Spy (2023 film)
Spy is a 2023 Indian Telugu-language action spy film directed and edited by Garry BH (in his directorial debut) from a story written by K. Rajashekhar Reddy, who also produced the film. It stars Nikhil Siddhartha, Iswarya Menon, Abhinav Gomatam, Aryan Rajesh, Ravi Varma and Sachin Khedekar.[1]
| Spy | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical Release Poster | |
| Directed by | Garry BH |
| Screenplay by | Anirudh Krishnamurthy |
| Dialogues by |
|
| Story by | K. Rajashekhar Reddy |
| Produced by | K. Rajashekhar Reddy |
| Starring | Nikhil Siddharth Iswarya Menon Abhinav Gomatam |
| Cinematography | Vamsi Patchipulusu Mark David Julian Amaru Estrada Keiko Nakahara Manojh Reddy (1 song) |
| Edited by | Garry BH |
| Music by | Vishal Chandrasekhar Sricharan Pakala |
Production company | ED Entertainments |
Release date | 29 June 2023 |
Running time | 135 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Telugu |
Spy was released worldwide on 29 June 2023 and received negative reviews from critics.
Plot
RAW agents Jai Vardhan, Kamal and NIA agent Vaishnavi embark on a mission to find the person responsible for the death of Jai's elder brother and fellow RAW agent Subhash Vardhan. They are also given a mission to trace the notorious terrorist, Khadir Khan, who along with a Pakistani scientist Abdur Rahman is planning to unleash a deadly plot to tarnish the reputation of India.
Cast
- Nikhil Siddharth as RAW agent Jai Vardhan, Subhash's younger brother
- Iswarya Menon as NIA agent Vaishnavi, Jai's love interest
- Abhinav Gomatam as RAW agent Kamal, Jai's colleague and friend
- Sanya Thakur as RAW agent Saraswati
- Aryan Rajesh as RAW agent Subhash Vardhan, Jai's elder brother
- Makrand Deshpande as RAW Chief Shastri
- Ravi Varma as RAW agent Kuldeep
- Sachin Khedekar as Prime Minister Vikramaditya Chauhan
- Posani Krishna Murali as Principal Secretary Naidu
- Suresh as Army Chief VK Nair
- Dayanand Reddy as National Security Advisor Charan Ramaswamy
- Nithin Mehta as Khadir Khan
- Jisshu Sengupta as Abdur Rahman
- Abhijeeth Poondla as Sleeper agent Akram
- Krishna Teja as Eddy, Shastri’s Assistant
- Prisha Singh as Rahman’s daughter
- Tanikella Bharani as Subhash and Jai's father
- Madhumani as Subhash and Jai's mother
- Rana Daggubati in a cameo appearance as Arjun
- Chandu Kanuri as Kabir
Soundtrack
| Spy | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | |
| Released | 11 June 2023 |
| Genre | Film soundtrack |
| Language | Telugu |
| Label | Junglee Music |
The soundtrack album of the film is composed by Vishal Chandrasekhar and Sricharan Pakala, while Sricharan Pakala composed the film score. The music rights of the film were acquired by Junglee Music. The first track from the album, "Jhoom Jhoom", released on 11 June 2023, followed by the second track, "Azaadi", on 25 June 2023.
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Jhoom Jhoom" (Backing vocals: Pitty Vikram, Sai Vignesh, Shibi Srinivasan, Sridhar Ramesh, Devu Mathew, Feji Ashwin, Priya Sampath) | Kittu Vissapragada | Vishal Chandrasekhar | Anurag Kulkarni, Ramya Behara | 4:46 |
| 2. | "Azaadi" (Backing vocals: Sricharan Pakala, Gyaani) | Krishna Chaitanya | Sricharan Pakala | Kaala Bhairava | 3:39 |
Release
The film was released on 29 June 2023 in Telugu, along with the dubbed versions of Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada languages. The digital distribution rights of the film were brought by Amazon Prime Video for all languages. The film premiered on July 27, 2023 in all languages.[2]
Reception
Neeshita Nyayapati of The Times of India gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Garry’s film has its heart in the right place, but it lacks the spunk to stand out."[3] Latha Srinivasan of India Today gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Spy is a thriller that tries to be a desi Jason Bourne but sorely misses."[4]
Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu wrote a review stating, "Spy tries to ride on the nationalistic sentiment but ends up as a bore without a solid story in place."[5] Raghu Bandi of The Indian Express gave it 1 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Nikhil Siddhartha-starrer Spy is a failure mostly due to bad writing and lack of seriousness in presenting the story."[6]
Abhilasha Cherukuri of The New Indian Express gave it 1 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Spy is a crude and visually impoverished film that reduces Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose to a clickbait."[7] A critic from The Hans India gave it 1.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Spy ticks all spy genre-related cliches and serves them in a screenplay with nonstop action. Only here, the ‘action’ neither thrills nor awes. It is as bland as it comes."[8]
References
- "Will the release of the much-anticipated pan India movie 'Spy' be postponed due to reported differences between Nikhil Siddhartha and the producer?". Archived from the original on 2023-06-24. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2023-07-04. Retrieved 2023-07-04.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - "Spy Movie Review : This story of a spy lacks spunk". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 4 July 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
- "Spy Movie Review: This Nikhil Siddhartha film is a thriller riddled with loopholes". India Today. Archived from the original on 2023-06-29. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
- "'Spy' movie review: A patchy attempt at a thriller with a story steeped in cliches". Archived from the original on 2023-06-30. Retrieved 2023-07-04.
- "Spy review: Nikhil Siddhartha-starrer is an avoidable film". The Indian Express. 29 June 2023. Archived from the original on 1 July 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
- "'Spy' Telugu film review: An excruciating actioner with clumsy and fraudulent storytelling". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 4 July 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
- "Nikhil's 'Spy' movie review". www.thehansindia.com (in Telugu). 29 June 2023. Archived from the original on 4 July 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.