Gurram Paapi Reddy (2025): Why This Dark Comedy Around A Dead Body Actually Works
Gurram Paapi Reddy (2025) is a Telugu dark comedy with a crime backbone, led by Naresh Agastya and Faria Abdullah under Murali Manohar Reddy’s direction. It sells itself as a loud, messy, small-town story where a graveyard job goes sideways and everyone involved pays for it in chaos and laughs.
Premise and tone
The story revolves around a shady operator who ropes in a small gang to dig up and swap a buried corpse, promising them an easy score. Once they reach the grave and realise they have not been told the full truth, paranoia, infighting and a chain of bad decisions kick off.
Most of the film plays in that darkly comic space where crime, superstition and ego collide. It has the feel of a village tale told in the style of a heist movie, with humour coming from how foolishly the “smart” people behave.
Characters and performances
Naresh Agastya’s Paapi Reddy is written as a volatile local strongman who is feared, mocked and occasionally pitied by his own people. He gets to swing between swagger, desperation and sincere panic, which keeps the character from becoming a one-note caricature.
Faria Abdullah’s Saudamini brings energy and sharp timing, cutting through the chaos instead of just reacting to the men. Add Yogi Babu, Brahmanandam and a bunch of oddballs in the crew and rival gangs, and you get a cast that lives off reaction shots, bickering and running gags.
Writing, direction and craft
Murali Manohar Reddy clearly aims for a new-age comedy rather than a safe village drama. The writing leans into stupidity-driven humour: plans that are too clever for their own good, people lying without thinking two moves ahead, and small mistakes blowing up into big problems.
The camera work and music back that tone with colourful frames, punchy edits and tracks that don’t take themselves too seriously. The forest and graveyard stretches look distinct enough to give the film its own texture instead of feeling like recycled locations.
What works
The film’s biggest plus is its setup: a corpse heist in the Srisailam region, multiple parties chasing the same body and a judge trying to make sense of it all. That alone gives room for both tension and absurdity.
The banter between the core four – Paapi Reddy, Saudamini, Military and Chilipi – lands more often than it misses, especially when their fear clashes with greed. When the script stays focused on their misadventures, the film feels quick, scrappy and genuinely fun.
Where it slips
At 2 hours 40 minutes, the story sometimes stretches jokes and detours longer than needed. A couple of side tracks and flashbacks could have been tightened without losing any flavour.
The emotional beats around power, guilt and consequences occasionally get drowned in the noise of gags. Viewers looking for deeper commentary on violence or rural politics may feel the film skims instead of cuts deep.
Audience reception and vibe
From the teasers, trailer and pre-release buzz, Gurram Paapi Reddy has been framed as a “support this kind of cinema” title by its own team. That push is not just marketing; this really sits closer to MAD, Mathu Vadalara-type experiments than formula mass films.
Public chatter so far highlights the crazy premise, Brahmanandam’s judge track and the general dose of stupidity and twists as the main selling points. It is the kind of film that lives or dies on word of mouth from people who like offbeat Telugu comedies.
Overall verdict
Gurram Paapi Reddy (2025) is a scruffy, energetic dark comedy built around a strong hook, a game cast and a director willing to lean into absurdity. It stumbles in places with length and uneven depth, but if you enjoy twisted village capers with loud characters and corpse-fuelled humour, this one is worth giving a shot.
Rating: 4/5
