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Thammudu (2025): A Sibling Saga That Falls Short

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Thammudu

Thammudu, directed by Venu Sriram, Nithiin plays Jay, a focused archer chasing a gold medal at the 2025 Archery World Cup. His dreams collapse after a deadly factory blast in Visakhapatnam. While his IAS officer sister Jhansi (Laya Gorty) digs into the disaster and uncovers corporate crime, Jay is pulled into a deadly web of threats and cover-ups. The film mixes action, survival drama, and family emotion, and runs for 2 hours and 34 minutes. It aims for an intense, emotional ride but leans on worn-out tropes, which led to mixed-to-negative reviews and a weak box-office run.

A Strong Start That Promises More Than It Gives

The film opens with a fiery factory explosion in Vizag that instantly grabs your attention. Venu Sriram, coming off the serious legal drama Vakeel Saab, sets up a gripping first stretch that feels raw, loud, and grounded in real-world tragedy.

Nithiin’s Jay steps out of the chaos as an unlikely hero. He is a sharp and disciplined archer on the field, but messy and distracted in his personal life. His bond with Jhansi, played by Laya Gorty, becomes the heart of the story. Their nervous teasing over chai, sudden arguments, and fierce loyalty feel natural and familiar to anyone who enjoys sibling stories in Telugu cinema.

Their relationship, warm one moment and tense the next, feels lived-in and believable. It recalls the emotional tone of films like Athadu, but with a more current setup and stakes. As Jhansi starts digging into the factory incident, she runs into a larger conspiracy driven by industrial tycoon Azarwal, played by Saurabh Sachdeva with cold, controlled anger. At this point, the script hints at a tight mix of family emotion and corporate thriller.

Shot in the rugged Maredumilli forests and around busy Visakhapatnam ports, the film gets strong support from K.V. Guhan’s camerawork. Everyday places start to feel unsafe and tense, and the visual style gives the early portions a pressure-filled, gripping mood.

A Story That Loses Focus After a Strong Setup

After that promising start, Thammudu starts to slip. Much like Jay’s off-target arrows, the story drifts away from its core and struggles to regain balance.

The main idea, a brother doing everything he can to protect his sister from a ruthless system, has plenty of scope. Instead of building on that, the film falls back on a standard revenge template. Venu Sriram’s writing, which already echoed similar beats in MCA where family duty outruns logic, repeats some of the same patterns here.

Too many side tracks crowd the main story. There is a shallow romance with Sapthami Gowda that never feels earned, comic bits involving Varsha Bollamma that feel pushed in, and a villain track for Azarwal that could fit into several other commercial action dramas without any change.

The aftermath of the blast could have offered a sharp look at industrial safety, corporate greed, and government failure. Instead, the film explains most of it through long dialogues and on-the-nose reveals. Twists arrive exactly when you expect them to, so tension drops instead of rising.

By the middle act, the drama gets louder but not deeper. Jhansi’s moral conflicts and Jay’s guilt and trauma turn into heavy-handed flashbacks and teary speeches. Swasika Vijay brings some weight as a whistleblower who risks everything to tell the truth, but her track is brief and underused. Hari Teja appears as a family confidante, yet her character only adds more conversations without changing the story.

With a runtime that stretches beyond two and a half hours, the film starts to feel tiring. The pace slows, the conflict repeats, and key arguments between the siblings are solved through convenient, long monologues instead of organic emotion. You feel the length instead of the intensity.

Nithiin Shines While the Rest of the Ensemble Wobbles

Nithiin is the film’s biggest strength and almost its only consistent asset. He brings both vulnerability and rage to Jay, and you believe his shift from a self-centered sportsman to a fierce protector. His screen presence carries several scenes that might have fallen flat with a weaker lead.

The archery-based action set pieces are a highlight. Choreographed by Vikram Mor and Real Satish, they have style and rhythm, with neat slow-motion shots and sharp, grounded impact. A standout chase sequence in rain-soaked Vizag lanes shows Nithiin at his best, as he sells panic and urgency with little dialogue, relying on his expressions and body language.

Laya Gorty does solid work as Jhansi. She brings calm strength and quiet fire to the part, especially in the investigation and courtroom scenes. You can sense a more powerful character under the surface that the script never fully taps into.

Saurabh Sachdeva plays Azarwal with flair, chewing the scenery in a way that fits this kind of story. His accent and measured delivery give the villain an unsettling presence. Still, the writing around him is far too familiar, and that limits the impact of his performance.

The rest of the cast does not get much to work with. Sapthami Gowda’s romantic angle feels like an afterthought. Varsha Bollamma, usually reliable with humor, is stuck with weak one-liners and overdone reactions. Srikanth Iyyengar pops in as a bureaucrat several times, but those scenes feel like padding rather than key turning points.

Music, Visual Style, and Technical Flaws

B. Ajaneesh Loknath’s background score swings between effective and overwhelming. The electronic beats and folk touches add punch to action stretches and chase scenes. The title track, “Thammudu,” leans into sibling bonds and nostalgia, and these moments cut through the noise of the script.

Visually, the film has polish. Sameer Reddy’s work on the forest-survival portions stands out, with shafts of light cutting through thick foliage and a strong sense of isolation and danger. Those scenes give the film a rugged, immersive feel that the writing does not always match.

On the flip side, Prawin Pudi’s editing often feels choppy. Sudden cuts break the flow during key confrontations and reduce the buildup of suspense. G.M. Sekhar’s production design sometimes drifts into glossy, over-styled sets that clash with the supposed grit of a story about industrial tragedy and systemic failure.

Cast and Crew

Lead Cast:

Crew:

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) granted Thammudu an A (Adults Only) certificate because of its frequent and intense violence.

Release and Availability

The producers sold Thammudu as a big-screen experience centered on archery-based action and strong emotions. The team shot most of the film on real locations in and around Visakhapatnam and border forest regions, wrapping principal photography in early 2025.

Reception

Thammudu received mixed-to-negative feedback from both critics and general audiences. Reviewers praised Nithiin’s committed performance, the energetic background score, and a few standout action scenes. At the same time, they pointed to a weak script, predictable story beats, uneven tone, and a surprising lack of emotional punch for a film built on sibling bonds.

Many viewers described it as an “endurance test” rather than a gripping thriller. The film repeats some themes from Venu Sriram’s earlier work but falls short in how those ideas are written and staged. Box-office performance reflected this lukewarm response.

Final Verdict: Aiming High, Landing Low

Thammudu has all the right pieces on paper: a sharp look at power abuse, a strong brother-sister bond, and a lead actor who gives it everything. With a tighter script and more focus, it could have been a standout Telugu thriller in 2025.

Instead, Venu Sriram reaches for too much at once. Stylized action that often ignores physics, overblown emotion that does not stick, and a crowded narrative turn a promising story into a frustrating watch. The film keeps telling you how high the stakes are, but you rarely feel them.

For Nithiin fans, Thammudu works as a performance showcase, especially if you enjoy action set pieces and intense character moments. For casual viewers, it might be easier to catch it on Netflix or JioHotstar instead of sitting through the full theatrical runtime.

iBomma Rating: 2/5.

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