Arjuna Phalguna

Arjuna Phalguna is a 2021 Telugu crime comedy written and directed by Teja Marni and produced by Matinee Entertainment, starring Sree Vishnu and Amritha Aiyer. It follows a group of village friends who stumble into cannabis smuggling and then run up against a corrupt system. It was released in cinemas on New Year’s Eve, 31 December 2021.

What the story is about

In a village in East Godavari, five close friends, Arjun, Ram Babu, Thadodu, Oscar and Shravani, share everything. Arjun, a Jr NTR fan, prefers to stay home and help his father with the family dairy business rather than chase better money in a big city. When the village bank moves to seize Thadodu’s house and the manager demands a bribe to hold off, Arjun has to pledge his favourite cow to the village president to borrow ₹50,000. Their attempts to get out of debt lead the friends into far more trouble than they bargained for.

Cast and crew

• Sree Vishnu as Arjuna
• Amritha Aiyer as Sravani
• Naresh as the village sarpanch
• Sivaji Raja as Arjuna’s father
• Subbaraju as DFO Subbaraju
• Rangasthalam Mahesh as Thadodu
• Chaitanya Garikipati as Oscar and Rajkumar Kasireddy as Rambabu

Writer and director: Teja Marni. Production: Matinee Entertainment. Music: Priyadarshan Balasubramanian, with Gaurav Pareek; the soundtrack has eight songs. Runtime: 125 minutes.

Reviews

Critics were largely negative. Y. Sunitha Chowdhary of The Hindu liked Sree Vishnu’s performance but found the film let down by a weak story, writing that “with no chemistry between the lead pair, hardly any emotional heft, a comedy that falls flat” it was “not engaging”. Sakshi gave it two out of five, criticising the direction and routine storyline. Siddartha Toleti of Mirchi9 (1.75 out of five) headlined his review “Clueless Direction”, though he credited some emotional moments, and Eenadu likened the film to the warrior Arjuna trapped in the Padmavyuha, pointing to its weak screenplay and climax.

Where to watch Arjuna Phalguna

Arjuna Phalguna has been streaming on Aha since 26 January 2022 (checked against the platform’s own listing). Availability can vary by region and subscription.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Arjuna Phalguna and the reviews it cites, linked above; Aha’s listing; our own cast and crew records.