Trending the new waves
After a debaculous ‘Comali’, ‘Love Today’ was at the top of my must not watch list. Like any guilty pleasure movies, emotions overtake you at the least imaginable moments. ‘Love Today’ was a houseful on a Friday night even after one month of its release and the crowds were enjoying like anything. It was all understandable but the unprecedented success would have dumfounded even the makers I believe. What’s scary is, if youngsters benchmark itself is going to be these “trending” movie, would Atlee become their Godfather.
The first twenty minutes of the movie was hard to digest. The protoganist, Uthaman Pradeep’s (Pradeep Ranganathan), acting was difficult to digest but it in a while, it sets in. The biggest advantage Pradeep had as an actor was his boy next door look. He reminds us of one of the guys, whom you’d not have thought would be in your friends group but he’d have eventually got into it, without no one knowing how. Or he’d have been the funny guy in the next group of friends, whom even though you like, you wouldn’t really feel like talking to him. I saw him in that perspective, more so on the latter. Generally, we think from protagonist’s angle. It didn’t happen here, if it had happened for you, it’d have been lot more enjoyable for you.
He was a surprisingly good actor. His acting works especially for this character where he had to be loud and dramatic. His interviews too were trending for the same reason, as he had this college humor in tact with him. But how long it would last is the question. After ‘Comali’ I thought he wouldn’t exist but he gave a bigger hit with ‘Love Today’ so for now he’s fine.
Obviously between the leads, everyone would vouch for Nikitha’s (Ivana) character for her acting skills. She was beautiful and did a terrific job in romance scenes but generally most of the heroines are good in romantic scenes. It’s the male stars who always falter. But here Pradeep does a fabulous job. Especially the scene where he tries to pin Nikitha’s saree in a scene, he would give even top heroes a run for money.
There were few laughs in the first half and slightly less in the second half but most of it were already the ones which had been trending in Facebook. It wasn’t a full on laugh riot. If Comali took certain cringe factors and used everything together to get 90s kid’s attention, here it takes to another level. Unfortunately it works and that’s the scary part, exactly like how something is very problematic if you start liking Atlee’s film. These are films with absolutely no ambition. They are youngsters who are supposed to take risks and experiment, not showcase something for temporary joy.
Having said all that, it was not an easy task to have just a single concept of phone exchange as crux and move the story forward. Long time I had written a story about two people talking to each other in office chat. Being a fan of dialogues, I had written it, which I wanted to make it a short film. I had no idea how to make these conversations look like they’re not monotonous. Pradeep’s biggest success here was in achieving that. Except for that one scene in bathroom where all the chat windows were given life, there wasn’t any openly “different” way of showing the texts. In fact it was done so well that people don’t feel that they’re reading only the texts.
Pradeep somehow uses elements against Uthaman’s character in the second half and makes it harsh and relatable. But still the film felt like an attack on Nikitha’s character more than Uthaman. Nikitha explaining to her sister and Uthaman explaining to her mother about how the other parties were not so bad was outright cringe. It was just like the rain scene in ‘Comali’. But there is no other way to come to a conclusion. Having good actors proved to be an advantage for these scenes. Post that it was a series of confessions and pep talks. By this time you’re already in the zone and accept what he says.
In the end the film fares better than ‘Comali’ in both the comedy aspects and emotional ones as the former was more fun and relatable and the latter was made acceptable by some intelligent filmmaking and acting. Plus his choice of actors, especially the females were nice. Everyone was pretty (reminded me of Shankar songs extras) and given at least some time to be registered. He wasn’t trying to show only the heroine as goddess and others less superior to her.
P.S: This was the first time three not so famous/trending songs of Vikram had come in a single film as pop culture reference. Ennodu Nee Irundhaal, Chi chi chi, Ithunundu Muthathile. Of course he credited Vijay and not Vikram. All that was understandable.
P.S.S: Don’t tell me he’s a fan of Vikram, I’d be damned!