Psych Siddhartha Review

Siddharth Reddy, aka Sid (Shree Nandu), loses everything when his business partner Mansoor (Sukesh Reddy) cheats him of crores and his girlfriend Trisha (Priyanka Rebekah Srinivas) leaves him for Mansoor. Broke and homeless, Sid struggles to rebuild his life while looking for a legal way to recover his money, as he has to repay a huge amount to his childhood friend Revanth (Simha N).

Meanwhile, Shravya (Yamini Bhaskar), a victim of domestic violence, divorces her husband and moves into Sid's neighbourhood as a single mother. As Sid fights his personal and financial battles, Trisha tries to return to his life. However, at the same time, an unexpected bond begins to grow between Sid and Shravya.

Psych Siddhartha is dark comedy. Sid is used, abused and humiliated like a not-so-street-smart man would be in the daily hustle of life. And he is no alpha male, yet you somehow still do not empathise with him that much while watching his journey. In fact, you find two victims of circumstances here - Sid and Shravya. One is a man who has been ditched, and the other is a wronged and divorced woman. Both of them have also gone through an ample share of childhood abuse - sexual and otherwise. However, the film does not take the route of masculine justice seen in Animal, or feminine justice as in The Girlfriend. Instead, it makes fun of both subjects in a "you're no unique snowflake" manner. Evidently, the film is anti-climactic.

Dark comedy, aka black humour, has only a few takers, especially in India. Creating comedy out of taboo and tragedy is difficult and not palatable to everyone. It has its niche. Director Varun Reddy perhaps understands it a tad more than the average Telugu filmmaker. From the very beginning, he stops appeasing the masses and starts defying the Tollywood formulas and grammar. The film looks and sounds like an atypical Telugu movie much before it actually begins. It even gives a quirky treatment to the mandatory statutory cancer awareness ad.

Indeed, here style (treatment) is everything. If the director had made a wrong move, the film might still have been a comedy, but it could have slipped into DJ Tillu territory rather than remaining a niche black comedy. The movie also does not waste time being preachy or slapstick, and wraps up briskly in two hours.

The result is a coming-of-age film (for a 40-something, not a teen), where the protagonist undergoes his rite of passage and realises that "a man has enough for his needs, but nothing for his greed". He bids goodbye to the hustle and starts living in the moment, doing what he loves - call it random gigs or whatever.

If you are used to watching Telugu films regularly, you might notice several loose ends. The central character, Sid, reveals very little about his past, and the same goes for Shravya and Revanth. There is no explanation or justification for how they landed in their respective situations. But once you realise that the film itself is anti-climactic, you begin to overlook these misses and start loving the moments - what you might call "living in the moment" in a cinema. As a result, the movie remains eerily entertaining throughout.

This film is Nandu's best yet. He excels in every mould he is placed in - naive, caring, lovable and wacky. He is anything but boring. Yamini plays the role of a stoic single mother well, though her character does not have much of an arc.

Priyanka's character, on the other hand, is unpredictable and colourful. At one moment she is a gold digger, at another a longing girlfriend, and in yet another situation she is confused about what she is actually after. Simha's character is sandwiched between many pressures, especially between his nagging wife and his miserable friend Sid. He plays the character of a loser friend and an intimidated husband adorably well.

There is not much to boast about in terms of the movie's visual technicalities. The cinematography is decent and the editing is crisp - that is about it. However, after a long time, you will find yourself enjoying the songs, composed by Smaran Sai. They are atypical, yet sound trippily good. The tracks "Blue Yellow" and "Friendship Song" are especially noteworthy. They are not hummable, but they are a pleasure to listen to.

We do not know how the year ahead will shape up, but it has begun on a good note with Psych Siddharth. The movie is honest, funny (often darkly so), and definitely entertaining for a niche that loves the genre. I am sure Psych Siddharth will find its audience over time, but for now, it deserves your money, too.