The Telugu film 'Peddy', which was released worldwide on Thursday, has made a good start at the box office. The film, starring Ram Charan, has earned at least Rs 112 crore worldwide on its first day. The film has earned over Rs 82 crore at the domestic box office alone. 'Peddy' has become the 11th Telugu film to enter the Rs 100 crore club, earning Rs 47 crore from Telugu states alone. Directed by Buchi Babu Sana, 'Peddy' is doing aggressive business initially but has received mixed reviews. 

This is a sports genre film that tells the story of the struggle of workers in Vijayanagar, a hilly region of Andhra Pradesh, in the year 1990. After 30 years of rail blockade in the slum, the tribal workers there are forced to walk long distances to work. Peddy (Ram Charan) is a rebel from the beginning, who initially becomes a local cricketer and later becomes a wrestler. He uses his physical and sports skills as a means of resistance rather than violence. 

In Navbharat Times, Rekha Khan gave ‘Peddy’ a two-and-a-half star rating (out of five) and wrote that although it is the most powerful performance of Ram Charan’s career, it lacks a strong story and screenplay. 

In the Indian media India Today, critic T Maruti Acharya gave ‘Peddy’ three stars out of five and called it ‘a commercial film in which emotion triumphs over logic’. ‘The director forces the audience to listen to the heart more than the brain, and he succeeds in this,’ Acharya writes in his review, ‘The film has given priority to emotion over logic.’ 

He also mentions that AR Rahman’s music also contributes equally to this, and he repeatedly emphasizes the logical weaknesses in the writing. He also praises Peddy’s physical and mental transformation in the character from a simple wage laborer to a wrestler fighting for the identity of the society. At the same time, critic Acharya has raised questions, saying that despite the great potential in the character of Janhvi Kapoor, who plays a young woman with a political background, she has been limited to only charm and glamour. 

Similarly, in The Hindu, Sangeeta Devi Dundu has criticized 'Peddi' as 'a 189-minute long and poorly written film'. However, she has openly praised Ram Charan's acting and Rahman's music in the film and has named 'Peddi' as a film 'worth watching once'.

Sangeeta Devi has mentioned that Ram Charan's physical and emotional transformation from a cricket-playing village boy to a wrestler is commendable. Similarly, she has written that Rahman's background music has made even the weak scenes lively and worth watching and that the film's cinematography is also close to reality. 

But she also considers the screenplay to be the weakness of 'Peddi'. 'The main problem of the film is its writing. The way the suffering and social inequality of the villagers are raised does not touch the audience emotionally. Unlike director Buchi Babu's previous films 'Uppena' or 'Rangasthalam', 'Peddi' does not have the political depth that is found in it.' 

She also commented that Janhvi's character spoiled the pace of the film and accused her of being made 'vulgar' for no reason. Similarly, she mentioned that the roles of other actors in the film, except Ram Charan and Shiva Rajkumar, are only to avoid the bushes and that the VFX and lip-syncing are also bad in many places.

Reviewer Pranati AS in Deccan Herald has commented that this film has 'potential but is weak'. He also argues that Janhvi's character 'Achiyamma' is a 'property' kept only to please the audience and display vulgarity. On the contrary, the film's main character Peddi is portrayed as a character who shows excessive male arrogance in the name of protecting the honor of women, exposing the film's sexism. 

He accused the director of giving a superficial presentation by raising serious issues such as repression, police brutality and systemic oppression. In conclusion, he says, 'The second part of the film is comparatively better than the first part. However, due to the weakness of the screenplay and the inability of the last scene of the film to be effective, the film has not been able to bring its full potential to the screen.' 

However, he praised the teacher-disciple relationship and training scenes between wrestling coach Goranaidu (Shiva Rajkumar) and wrestler Peddi in 'Peddi', saying that they remind him of Hollywood films like 'The Karate Kid' and 'Dragon Ball'. He also wrote that although the set construction of the tribal settlement looks dramatic and artificial, some scenes in the film are visually very good. Pranati said that he did not like Rahman's music in 'Peddi' much. He has mentioned that it may be the weakest music of Rahman's career.

The audience also seems to have divided opinions about 'Peddi' on social media. On X, one writes on the handle 'Venki Reviews', 'Although the first half seems ordinary, the plot and sequence leading to the intermission are the strongest and best aspects of the film.' Another person named Adi Reddy has described Ram Charan's performance as the main attraction of the film and called it the best film of his career.