Romantic comedies are hard to crack. There are very few films that have managed to deliver a good film in this genre. In the Tamil industry as well, a film recently that came close to being an engaging romantic comedy was “Thiruchitrambalam,” directed by Mithran R Jawahar, starring Dhanush and Nithya Menen. “Love Today,” directed by Pradeep Ranganath, who previously delivered the critically acclaimed “Comali,” gives us a new film in this genre that throws light on the new form of relationships the current generation indulges in. The couple in the film have their real personal lives thrown at each other for them to absorb and react to. How they face the reality associated with their relationship is what Pradeep hilariously captures in the film.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Love Today’ Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
“Love Today” begins with the viewers being told about the typical lovey-dovey relationship Pradeep and Nikitha share. Pradeep, to proclaim his love for Nikitha, buys a brand-new smartphone for her. Nikitha is worried about how her highly protective father, who is also a successful lawyer, would react if he came to know of this brand-new phone. Nikitha’s father is a known figure in the city who keeps track of all the purchases his daughter makes and is wary of every penny that goes out of the house. Nikitha has not told her father of her relationship with Pradeep, for she knows how he will react to it. Both Nikitha and Pradeep are working professionals who are deeply in love and understand each other very well. Nikitha can guess every move Pradeep makes, while Pradeep is well-versed in everything Nikitha does. Their love is solid, and nothing can break it. Pradeep’s mother, Saraswati, on the other hand, is an overly worried, typical mother figure who connects all the issues with Pradeep spending time on his smartphone. His mother goes straight to the point and interrupts his call while his phone is being charged, claiming there has been news of phones catching fire while being charged. Nevertheless, Pradeep loves and respects his mother, even though she is always complaining about his phone habits.
Pradeep’s sister Divya is about to be engaged to Dr. Yogi, a dentist by profession. Pradeep and Nikitha discuss what made his sister prefer an arranged marriage over finding someone on her own. Pradeep asks her pertinent questions about her decision to choose Dr. Yogi, and he goes on to ask her about the qualities she saw in him that made her say yes. Divya points out that he respected her privacy when she received a phone call and kept his phone away when they started having a conversation, which means he chose to spend time with her rather than overspend it on the phone, even though he is a doctor. Dr. Yogi is not exactly a physically appealing personality, but his sensitive nature made Divya choose him over scores of insensitive men. Divya mentions that even though there is a high chance he might be a different person after marriage if he changes, she has every right to leave him and end the marriage. Pradeep and Nikitha initially do not understand these explanations to agree to an arranged marriage, but they deem that their love is unique, and nothing can tear them apart. Pradeep and Nikitha have never come out of the honeymoon phase of their relationship, even though it’s been a while since they have been together. Nikitha is invited to Pradeep’s sister, Divya’s engagement ceremony, and she knows all his friends and family. Her demeanor is such that she forms a good impression of herself on his friends, mother, and sister. Nikitha makes sure she bowls Pradeep over with her friendly nature, and she is successful in doing so. Nikitha brings her friend Revi to the engagement ceremony, which Pradeep finds weird and uncomfortable. He makes sure he conveys the same to Nikitha, but she assures him that Revi is just a friend. Meanwhile, Nikitha and her sister are constantly bombarded by lewd messages and comments on their Instagram profile. Even though they block those accounts, these people appear again by using new accounts. She is constantly worried about this harassment and is considering filing a cyber complaint, which Pradeep disagrees with. Nikitha’s concern comes from the fact that someone who knows she has a sister is bombarding them on a regular basis, and she and her sister feel targeted by this bot account. Nikitha wonders why women can’t lead a peaceful existence on social media as well.
After six months, as Divya’s wedding preparations begin, Nikitha’s father catches her speaking to Pradeep. He demands to meet him, and she conveys the same to Pradeep. She gives him a lesson on what to convey to her father when he asks any specific questions. He is forbidden from passing on that they met on Facebook; instead, he should inform her father that they met in college, and that his company is now all set to send him to the US for a project. Nikitha knows her father too well, and she prepares Pradeep for all the possible questions her father will ask him, and she wants her father to like Pradeep and she also wants Pradeep to impress her father. As Pradeep meets her father, he asks specific questions, to which he responds as per the answers provided to him by Nikitha. Her father throws a googly by demanding both exchange their phones with each other for 24 hours. After 24 hours, if everything is fine, they will have his blessing to go ahead and get married. Both are skeptical about sharing their phones, but her father makes it clear that this is a test that they must go through for his approval. Pradeep and Nikitha are scared, but they succumb to his demands.
‘Love Today’ Ending Explained – Will Pradeep And Nikitha Get Back Together After Everything They Found Out About Each other?
Once the deal is on, both exchange phones and both are hesitant to open each other’s phone, for if they do that, they will become suspicious partners. His friends and Nikitha’s sister push them not to open the phone, but they keep getting calls. Nikitha speaks to Pradeep from his phone and conveys that her father is putting their love to the test, and she intends to prove him wrong by keeping the phone with her and not opening it. Pradeep is relieved and conveys that he won’t open her phone, for which she is thankful. Though his friends ask him what she is afraid of if she has nothing to hide, she should not have stopped him from unlocking her phone. Pradeep is confused at this point because he does not want to come across as a suspicious partner. He receives the seed of doubt from his friend, which takes root quickly in his mind. This doubt makes him pick up her phone. Pradeep soon finds that he is messaged by some Mammakutty in a rather romantic manner. Shaken by what he sees, he wants to know the extent of the messages shared between Nikitha and this said Mamakutty. Pradeep also comes across various messages shared between her and her friend Revi, in which Revi is openly criticizing Pradeep and vows to bash him up to remove him from the picture. Revi confesses his love for Nikitha in the trail of messages. Pradeep is horrified to see that she does not say no or put a stop to his love-laced message. Pradeep finally receives a response from Mamakutty, who describes the long drive they took to Pondicherry, which infuriates Pradeep further. He has a heated argument with Nikitha over this and realizes she never trusted him enough to share her insecurities with him. He makes nasty comments about her leading a dual life so far, and he is happy to be leaving the relationship for good. On reaching her home, Pradeep thinks he has the upper hand over to break up with Nikitha because he believes she is cheating on him. Nikitha begs him to believe her and states that Mamakutty is her ex-boyfriend who was going through a hard time after their breakup, and to cheer him up, she went on a drive to Pondicherry. Pradeep does not believe her, and Nikitha mentions to her father that his phone is clear and has no evidence of infidelity. Her father refuses to believe that he is clean. Nikitha is heartbroken but equally angry over the fact that he is making a mountain out of a molehill and is unwilling to believe any of her justifications for the questions he asked. Her father suggests uninstalling and reinstalling WhatsApp, which will automatically bring back all the deleted chats as well. This puts Pradeep on the back foot, and now it is Nikitha’s time to reveal his secrets.
Pradeep now knows he is doomed, too, for he was being too cocky with all the information he came across about her. Pradeep is given three days for Nikitha to scrounge through his phone, which reveals his deepest and darkest secrets. Nikitha finds out that he has been fraternizing with women on basically every app on his phone, asking for their pictures for a supposed short film he is working on. Pradeep knows he is guilty and accepts his mistakes and the fact that he is a hypocrite. Pradeep tries his level best to justify his actions, just like Nikitha, but since Nikitha has been at the receiving end of his accusations, she takes it upon herself to give it back to him, loudly and clearly. Simultaneously, Divya picks up her fiancé, Dr. Yogi’s phone only rang because it was ringing. Yogi snatches the phone away from her, which makes Divya wonder what he must be hiding. From the day her wedding preparations start until the day of their reception, Divya, Pradeep, and her friends try to get Yogi’s phone to see what he is up to. Divya sees how much Pradeep is suffering and regretting being in a relationship after both Pradeep and Nikitha’s phone content revealed a lot of unwanted information. Divya witnesses that this information is ruining Pradeep’s relationship with Nikitha, and now Divya is hell-bent on finding out some potential relationship-breaking information. She would rather know about it now than later. Pradeep and Nikitha are on the verge of an ugly breakup that could potentially ruin their relationship for good. Pradeep, on the other hand, reveals a fake Instagram account he created to prank his friends. Over the years, many people outside his friend’s group have used that account, and Nikitha finds out that it was used to attack her and her sister and harass them regularly. Nikitha is livid that Pradeep would indulge in such nefarious activities just for pleasure. Pradeep, though, is sure he is not the one sending lewd messages to her and her sister, but she does not believe it. They break up. Pradeep has accepted his mistakes, which Nikitha pointed out before, but is not willing to take the blame for the lewd messages. Nikitha is heartbroken, for she believes she fell in love with the wrong person after all. Pradeep confronts his friends and tells them that he cannot trust them anymore.
Pradeep is confronted by his mother, and she talks about how relationships are a double-edged sword; one expects one thing from their partner, but they don’t stick to the expectations they have set for their partner. Pradeep also has a word with his brother-in-law, Dr. Yogi, who explains that he has been on the receiving end of hateful comments because of his looks and weight. He doesn’t want Divya to see that and be worried about it, which is why he makes sure the burden of all the nasty comments is restricted to him. He married Divya only because she was the first person to like him for who he was as a person, not because she felt pity for him or rejected him for his looks. Divya and Yogi are examples of understanding that goes beyond the love they have. It is accepting the person for who they are instead of trying to berate or change them for who they are not. Nikitha’s sister also advises her to decide about Pradeep based on how she feels about him and not on a third person, which includes her sister or father. Unexpectedly, a deep fake video of Nikitha is leaked, and she, at this point, has lost hope. Nikitha leaves her home, and Pradeep finds her at the spot they always met, the beach. They talk about everything that transpired, and they agree that even after all this, they now trust each other, and they love each other. Pradeep believes her when she says the video is not hers, and he promises to be there for her. Nikitha and Pradeep are now content, for they have faced the worst. Her father explains that he did not mean to break them up by putting forward this test. He wanted to see if they were willing to work it out whenever they go through a trouble such as this. Falling in love is easy, and relationships are hard, but making them work is the toughest job out there. Nikitha and Pradeep realize they love each other despite everything they went through in the past few days.
“Love Today” is all about the current generation talking about falling in love but not dealing with the relationship when problems come up. Pradeep and Nikitha crossing the hurdle prove that they are in that stage of youth where they can face the tough wave, pass through it, and survive it. Divya chooses Dr. Yogi, who is physically very different from the usual crop of men, but Divya chooses to see the goodness in him over his physical features. “Love Today” is an interesting take on love, relationships, and all the baggage that comes with them. People might have two different views of what the end message is, but it is up to each individual how to take the subject matter home.
Final Thoughts
“Love Today” is a decent attempt to make a film about relationships, especially the youth which is inundated by so many social media and dating applications and finding true love amongst all that. Pradeep Ranganathan, who stars as Pradeep in the film, writes the film from both perspectives but still lacks in the execution of the screenplay and certain ideas that were propagated through this film. There is no reason for the couple to be forced to exchange their phones, which is their private space. On the other hand, being unfaithful to their respective partners is also not right, which is portrayed rather accurately. The couple, understanding the dynamics of their relationship, which is going through horrid times, could have handled it in a rather subtle way rather than making it a comedic scene, which was unnecessary. But the comic troupes at many other places land well and do justice to the screenplay. The aspects that stood out throughout the film are the direction, editing, background score, and performances of the actors. All of them delivered one of the best comedic performances. “Love Today” will leave you with mixed opinions and mixed feelings for the lead characters. Give it a watch to form your own opinion of it.
“Love Today” is a 2022 Romance Drama directed by Pradeep Ranganathan.
