How does one express love? One may go the route of gifts and flowers. Perhaps a gentle stolen glance or a tiny poem if we’re dealing with a wordsmith? But Mohan has a different love language — it’s food. In one of most adorable depictions of courtships I’ve seen all this year, a no-filter Mohan (played by the phenomenal Manikandan), between mouthfuls of chicken puff, buys his crush a bun butter jam. His eyes light up when the demure Anu (Meetha Raghunath) finally feels comfortable enough to eat around him. Vinayak Chandrasekaran’s film is filled with simple moments that turn sweet little nothings into a delightful comedy with huge emotional payoffs.
Mohan is a middle child, who shares a tiny Chennai home with his exhausted single mother, a bratty younger sister, and older sibling Maha, who comes with her own package deal – husband Ramesh (Ramesh Thilak is a ‘veetodu maapila’ in a film that beautifully enough decides simply not to expand on the matter). A picture of domestic mess and bliss is painted right as the film opens. A pot of tea is busy brewing in the kitchen, dibs on bathroom schedules are seriously discussed, and a couple withdraw to their room to catch a moment to themselves. But there is one unnamed resident in the house we haven’t addressed yet. We hear Mohan even before we see him. For his snore, which shakes up close to every tenant in the apartment, is the imaginary sidekick that much of Good Night is based on.