Good Day stars debutant Prithiviraj Ramalingam, directed by a first time filmmaker N. Aravindhan. The story is based on true incidents that happened in lyricist Karthik Netha’s life. Music is composed by Govind Vasantha.
Premise: Prithiviraj Ramalingam is an alcoholic as he is depressed due to the chaos in his both professional and personal life. How he suddenly quits drinking overnight, the incidents that occur within the time period forms the crux of the story.
Writing/ Direction: A film that stresses on the consequences of alcohol addiction, but takes the old-school formula of showing the central character drinking throughout the movie who reforms in the very last scene and conveys a social message. The template is not the issue here, mainly because the reason why he is depressed is convincing and how he realizes his shortcoming towards the end has a couple of valid moments. Screenplay is the major concern as the film flows cluelessly without giving any clarity of where the story is leading. Only in the final reel, the situations come together to redeem the lost points to some extent. The scene taking place at a graveyard with Vela Ramamoorthy in the forefront is a revelation and it instantly connects. But the writer and director have gone extreme in portraying the lead character without cracking a balance. Yes he is a drunkard and we should be able to dislike his behaviour, but it is presented beyond the frustration point that we tend to get rid of him soon. It is because there are back to back nuisance scenes pinpointing his weird behaviour. How long can we repeatedly watch a drunkard man going around and beating around the bush.
Performances: With a good performance from debutant Prithiviraj Ramalingam, he truly did justice to the drunkard role, he has tried his level best to carry the entire film on his shoulders. Plenty of other supporting characters who appear for a scene or two, some popular names too, such as Kaali Venkat, Myna Nandhini, Aadukalam Murugadoss, Bagavathy Perumal and Vela Ramamoorthy. Out of which, no one except Vela Ramamoorthy had a convincing characterization. So obviously, their acting could not save or really add any value to the subject.
Technicalities: Govind Vasantha pleases with his music, both with songs that go well along the situations and with a valuable background score that helps when the narrative has something worthy to present. Neat camera work, almost the entire story is taking place in the night time, yet the frames have enough clarity and natural light is used smartly. Runtime could have easily been crisper, even 2 hours feels like a day with the quality of screenplay in hand.
Verdict: Has a reasonable start and a satisfying finish. The giant mid area suffers from repetitive scenes that focus on the adventures of an alcoholic. The scenes are presented in a way that we don’t just get annoyed with the lead but also on the movie.
GOOD DAY - Not even a Mid Day!
Rating - 2.25/ 5.