Satyadev, Anandhi's webseries Arabia Kadali generated interest among movie lovers as the story is penned by creative director Krish. V.V. Surya Kumar directed the webseries which is streaming on Amazon Prime on 8 Aug 2025. Let us see what impact the webseries created on movie lovers.
Arabia Kadali story is all about fishermen who venture into the troubled waters unknowingly and landup as prisoners in the enemy nation. Nuragala Badiri (Satyadev) who is educated fisherman from Chepalavada, along with other fishermen from Matyawada head to Gujarat for better fishing opportunities as they lack basic equipment like the jetties.
However their dreams of making a fortune in the shores of Arabian sea ends up in a nightmare. What is the nightmare and how they come out of it and what role Badri's lady love Ganga (Aanandhi) played form the interesting part of the narration.
Satyadev is known for his impressive performances and he makes his presence felt. He came up with realistic expressions and emotions and with his screen presence carried the film to another level. He showed variations according to the situation expressing love, pain and various emotions as per the situation.
Anandhi is good in the role of Satyadev's lover. She showed the pain while missing her lover and emoted well making an impact on the viewers with her expressions and emotions. Harsh Roshan is growing in stature and he came up with commendable performance.
Kota Jayaram got a good role and he made it count. Surabhi Prabhavati is good on the screen. However, experienced stars like Nasser and Dalip Tahel got limited roles. Others performed according to their characters.
Arabia Kadali story is penned by Krish along with Chintakindi Srinivas Rao. The mere mention of his name generated interest on the series. The series comesup with 8 episodes. The series is helmed by VV.Surya Kumar. The synopsis of the story itself brings back the memories of Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi's hit film Thandel directed by Chandoo Mondeti.
Krish and Chitankindi Srinivas Rao tried to explore the realistic incidents in a more detailed manner and V.V. Surya Kumar tried his best to justify them with his direction. Though they are earnest in their attempts, the weak characterisation, missing emotions undid all the good intention. The love story, which was stressed to the core fails to make an impact as one gets a rushed feeling and even the flashback episodes fail to erase that impression.
All the episodes involving the Pakistani army looked outdated and silly. Most of them looked monotonous and offered nothing new and interesting. This robs the viewers of experiencing the genuine pain of the fishermen at the hands of the Pakistani army which was shown as the mere jokers.
Everything looked cliched to the core and lacked the genunity. The writing turned out to be weak and screenplay and story assumed a convenient path rather than explore the more complexity involved in it. While the main story itself ended up testing the viewers patience, the plots and subplots increased the agony. However, couple of scenes and especially the dialogues during the climax are good. The mediocre content was only saved by the performances of Satyadev and Aanandhi.
Vidyasagar with his music tried to add value to the narration. But the lack of interesting and impactful elements undermined his efforts. Same is the case with his background score. The cinematography of Sameer Reddy showed the coastal villages and the rustic atmosphere associated with it in a natural, impressive and effective manner. VFX could have been fare better. Chanakya Reddy Toorupu's editing left a lot to be desired. There are many drags and repetitive scenes that impacted the flow of the narration. Dialogues are fine but could have been far better. Production values are good.
Altogether, Arabia Kadali turns out to be another run of the mill fishermen plight story. While Satyadev and Anandhi came up with spirited performances, the same cannot be said about Krish. Krish much to the surprise of all failed with his writing. He should have worked on the script and story and cameup with strong characterisations, convincing screenplay before handing the direction mantle to V.V. Surya Kumar. Considering all these elements, Cinejosh goes with a 2.25 rating for Arabia Kadali.