Friday Movie Review- Telugu (2025)

Movie: Friday (Independent Film) - 2025

Director: Anand Karanam

Producer: Mani Serenades

Cast: Arjun Jawabnavis, Surya Vamsee, Shashidhar Gopinath & Monica Busam

Music: Nitish John

Cinematography: Simhachalam Alyana

Editor: Praneeth Kumar

Language: Telugu

Streaming Platform: YouTube 

3/5

An Uncanny Yet Intriguingly Captivating Experience 

01. All about 'Friday' & the genre.

Friday- an 43 minute no genre independent film directed by Anand Karanam casting Arjun Jawabnavis, Monica & others is a very uncanny, too strange yet interesting backdrop for a film with this limitation on platform, budget & genre too. 

It's generally about a struggling IT professional Prabhakar (Arjun Jawabnavis) who's bad at work nor having a great personal life too. He suffers from a typical anxiety & insomnia - which is directly affecting his work-life balance. In a parallel world we have an unsuccessful or somewhat unsatisfied maniac filmmaker Guru (Surya Vamsee) who's also suffering from a similar kind of anxiety. There are some eerie & atypical ways for these two to overcome their problems & how it actually works out for them is what you have to watch in the film. 

02. What is actually interesting in the film.

There are many aspects in which this film can be viewed but it solely depends on the audience mood whether to like or unlike the film. But coming to the best things in the film- it's first about the taking & screenplay - being an independent film & having a very limited scope to tell their story - the team brings in a very unconventional method of taking a film yet sounds intriguing. 

Secondly it's the approach - it's neither a one-sided story telling nor a scene by scene cut-take method, it's a film which has a theme that comes in bonus but it's also upto the audience to think about the theme or just view it as such. 

03. What's the theme that's coming as bonus?

The film directly never preaches anything but it's more or less a monologue that's showcasing the morale. It is a very general thing for youngsters to be under pressure for various reasons & it's not at all new to have such eerie lifestyle especially to the one who can relate to Prabhakar's life which also comes with added curses like insomnia, frustration, helplessness & sadism. But what the film tries to tell directly or indirectly is- it is creating a harmful society who work under pressure & have a side track with short term pleasures which is shown symbolically in the film to loosen the piling up pressure. 

The climax shot where Prabhakar has slept because he liked the film & before Guru realised it, he was gone- yet Prabhakar comes in to tell that he loved the film & we have a frame of Lord Padmanabhaswamy with Brahma originating from his navel which reappears saying one is happy only when he does what his heart says to do & also emblematic'lly telling one is reborn again to create a new world from the Gods' womb like Brahma in the frame. 

04. Any flaws? And about technicalities or performances?

Before talking about the flaws lemme first applaud the director for conceiving such uncanny story yet delivering it with confidence. Performances from cast do the prerequisites - especially the leads Arjun Jawabnavis as Prabhakar & Monica as Sara- both standout with limitations & in their respective scenes. 

Music, camera & editing all sound fine as the limited scope is considered. Coming to the flaws - more the unconventional approach greater the chance to dislike a film, as the film progresses one might feel that it is too far from reality but can be excused taking it as mythification. The dubbing was an issue, some parts the action didn't match the dubbing- maybe a mismatch from actor's side. Story might appeal to very few. 

05. At last, overall?

Overall it's a well made film while considering the scope & limitations. For an independent film this is an awesome output. Kudos to the team. It's a good watch- but be careful with the content - it's Adult rated ( However too common for today's generation 😜). If not for anything, it's an interesting flick- can watch it for sure.