Buddy Movie Review: A beaten-to-death soul exchange actioner

In his Telugu debut, director Sam Anton attempts a buddy action thriller with a do-it-all pilot played by Allu Sirish and a teddy bear. The film’s core premise is a love story between pilot Aditya Ram and air traffic controller Pallavi, played by Gayatri Bharadwaj. The classic secret identity love story is established as the foundation for the film; Pallavi and Aditya connect during their radio chat, but the latter doesn't know the former. How her disappearance is connected to an international organ trade forms the plot.

Director: Sam Anton

Cast: Allu Sirish, Gayatri Bharadwaj, Ajmal Ameer, Ali, Mukesh Rishi

Most aspects of the story are undoubtedly aimed at kids, including an incarnation angle that is created in a whiff without any major hassle. After a brief YouTube explainer of sorts by the usual Babas and alternate doctors, we get the yawn-inducing revelation that Pallavi is now a teddy bear, the titular Buddy, in the film.

The initial 45 minutes that the film takes to build Aditya and Pallavi’s love story appear cartoonish, mainly because of the excessive green screen and the lacklustre background blending work. Barely any visual of the flying scenes convinces you that this film came after 2010. The itchy part is the colour grading, the unusual green tones, the supersaturation, and the fake skin tones that instantly turn you off. Yet, when you still decide to buy the love story, quite immediately the film drops you into the supernatural arena.

The unconvincing part of the teddy bear entertainment bits, like when the teddy mouths meme dialogues, Telugu colloquial references, and screams “Jai Balayya” as a war cry, is that Pallavi is not an entertaining character to begin with. When the film starts, Pallavi is the most vanilla, plainly cardboard heroine who needs hand-holding in many areas of life. But suddenly, as a Teddy bear, she blazes guns, fights bad guys, dances to 'Naatu Naatu,' and throws punches one after another. Now, I understand the teddy bear entertainment, you have an unusual character in the film; why not make the most fun with it? The problem is that the personality of Pallavi is a complete mismatch with her Teddy Bear avatar, and by the time you stop worrying about this, the film goes off at all tangents possible.

Pilot Aditya Ram, played by Allu Sirish, is the quintessential Telugu/Tamil hero who can fly planes, fight bad guys, be the mastermind, and chase an international criminal nexus, even as he has no idea that his love story is the main problem he is solving. His character has barely any motivation to go to such lengths to protect a teddy bear. Neither do the two of them share such a strong friendship, nor is his character a saint. The film takes so many cinematic liberties that you know that the incarnation is the smallest of its problems.

The film also has comedian Ali, Mukesh Rishi, and Ajmal Ameer who stick to the lines they are given. Ali barely has any presence in the film, with his usual double-entendres and shocked expressions. Mukesh Rishi is given an abysmal elevation fight scene where he reminds us that he used to be the most dangerous villain back in the day. Most of these scenes don’t even produce a chuckle. Now, if these scenes were aimed at kids, this doesn’t make any sense. Ali’s comedy on the machine gun borders on sexual humour and seems tasteless even for adults.

But to their credit, the writers Sam Anton and Sai Hemanth strive to create a believable escapism where the story tries its best to stay rooted in the love story. Had the love story been shot persuasively, the film would have worked with emotional connection. The sentimental drag in the climax is two more minutes away from a gentle nap for the audience. It’s not that the film is a complete borefest either—the teddy bear entertainment scenes might work just enough for kids, although the adults would swiftly open their smartphones and laugh at dubbed Telugu memes.

Hiphop Tamizha delivers a violin-heavy score, and the theme for the romance doesn’t impress. The best part of the film is that there aren't many songs, and that puts you in your seat as you watch the story unfold most predictably. The cinematography by Krishnan Vasant disturbs you with the odd lighting choices and the grading. The editing by Ruben doesn’t help create a tight thriller pace. The interval split screen technique with photos of all characters reminds you of early 2000s films.

Overall, this buddy action film reminds us yet again that Allu Sirish has an eye for eye-grabbing subjects. While watching the love story in this film, I couldn’t help but remember Allu Sirish’s Okka Kshanam (2017), directed by Vi Anand, where the love story effort displayed was awe-inspiring, although the film took cinematic leaps. That film too takes its time to engage but pulls you in and gratifies your yearning for those characters. Allu Sirish has a great eye for picking subjects that his contemporaries wouldn’t even attempt. But Buddy needed more technical finesse to create a compelling narrative.