Love Today (2022 film)

Love Today is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Pradeep Ranganathan in his second directorial venture after Comali, and produced by Kalapathi S. Aghoram under the banner of AGS Entertainment.[3] Archana Kalpathi is the creative producer for the film. The film stars Pradeep Ranganathan himself (in his acting debut), Ivana, Raveena Ravi, Yogi Babu, Sathyaraj and Raadhika Sarathkumar in lead roles.[4] The film's music and score is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, with cinematography handled by Dinesh Purushothaman and editing done by Pradeep E. Ragav.

Love Today
Poster
Directed byPradeep Ranganathan
Written byPradeep Ranganathan
Based onApp(a) Lock
by Pradeep Ranganathan
Produced byKalpathi S. Aghoram
Kalpathi S. Ganesh
Kalpathi S. Suresh
StarringPradeep Ranganathan
Ivana
Yogi Babu
Raveena Ravi
CinematographyDinesh Purushothaman
Edited byPradeep E. Ragav
Music byYuvan Shankar Raja
Production
company
Distributed byRed Giant Movies (Tamil Nadu), Ahimsa Entertainment (UK)
Release date
  • 4 November 2022 (2022-11-04)
Running time
154 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil
Budget₹5 crore[1]
Box office₹150 crores[2]

Love Today was released theatrically on 4 November 2022, and received widespread critical acclaim from critics and audience praising the direction, story, humour , score, social message and cast performances (particularly Ranganathan, Ivana, Yogi Babu and Raveena Ravi). The film was a critical and commercial success at the box office grossing ₹150 crores against a budget of ₹5 crore.

Plot

Uthaman Pradeep, a 24-year-old support engineer employed in Cognizant in Chennai has been in a romantic relationship with Nikitha, daughter of Adv. Venu Sastri that is hidden from their respective families. They believe that they know each other perfectly and are so far ready to take their relationship to the next level i.e, marriage but wait for Pradeep's elder sister Divya's wedding with an unattractive dentist Yogi, whose principles she admires. Nevertheless, Venu discovers Nikitha's affair with Pradeep and invites him home to discuss. Initially, he playfully teases Pradeep but puts forward a peculiar deal; Pradeep and Nikitha should switch their mobile phones for a day not without revealing their respective passwords and if they do not have any problem thereafter, Venu shall agree to their wedding. Otherwise, they have to part ways. Pradeep and Nikitha oblige to his proposal half-heartedly but the former deletes all the messages in WhatsApp before handing over the phone to Nikitha.

Pradeep returns home and Divya is supposed to be marrying Yogi after four days. Goaded by his friends, Pradeep goes through Nikitha's WhatsApp and reads her conversation with Revi, her boy bestie and discovers that he proposed to her but she rejected it as she was already indulged in an affair with Pradeep. However, the latter is disappointed with the fact that Nikitha is close to Revi and shares everything with him despite knowing about his one-sided love for her. He further perceives that Nikitha had gone on a late night long drive with her ex-boyfriend Mamakutty few days ago to Puducherry after lying to Pradeep. Infuriated, he makes a phone call to Nikitha, confronts her and questions her loyalty, leaving her in tears. The next day, Pradeep proposes to Venu that the phones not be exchanged until Divya's wedding is over and Venu complies; secretly, he suggests Nikitha to restore all the deleted messages in Pradeep's mobile phone. Divya's trust in Yogi, which hitherto was strong, begins to weaken when she discovers Pradeep's situation and realizes that Yogi has always been overprotective of his mobile phone; she begins to suspect him.

Along with her friends and Pradeep, Divya tries to get Yogi's phone intending to check its contents; her actions contribute to the growing wedge between her and Yogi. Nikitha and Pradeep's relationship gets worsened when she perceives his addiction to pornography, his attempts to build conversation with his ex-girlfriend and his conversations with several women under guise of a filmmaker. Pradeep realizes that in his mobile phone, he is still logged into another Instagram account which is being used by several college mates of his alongside him for mischievous acts. Intending to log out of that account, Pradeep invites Nikitha to a restaurant but she shows up with Revi much to Pradeep's dismay. His friends try to delete the account and sends an OTP to Pradeep's mobile phone; he tries to grab his phone from Nikitha but Revi helps her get hold of it and exposes the account. Nikitha slaps Pradeep claiming that she and her sister Shwetha received perverted messages from the same account; she believes that he texted them from the fake account and breaks up with him despite his justifications. He further assaults Revi for interfering that drives a wedge between them once again. Pradeep returns home and suspects that his best friend Mani is behind the messages and fights with him as well, though he claims that he didn't do it.

During Divya's wedding reception, Pradeep sees her arguing with him over his phone secrecy and tries to help her snatch Yogi's phone but Saraswathi, Pradeep's mother slaps him. She confronts him for his antics and he breaks down, detailing all the events. Consoling him, Saraswathi asks Pradeep to trust Nikitha while all along, he has just been expecting her to be trustworthy to him. Yogi meets Pradeep and discloses to him that in his mobile phone, there are several conversations in his friends' group mocking his appearance and that Divya has been the only one who understood him and admired him. He didn't want her to see his phone as he fears that she might regret getting to him if she goes through all the comments he faced. Divya overhears the conversation and in contrast to Yogi's fears, she understands him and respects him even more. They both reconcile and Yogi gives her his phone but she refuses to see. Pradeep reconciles with Mani and his friends as well. Elsewhere, a porn clip, apparently that of Nikitha goes viral and is seen by everyone.

Venu refuses to trust Nikitha, assaults her physically and disowns her despite her plea that the woman in the clip is not her; broken, she leaves home. Shwetha makes a phone call to Pradeep, explaining the events and he goes on a search for Nikitha while his friends keep calling Nikitha's friends to inquire about her. Revi, whom Nikitha has trusted always, refuses to trust her while Pradeep's associate, an ethical hacker discovers that the clip is doctored by Nikitha's publicity loving colleague Kaushik. Pradeep finds that a tree has grown out of a fruit he planted in the childhood and struggled to grow it as he has been continuously digging it to see if it is growing. It has grown after he stopped digging and having faith in its growth; this makes him realize that trust is important in building a relationship. He locates Nikitha near a beach and reconciles with her while Kaushik confesses his deeds online and gets arrested by the Police. Venu discloses to the couple that his intentions behind asking them to switch their phones was not to break their relationship but to see if they trust each other despite all the obstacles. He agrees to their wedding and asks Pradeep to arrange a meeting with his mother to discuss the wedding.

After meeting Saraswathi, Venu proposes that they exchange their mobile phones for another test.

Cast
  • Pradeep Ranganathan as Uthaman Pradeep
    • Master Mahanth as young Uthaman Pradeep
  • Ivana as Nikitha Iyengar (Voice dubbed by Savitha Reddy)
  • Raadhika Sarathkumar as Saraswathi, Uthaman Pradeep and Divya's mother
  • Yogi Babu as Dr. Yogi, Divya's fiancé
  • Raveena Ravi as Divya, Uthaman Pradeep's sister and Dr. Yogi's fiancée
  • Sathyaraj as Lawyer Venu Shastri Iyengar , Nikitha's father
  • Akshaya Udayakumar as Shwetha, Nikitha's sister
  • Bharath as Mani, Uthaman Pradeep's best friend
  • Adithya Kathir as "Olu" Bhaskar, Pradeep's friend
  • Aajeedh Khalique as Revi, Nikitha's friend
  • Vijay Varadaraj as Kaushik, Nikitha's co-worker
  • Prathana Nathan as Namitha, Divya's friend
  • Gurubaai as Nikitha's Instagram follower
  • Azhaar Ateef as Kaushik's office friend
  • Navin Krubhakar as Mamakutty, Nikitha's ex-boyfriend
  • Sandy Master as special appearance in the song "Saachitale"

Production

Development

After the success of Comali, Pradeep Ranganathan announced his next project which would be produced by Kalapathi S. Aghoram under the banner of AGS Entertainment under the tentative title as AGS 22.[5] It was reported that the project would be an adaptation of Pradeep Ranganathan's own short film App(a) Lock.[6] Later, the title was announced to be Love Today, which was taken from the 1997 film of the same name starring Vijay and would mark Pradeep Ranganathan's debut as an actor in a leading role.[7] The makers unveiled the first look poster of the film on 4 July 2022.[8]

Casting

Ivana who previously appeared in films like Naachiyaar and Hero was signed in to play the female lead,[9] while Yogi Babu who previously collaborated with the director in Comali was signed on to play a supporting role while at the same time Raveena Ravi, veteran actor Sathyaraj and actress Radhika Sarathkumar were also confirmed to be a part of this film.[10]

Filming

The shooting of the film was reported to begin on December 2021.[11][12] On 22 July 2022, it was announced that the entire shooting of the film was wrapped.[13]

Music
Love Today
Soundtrack album by
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Released8 November 2022
Recorded2022
GenreFeature film soundtrack
Length17:52
LanguageTamil
LabelSony Music
ProducerYuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja chronology
Naane Varuvean
(2022)		 Love Today
(2022)		 Coffee with Kadhal
(2022)
External audio
audio icon Audio Jukebox on YouTube

The music and original score is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja.[14][15][16][17]

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Saachitale"Pradeep RanganathanYuvan Shankar Raja3:59
2."Enai Vittu"Pradeep RanganathanSid Sriram4:06
3."Pacha Elai"Pradeep RanganathanMathichiyam Bala3:30
4."Mamakutty"Pradeep RanganathanPradeep Ranganathan, Savitha Reddy, A.U. Navin Krubhakar4:32
Total length:17:52

Release

Theatrical

Love Today was released theatrically on 4 November 2022.[18][19] The trailer of the film was released on 5 October 2022.[20] The distribution rights of the film in Tamil Nadu were acquired by Udhayanidhi Stalin under the banner of Red Giant Movies.[21] The film was distributed and released in the UK by Ahimsa Entertainment.[22]

After the blockbuster response in Tamil Nadu, Dil Raju's Sri Venkateswara Creations presented the film in Telugu as an SVC Release with same title as Tamil version and received great response.[23]

Home media

The post-theatrical streaming rights of the film has been sold to Netflix,[24][25] while the satellite rights of the film is sold to Kalaignar TV.[26] The film was digitally streamed through the streaming platform on 2 December 2022 in Tamil language and in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi as dubbed languages.[27][28]

Reception

Critical response

Love Today received widespread critical acclaim from both critics and audience.[29]

Logesh Balachandran of The Times of India rated 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Overall, Love Today is an entertaining watch and is a perfect outing for the weekend."[30] Vishal Menon of Film Companion wrote "But by settling for instant gratification from its comedy rather than investigating in its broader, more meaningful themes, Love Today too settles for the ordinary."[31] Behindwoods rated 3 out of 5 and wrote that "Love Today's humour quotient and Yuvan music will make sure you go back home highly entertained."[32] Bharath Vijayakumar of Moviecrow rated the film 3.25 out of 5 and wrote "Love Today is a lot of fun. The film also pleasantly surprises on how it tackles a very relevant topic of today."[33] Vignesh Madhu of Cinema Express rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "It is a film about today's love, and Pradeep does a great job of ensuring that it's a story for everyone."[34] Srivatsan S of The Hindu wrote "For a film that claims to be about modern-day relationships, you scratch your head thinking if there is anything modern. But you cannot complain — the 2K Kids are entertained."[35] Soundarya Athimuthu of The Quint gave the film's rating 3 out of 5 and wrote "This new age romantic entertainer emphasizes the age-old fact that 'trust' is the foundation of a relationship."[36] Kirubhakar Purushothaman of The Indian Express gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "The film conveniently deals only with softcore issues that are palatable for the mainstream audience… But what about their search history, their kinks, and the truths that only our mobile phones know? Maybe, those are too dark for this film, which wants to end on a rosy note."[37] A critic from Behindwoods rated the film 3 out of 5 and wrote "Love Today's humour quotient and Yuvan music will make sure you go back home highly entertained."[38] A critic for Cinema Vikatan wrote "In general, not only the lover, the beloved, but also the love changes its images and characteristics in all periods."[39] Dinamalar rated the film 3.25 out of 5 stars.[40] Akshay Kumar of DT Next gave 3.5 out of 5 gave the film's rating 3.5 out of 5 and wrote "Love Today is unique for its light treatment while not getting restricted to being called a 'timepass' film."[41] Thinkal Menon of OTT Play gave 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Director-actor Pradeep had mentioned in one of his movie promotions that the film has been made for 2K kids. It looks like he is completely aware of his target audience and has exactly served what they need."[42]

Box office

On the first day of its release the film collected over ₹6 crores worldwide.[43] After three days of its release, the film grossed over ₹19 crore at the box office.[44] On the 11th day of its release, the film grossed ₹50 crores worldwide.[45][46] On the first week of its release, the film grossed ₹70 crore at the worldwide box office.[47] On 25 November 2022, it was reported from Pinkvilla that the film grossed over ₹50 crore from the state of Tamil Nadu.[48] The film grossed over ₹150 crore against a budget of ₹5 crore and became one of the highest grossing Tamil films of 2022.[2]

References
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