Arthamainda Arun Kumar Review: Now streaming on aha Telugu, the 5 episodes of the latest series star Harshith Reddy, Ananya, Tejaswi Madivada and others in pivotal roles, and has been directed by Jonathan Edwards. Serving as the official remake of Arré Studio’s Official Chukyagiri, the new adaptation offers a fresh take on corporate drama.
Harshith Reddy essays the titular role of Arun Kumar, a novice intern trying to carve his path and make it big in metropolitan city of Hyderabad. As expected, he struggles to leave his mark at a leading company, and on coming face to face with his corporate job’s higher-ups, he constantly feels like an alienated outsider trying to fit in.
Arthamainda Arun Kumar Review Does Not Contain Spoilers
Arthamainda Arun Kumar Review: Discussion
It’s always an enthralling thought to watch office politics unravel in a drama series. And, since there is an ample number of comedy series already looking into this matter across various languages, one would hope to only have another title joining the list of workplace dramas with a new approach. Unfortunately, the aha Telugu original series falters there, and becomes a prey to a lacuna of originality in its content.
From the get go, as the viewer lays eyes on the four main faces of the show, they can instantly grasp all that is about to unfold between these characters, and of course, the same old same old fleshes out again. With a skewed love-quadrilateral in place, the series doesn’t even justify the romantic subplots as its progresses, which seemed to have been incorporated into the story only to fulfil the seeming expectation that this is at least what the general viewer expects of such storylines.
Throughout the episodes, the web series, also spelled as Arthamaindha Arun Kumar, inconsistently jumps from one genre, theme and context to the other to fit in as many aspects of the said titular protagonist’s life as possible. There’s comedy, drama, politics and whatnot, but none of it emerges as a fulfilling fit in the end.
Arun’s character first meets with a senior, who basically bullies him to some extent and drags him into his team, while assigning him untimely personal errands, reducing the whole picture to a stereotypical arc since the main character is an intern. Despite probing into that stereotype, the series makes no effort whatsoever to problematise or fathom deep into the issue so introduced.
He then goes on to meet two women with starkly opposing personalities, and completely different positions in the office, with one of them being a division’s boss, and the other a regular employee working under her. Even their appearances are strategically made to look poles apart as to highlight their personas. The boss (Tejaswi Madivada) is made to look like an ambitious woman, an otherwise uncaring one, but who also gives into her sensual pleasures.
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While on the opposite end of the spectrum, Ananya portrays the “simple” and caring woman who supports Arun along the way. We all know how this story moves forward. As mentioned earlier, this series simply gets consumed by the stereotypes it builds on its journey, reducing each of these characters into caricatures that the audience just can’t connect with on any level despite the original premise of the narrative being built around the corporate workplace, i.e. a realistic and familiar space to the average working class member.
Final Thoughts
Other profound antitheses are drawn between the city vs countryside and fake vs real relationships or friendships discourse. However, they fall flat in the midst of a generally glamorous depiction of the corporate world that has no intentions of humanising its characters. Beating around the bush, all 5 episodes ultimate culminate with a superficial account of the supposed struggles faced by Arun in this new setting.
With endless catalogues filled with workplace dramas or comedies, there are a lot of titles out there that address the issue at hand with a more personal touch. You can check out the webseries if you’re fascinated by the ensemble star cast, but other than that, I for one, couldn’t even empathise with the main protagonist of the story.
Ardhamayyindha Arun Kumar starts streaming on aha Telugu on June 30, 2023.
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