"Good Day," directed by N. Aravindhan, presents a darkly comic journey of a textile worker's drunken night of self-discovery, though it occasionally stumbles under the weight of its own sermons. Released on June 27, 2025, the Tamil-language film stars Prithiviraj Ramalingam, who also produced the movie, alongside Myna Nandhini, Aadukalam Murugadoss, and Kaali Venkat.
The movie follows Santhakumar, a history major turned textile worker in Tirupur, whose already bad day spirals into a night of alcohol-fueled escapades after receiving his delayed salary. What follows is less of a destructive rampage and more of an "unhinged poetry reading" as he stumbles through the town, armed with stolen police gear and a walkie-talkie, dispensing unsolicited wisdom.
Prithiviraj Ramalingam delivers a committed performance as Santhakumar, fully embodying the character's descent into drunken philosophical insights. The film explores how the public humiliation of a man, whose self-worth is tied to providing for his family, leads to a personal disintegration that paradoxically becomes his path to clarity. Aravindhan's direction finds a strange profundity in this journey.
Santhakumar's night involves crashing his married college crush's home, commandeering a bus stand microphone to broadcast his sorrows, and engaging in profound conversations about mortality with gravediggers. While these moments offer glimpses of dark wit and humor, some scenes, like the one at his crush's home, linger longer than necessary.
The film marks the directorial debut of N. Aravindhan, who previously worked as an assistant director in films like "96" (2018) and "Meiyazhagan" (2024). The screenplay is written by Porrna Js Michael, with music composed by Govind Vasantha. The technical aspects of the film, including cinematography and editing, are handled by Mathan Gunadev.
While "Good Day" attempts a novel approach to the "drunk-man-finds-redemption" genre, it only scratches the surface of interesting ideas. The film's bootstrap nature is occasionally apparent. Some critics have pointed out the lagging scenes and criticized the screenplay. Abhinav Subramanian of The Times of India gave the film 3/5 stars, noting that it "may not revolutionize the drunk-man-finds-redemption genre, but it stumbles toward its morning-after clarity with enough dark wit to justify the journey". Anusha Sundar of OTT Play gave 2.5/5 stars, stating that "Good Day is an average yet novel attempt on a man on his path to redemption".
