s underwritten, disposable romance track
- Boman Irani’s illogical framing device
- Uneven pacing that creates highs and lows rather than momentum
- Large ensemble cast wasted in blink-and-miss roles
The final verdict
Here is the truth about Peddi: it is not a great film. It is an uneven film with a great performance at its centre. The first hour tests your patience. The logic occasionally tests your credulity.
And then the final thirty minutes arrive — and they are devastating in the best possible way. Ram Charan, physically transformed, emotionally exposed, running toward something that matters more than victory — is a sight that will stay with you long after the lights come on.
Bottom Line: A flawed film carried to glory by one extraordinary man. Go for Charan. Stay for the climax.
