Good Time (2026) Telugu Review: Chanakya Jilla's Gamble

Jaani drives a cab by day and chases fortune by night. He has a woman who loves him, a gambling habit he calls strategy, and a stubborn faith that a singular "good time" is coming to redeem every bad decision he's ever made. The film follows the slow-motion collapse of that faith. Debts compound. Relationships fray. A seemingly minor choice - the kind any desperate man might make - drags him into a criminal undertow that neither he nor the audience fully sees coming. What elevates the premise is its patience. Jilla refuses to turn Jaani into a victim of fate; the man is the architect of his own spiral, and the screenplay never lets him off the hook.

The film's greatest asset is Nikhil Gajula. He plays Jaani without vanity, carrying a smile that never quite reaches his eyes, and the performance grows on you the way real charisma does - gradually, then completely. In the quieter scenes, when he's alone in the cab at night, the mask slips and you see the exhaustion beneath the hope. It's a remarkably controlled piece of acting. Aanyuktha Nallani brings warmth and steel to a role that could easily have been decorative, while Soundarya Lahari and Hrithik Shetty make strong impressions in the supporting fold. Dhanraj Vineet, Bunny Abiran, and Hrishikesh Gajagouni round out an ensemble that feels cast for texture rather than star wattage.

Jilla's direction is confident in the first and third acts. He shoots the cab like a confessional, the city lights bleeding through the windshield as Jaani talks himself into one more bad idea. The score is restrained, the editing patient. Where the film wobbles is the middle stretch, roughly the forty-five minutes after the inciting incident, when the plot pivots on a series of coincidences that strain credulity. A thriller can ask you to accept a lot, but it has to earn its contrivances, and here the script reaches for convenience when it should reach for consequence. Two subplots - one involving a loan shark's enforcer, another a half-sketched romantic triangle - feel like padding and could have been trimmed without losing anything.

Still, the film recovers. The last thirty minutes are genuinely gripping, and the resolution refuses the easy catharsis of a big win or a clean escape. It opts instead for something murkier and more honest: the realization that the good time a man spends his life waiting for may never have been coming at all. That's a brave note to end on, and it's the note that lingers. There's no audience rating attached to this one yet - the film is too fresh in theatres - but word of mouth should decide its fate more than any marketing push.

Pros

• Nikhil Gajula delivers a career-best performance, all nervous energy and false confidence
• Jilla's direction is patient and atmospheric, especially in the night-time cab sequences
• The final act earns its tension and refuses cheap redemption
• Strong supporting cast, with Aanyuktha Nallani making the most of limited screen time

Cons

• The middle hour relies too heavily on coincidence to move the plot
• A couple of subplots feel like padding rather than necessity
• Pacing sags noticeably before the third act kicks in

Good Time is a flawed but fascinating film - a character drama that occasionally forgets it's also a thriller, and a thriller that occasionally forgets it's really about a man's refusal to see himself clearly. It won't be for everyone; the deliberate pacing and the downbeat ending will divide audiences. But for those willing to sit with Jaani in his cab and watch him drive toward a wall he can't see, it's a rewarding ride. Catch it in theatres while the buzz is building.