Love Today

<p>Pradeep, a support engineer at in , lives with his widowed mother Saraswathi and elder sister Divya. He is in a romantic relationship with Nikitha, a software engineer at and daughter of Venu Sastri, a strict and eccentric lawyer. Though they wish to marry, Pradeep hesitates due to Venu’s rigid nature. When Venu discovers their relationship, he invites Pradeep home, pretending to discuss marriage but instead proposes a challenge: Pradeep and Nikitha must swap phones for 24 hours with full access. If they remain in love afterward, he will approve their marriage. They reluctantly agree, and Pradeep, having sanitised his messages, feels relieved. Pradeep returns home to manage Divya’s upcoming wedding to Yogi, a mild-mannered dentist. Encouraged by friends, Pradeep checks Nikitha’s phone and finds chats with Revi, her male best friend who has a one-sided love for her, and messages from her ex-boyfriend Mamakutty. He is further upset to learn that Nikitha had recently gone on a night drive to with Mamakutty, lying to Pradeep. A confrontation follows, straining their relationship. Pradeep then proposes extending the phone swap until Divya’s wedding, which Venu readily agrees to, secretly asking Nikitha to restore Pradeep’s deleted WhatsApp messages. Meanwhile, Divya becomes suspicious of Yogi’s secretive behaviour with his phone. Learning about Pradeep’s phone swap, she proposes the same with Yogi, who refuses. Multiple failed attempts to access Yogi’s phone further strain their relationship. Nikitha soon discovers Pradeep’s porn addiction and flirtatious chats with multiple girls, including efforts to solicit photos under the pretext of offering acting opportunities. Unknown to her, Pradeep has a secret account, created by himself and friends during college for explicit messaging using a . This account had even messaged Nikitha and her younger sister Shwetha, though Pradeep himself was not the sender. Fearing exposure and legal trouble, Pradeep meets Nikitha at a restaurant to retrieve his phone and log out of the account. Yogi overhears Pradeep’s friends discussing the issue and advises them to log out from another device using an . Revi intercepts the OTP and exposes Pradeep, leading to a heated argument and their break-up. Pradeep, furious at Revi’s interference, assaults him but is stopped by restaurant staff. Later, during Divya’s wedding reception, Pradeep suspects his friend Mani of operating the account and blames him, despite Mani’s denials. Amidst this turmoil, Divya and Yogi argue over the latter’s phone secrecy. In frustration, Pradeep attempts to snatch Yogi’s phone but is stopped by Saraswathi. Breaking down, he confides in his mother about his break-up. Saraswathi consoles him, emphasising the importance of trust in relationships. Yogi later reveals to Pradeep that he hid his phone due to embarrassment over being mocked for his overweight appearance. He feared Divya would reject him if she saw the ridicule he faced. Overhearing this, Divya appreciates Yogi’s vulnerability and reconciles with him, deciding not to look at his phone. Pradeep also patches up with Mani and his friends. Meanwhile, a pornographic video, seemingly involving Nikitha, goes viral. Venu, believing the video, assaults and disowns her, despite her pleas that it is fake. Heartbroken, Nikitha leaves home. Pradeep, with the help of his friends, try to locate Nikitha but to no avail. He then stumbles upon a mango tree whose seed he had planted in his childhood – a young Pradeep used to cry as his mango tree failed to germinate as he used to take out the seed everyday. His mother tells him not to take the seed out everyday and have some faith. He realized this and then deduces Nikitha’s whereabouts and finds her sitting alone at a beach. Pradeep consoles her and reveals that he and his friends tracked down the perpetrator: Nikitha’s publicity-loving colleague Kaushik, who had created a video for online attention. Kaushik is arrested, and Pradeep and Nikitha reconcile. Venu apologises for his mistrust and reveals the true purpose of the phone swap—to test the strength of their relationship. Seeing they have overcome all hurdles, he blesses their marriage. However, who sent the obscene messages to Nikitha and Shwetha from the fake account, remains unknown. The film ends with the message that trust is the foundation of peace in relationship. After the success of (2019), announced his next project which would be produced by Kalapathi S. Aghoram under the banner of under the tentative title as . It was reported that the project would be an adaptation of Ranganathan’s short film . Later, the title was announced to be , which was taken from the and would mark Pradeep’s debut as an actor in a leading role. The makers unveiled the first look poster of the film on 4 July 2022. , who previously appeared in films like (2018) and (2019), was signed in to play the female lead, while , who previously collaborated with the director in , was signed on to play a supporting role. At the same time, and veteran actors and were also confirmed to be a part of this film. Principal photography began in December 2021. On 22 July 2022, it was announced that the entire shooting of the film was . The music and original score are written by . The album includes a mix of romantic, fun, and emotional songs, with all lyrics penned by Pradeep Ranganathan. The music was successful, with several songs appearing in music charts. was released theatrically on 4 November 2022. The distribution rights of the film in were acquired by under the banner of . The film was distributed and released in the UK by Ahimsa Entertainment. After the film’s success, ‘s presented the dubbed Telugu version, which was released on 25 November. The post-theatrical streaming rights of the film were sold to , while the satellite rights were sold to . The film began streaming on Netflix from 2 December 2022 in Tamil language and in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi as dubbed languages. received positive reviews from critics. Logesh Balachandran of rated 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote “Overall, is an entertaining watch and is a perfect outing for the weekend.” Vishal Menon of wrote, “by settling for instant gratification from its comedy rather than investigating in its broader, more meaningful themes, too settles for the ordinary.” Vignesh Madhu of 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.” Srivatsan S of 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.” Soundarya Athimuthu of 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.” Kirubhakar Purushothaman of 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.” A critic for wrote that in general, not only the lover, the beloved, but also the love changes its images and characteristics in all periods. rated the film 3.25 out of 5 stars. Akshay Kumar of 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.” Thinkal Menon of 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.” On the first day of its release the film collected over 6 crores worldwide. After three days of its release, the film grossed over 19 crore at the box office. On the 11th day of its release, the film grossed 50 crores worldwide. On the first week of its release, the film grossed 70 crore at the worldwide box office. On 25 November 2022, it was reported from that the film grossed over 50 crore from the state of . The film is estimated to have grossed closer to 100 crore against a budget of 5 crore and became one of the . A -language remake, by the same producers titled , was released on 7 February 2025.</p>