‘Arjun Phalguna’, crime comedy goes for a toss
Hyderabad: ‘Arjuna Phalguna’ is an attempt to make a proper crime comedy set in a village of present-day coastal Andhra. It’s a story about five happy-go-lucky friends among whom are Sree Vishnu and Amritha Aiyer playing the lead pair. All the five friends face a common challenge of sorts at their homes after coming out […]
Hyderabad: ‘Arjuna Phalguna’ is an attempt to make a proper crime comedy set in a village of present-day coastal Andhra. It’s a story about five happy-go-lucky friends among whom are Sree Vishnu and Amritha Aiyer playing the lead pair.
All the five friends face a common challenge of sorts at their homes after coming out of college. Amritha lands a job in the village while Mahesh Achanta in the gang has plans to migrate to the city in search of livelihood. But Sree Vishnu dissuades his friend from leaving the village. He devises a plan and makes his friends believe that it would change their fortunes. Circumstances back home force them to join hands to try their luck at an illegal deal.
Soon they realise that an impending danger is staring at them. Subbaraju along with his policemen keeps hunting down the gang. The events make them realise that it is inevitable for all the five to defeat the antagonist in his own game to save their faces in the village. How they come out of this seemingly dark abyss – is the story to be explored in the second half.
Director Teja Marni made his directorial debut with ‘Johar’, a film based on India’s freedom movement, which was released last year on the OTT platform and garnered mixed reviews. This time, Teja wanted to tell a story set in a village backdrop. Taking a diversion, he drifted a bit from his debut to make a crime comedy with a commercial template – but it ends up tad uninspiring with threads tied loosely. Unlike shown in the trailer, the gang members led by Sree Vishnu are neither easy going nor honest-brave lads, they’re conniving and manipulative to earn easy bucks.
Coming to the actors, Amritha Aiyer, who plays the love interest of Sree Vishnu, does well but with a very less screen space, she is forgettable. Other actors Mahesh Achanta and senior actor Naresh did well putting up good performances. The soundtrack rendered by Priyadarshan Balasubramanian looks fresh and it would have given required push if the story had more substance. The film is marred with convenient screenplay and dialogues that lack freshness.
Sree Vishnu’s last outing ‘Raja Raja Chora’ was an encouraging stimulus when it was receiving a rousing positive reviews at the box office. A more crisp script will have helped his performance in ‘Arjuna Phalguna’.
Movie: Arjuna Phalguna
Cast: Sree Vishnu, Amritha Aiyer, Naresh
Director: Teja Marni
Music: Priyadarshan Balasubramanian
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