Directed and starring young filmmaker Pradeep Ranganath, released as a small film called Love Today, Love Today emerged as a blockbuster success in Tamil. The Telugu dubbed version of the film hit the silver screens today. Let's see how it goes.
Story: After being in love for a while, to take their relationship to a new level, Pradeep (Pradeep Ranganath) and Nikita (Ivana) open up about their love to Nikita's father Venu Shastri (Sathyaraj). A sly and orthodox person, Venu keeps the condition of exchanging their phones for a day and will say yes to their wedding if there is no problem by the end of the day. Thinking of it as a small thing, a young couple says yes to exchange their phones for a day. What happens next in their lives? Will the couple be able to save their relationship? To know this, you need to watch the movie in nearby cinemas.
Performances: Pradeep Ranganath barely nailed the lead role. His youthfulness is amazing and makes a solid impression. Young beautiful Ivana also performed her duty perfectly. Especially his performance in emotional scenes brings depth to the proceedings. The chemistry between them is explored beautifully.
His acting brings depth to the main proceedings. Radhika Sharathkumar shines as a middle class mother. The scenes between her and Pradeep are interesting throughout.
Padding artists like Raveena, Finally Bharath, Aditya Kathir, Aajeedh Khalique, Vijay Varadaraj and Akshaya Udayakumar are apt in their roles.
Technical Features: It is no exaggeration to say that Yuvan Shankar Raja's music is the backbone of this new age romantic drama. Be it songs or background music, Yuvan gave the film what it needed. In short, his tunes and music elevate the spirit of the film.
Dinesh Purushothaman's photography work is cool and composed. Its lighting structure and frames add colorful texture to the screen. Editing by Pradeep E Ragav is good but would have cut ten minutes of the first part to make things more compelling. Other departments like art and costume did their job perfectly.
Analysis: Pradeep Ranganath has done a great job as screenwriter, director and actor. Linking the proceedings with social media and current technology to narrate this new age love story is crazy and should be appreciated for that. Telugu version dialogues and dubbing work is done excellently.
On the other hand, the film takes its own sweet time in creating characters. For the same reason, the first twenty minutes seem boring with a straight story. In addition to this, the hateful arguments between the lead pair after the exchange of mobile phones could have been shown better by reducing the beeps from the hero angel.
To sum it up, Love Today is an enjoyable young love drama with a fresh plot, good performances and a mostly engaging presentation. With the exception of a few dull moments in the first half, the film is engaging throughout and is highly watchable this weekend.
Verdict: The young love drama is a must watch.