LoveToday Review (2022)

Spoiler Alert. Plus most of you will still go and enjoy the comedy in the film, so don’t get offended or something.

This is a film that can be seen from 2 perspectives. The message/theme/idea of the film and from the final execution of the film. The latter part is the one audiences would enjoy, due to the laughs and comedy (which is quite great actually), but it is also the one which is problematic in a sense Let’s not about what the film is about, let’s talk about what the film is. It is… good. The film absolutely has good intentions, have no doubt about that. But where it gets affected is the execution.

Let’s take 2 examples where Pradeep wishes to show the problems of both Uthaman and Nikitha.

Chapter 1: The Uthaman Perspective

In the first half, we see the male perspective of the film, where we see Uthaman access Nikitha chats, Instagram etc. The better part in this sequence is when Uthaman goes on a literal tour of Nikitha Insta account, seeing how many guys harass her in the name of talking, and how much double innuendos are sent to her in the name of ‘typos’ etc. This aspect, which could have been explored more deeply gets left as it is and is used only for shock value.

When Uthaman gets a message from ‘Mamakutyyyy’ when he is using Nikitha’s phone, he gets all of their previous calls recorded, hears it and rants fully on Nikitha, which is the place where most male audiences would be cheering. Certain aspects are problematic here:

· Why did Nikitha have to lie to Uthaman so much, to do the thing she wants to instead of dtraight up saying it to him, even if he doesn’t like it?

· Nikitha also tells about feeling negative vibes while being with Uthaman. Then why is she in this relationship?

· The fact that Maamakuttyyyy turns out to be a bad, womanising guy in the end simplifies Nikitha’s character as being too innocent and robs her of personality.

The fact that the first two aspects are not even talked about later is quite hilarious for a film, which talks of trust.

Chapter 2: The Nikitha Perspective

Ok here the film hits some serious problems. The fake Insta account.

The problem isn’t that boys do this, the problem is that this issue is brushed off in favour of the issue between Uthaman and his friends. Even in the scene where Uthaman breaks down and talks to his mother, is about how he can’t trust his friends and not about the fact that they indulge in these malicious activities. We never see an internal realization that what they did was wrong.

And getting the photos thing. How did they manage to make Nikitha in the end, joke about the tribal pics. And the fact that he uses the Insta account to get photos from girls blurs the lines between stupidity and nefarious-ness.(credits to BR for this).

And the climax. Well this is the most straightforwardly badly written scene. How can you use a scene where the woman’s image is tarnished to show that the male trusts her? On top of that, they also talk about how she knew he didn’t send those nast yInsta messages ‘coz she trusts him? And all this cheapens the impact of the morphed video of Nikitha released.

Ultimately, its not that the film is fully toxic. The Yogi Babu and Raveena Ravi track, the flashback of the Mango tree, the social message segued in all are good but ultimately, though the writing is good, like other films, it tells you the message instead of making you feel it and hence falls short.

Credits to Pradeep for giving Yogi Babu an actual character instead of clichés and the man absolutely steals it.