Good Night review: The Tamil film will definitely go down as one of the most charming movies of the year

Good Night review: A moving film about ordinary people and their problems. The Tamil drama focuses on a man, whose biggest problem in life is snoring.

If feel-good cinema is a genre, then debutant Vinayak Chandrasekaran’s Good Night, a moving film about a young guy’s snoring problems, deserves a place right at the top. At a time when filmmakers are so obsessed with making pan-India films with stars, Good Night comes as a whiff of fresh air. Malayalam cinema has championed the art of making films about common people and their problems. In Tamil cinema, films like Thiruchitrambalam, DaDa and now Good Night are the perfect examples of stories that touch upon common, everyday problems and present them in the most lighthearted way.

Good Night review: The Tamil film features Manikandan Kabali, Ramesh Thilak, and Meetha Raghunath among others.

Even before the film starts (as the titles appear on screen), we are introduced to our protagonist Mohan, who has been struggling with his snoring issues. He belongs to a lower-middle class family and works in an IT company. He has the most mundane life, but that’s never been much of an issue for him. It’s his snoring that has been the biggest problem in his life. Thanks to his snoring, he earns the moniker ‘motor’ Mohan in his office and he always gets picked on by his colleagues. Mohan lives with his mother and two sisters – with the elder one married and her husband also stays with them. When Mohan meets Anu (Meetha Raghunath) by accident, love blossoms between them in the most unusual way and it also marks the beginning of a major turnaround in his life. In no time, Mohan and Anu get married and little do we know that the snoring issue can wreak havoc in their lives.

Good Night is one of those rare Tamil films where you find yourself laughing uncontrollably for most part. The humour flows seamlessly and some of the scenes, which are written so well, are genuinely funny. It isn’t easy to make a film about ordinary people and their problems and yet keep audiences invested. Good Night does that so convincingly and one of the main reasons for it is the writing. Vinayak Chandrasekaran succeeds in this because he doesn’t try too hard, and that’s what makes everything about this story highly compelling and at the same time quite accurate. Snoring is more or less an issue in every household. We all have a family member or a relative who’s a loud snorer. This is what makes the conflict in Good Night highly relatable.

This is also a film about insecurities in modern-day relationships and the lack of communication. Unlike the first half which is highly entertaining, the film gets adequately emotional in the second half. Post marriage, the way Mohan and Anu struggle to deal with their core problems is exactly how most youngsters deal with their issues in modern relationships. Mainstream cinema rarely has vulnerable men who can cry their heart out. Most of the time, it's portrayed as a weakness. Good Night is an exception and every time Mohan sheds a tear or two, there are quite a few of us who would connect with him on an emotional level. But won’t express it fearing it is a sign of weakness.

The film gets the casting on point and every character shines with neat performances. It is Manikandan, who’s so far sidelined to play character roles, that gets a major breakthrough with Good Night. He’s brilliant all the way and is ably supported by Ramesh Thilak, Meetha and Balaji Sakthivel in key roles. Good Night will definitely go down as one of the most charming films of the year.

Film: Good Night

Director: Vinayak Chandrasekaran

Cast: Manikandan Kabali, Ramesh Thilak, Meetha Raghunath