About an hour into the Telugu film Buddy, its lead actor Aditya Ram (Allu Sirish) wonders aloud why he often has a saviour complex. This comes after instances when he, as a pilot, has taken control and averted disasters after a nervous air traffic control officer Pallavi (Gayatri Bhardwaj) almost goofs up. In another instance, he assists an air hostess and aspiring pilot (Prisha Rajesh Singh) who panics mid-air. Though such instances play to the stereotype of the hero saving damsels in distress, the self-aware statement of the saviour complex redeems it. It is in these occasional moments that director Sam Anton tries to make Buddy, an adaptation of the Tamil film Teddy directed by Shakti Sounder Rajan, stand out. But the promise fizzles out as the film is mostly content playing to the gallery.
The good things first. Sam Anton retains the essence of Teddy’s story — of the protagonist tracking an organ harvesting racket and the leading lady’s out-of-body experience resulting in her inhabiting the body of a large teddy — but changes everything around it to infuse freshness. An adaptation intending to do something new is appreciable since it can appeal even to those who might have watched the original.
The brewing of romance between Aditya Ram and Pallavi, though initially clumsily written, has an air of mystery as it progresses. Their first meet-cute is silly and it is tough to accept that a new, nervous air traffic control officer is left unmonitored and never pulled up for her near-negligent actions. Well, since logical reasoning and questioning may not augur well in a mainstream film, we go with the flow. In another instance, when a young woman suddenly collapses in a bus and is swiftly whisked away in an ambulance that has miraculously appeared at the same time, no one is suspicious. Again, why look for logical reasoning?
Buddy (Telugu)
The opening sequence of Buddy is also overdrawn and over-explains the obvious. Arjun Kumar Varma (Ajmal) heads an organ trafficking racket in Hong Kong for an organisation ironically named Hope Well Foundation. As though his actions are not enough to clearly spell out his intentions, he underlines that he is not a doctor but a butcher and plays up fearmongering details about identity theft.
The film redeems itself eventually with a hospital sequence involving Pallavi and evokes empathy with the arrival of Buddy, the walking-talking teddy. A child character who does not fear a speaking teddy is a fun addition to the mix, but this character is dispensed with soon.
In the later portions, as Aditya begins to track down the racket, there is ample scope for mind games between him and the shrewd Arjun who is often a few steps ahead of his opponents. There are portions where their game of one-upmanship begins interestingly, but forced comedy tracks by the characters played by Ali and Mukesh Rishi mar the proceedings.
Buddy is also packed with pop culture references — RRR, Kalki and the teddy using the oversized gun that we have seen in several action entertainers in the last couple of years. The teddy’s jealousy towards Prisha Rajesh Singh’s character adds another dimension to an otherwise straightforward romance drama.
By the time good triumphs over evil — after a prolonged mid-air drama that overstays its welcome — Buddy becomes a tedious watch. However, buried underneath a cartload of silly humour lies a potentially entertaining romance and action drama.
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