Love Today On Netflix: Pradeep Ranganathan's Blockbuster Revives The Discussion On Toxic Masculinity

When Kabir Singh was released, a lot of social activists and feminists found issues with the film, and its Telugu version Arjun Reddy. The term toxic masculinity was introduced to many commoner Indians and debates surrounding that movie are still going on in some digital spaces.

After the widespread success of the film Love Today, its Telugu release, and now the OTT release today, December 2, the discussion on how toxic Love Today is, has gained attention.

There will be spoilers in this discussion, so proceed only if you watched Love Today or if you don't mind spoilers.

Pradeep Uthaman and Nikitha exchange their phones for a day compelled by Nikitha's father. Pradeep has deleted his WhatsApp chats and Nikitha is initially unable to find dirt on him. Pradeep finds stuff about her that makes him mad, and at the intermission point in the film, Nikitha recovers the messages he deleted and digs up his dirt too. They both get upset and wonder if the relationship is even worth it. Pradeep's mother gives him a talk that convinces him that she is the one for him. However, by then a new accusation comes toward Nikitha, and people close to her except her sister and Pradeep judge her and develop a sense of disgust. Finally, Pradeep finds Nikitha, who had wandered off, and tells her he will trust her no matter what. And then finally when he manages to clear up her name, all goes well and they are assumed to get married and live happily after.

Now, the topic of discussion is the comparison between Pradeep and Nikitha. There are objections to how these characters have been written and portrayed on screen.

This is the dirt that the characters find in each other.

Pradeep tries to get back in touch with his ex, he asks for pictures from strangers and acquaintances to consider them for his short films, he is a member of a WhatsApp group where the guys in the group talk about porn and celebrity fantasies that they have, and he uses a fake Instagram handle pretending to be a woman, for pranking random people online, which eventually is accessed a lot of people that he barely knows and becomes a community account.

Nikitha remains closely in touch with her ex, and flirts with him from time to time, borderline cheating on Pradeep. She has an intimate friendship with a guy who likes her and has confessed his love to her, for emotional support.

Leaving other minor things aside, this is the dirt they have on each other.

The thing with the fake profile is taken quite seriously, as from that same account Nikitha and her sister receive abusive messages, and she seriously doubts if Pradeep had something to do with those messages, or at least that he was aware of those messages and didn't really mind.

Later, at the end, when a morphed video of her being intimate with a guy is leaked online, nobody apart from her sister believes Nikitha, and even before Pradeep gets a chance to talk to her she wanders off with a zoned-out mind. Pradeep finds her and tells her how she is his everything and then the film ends there without revealing who sent those abusive messages. However, Pradeep's friends find out who leaked that morphed video and get him arrested.

I came across a writeup that said that Nikitha was intentionally written as a dumb individual, and her character was defined by her infidelity, whereas Pradeep's character received a lot of depth and his flaws were normalized.

It's true that the film has a bias toward the male perspective because obviously it's written and directed by a man. Irrespective of the level of emotional intelligence that a creator has, it's not possible to completely be unbiased with every piece of art a person creates.

Love Today is real, messy, and controversial, yes. But it managed to reiterate strongly that digital abuse is disgusting and people should not do it. It definitely didn't normalize it. The guy who did that wasn't even identified in the film. There is no way it was portrayed as something petty. The film established that women being friends with men who are interested in them isn't necessarily cheap, and more importantly, it talks about the much-needed trust in relationships despite the presence of factors that trigger insecurities.

Overall, I would say that the film contributes to educating men to be less toxic more than the aggressive criticism that surrounds the web about how toxic men are.

Whether or not it's problematic, it's definitely entertaining. Give it a watch if you have time. Love Today streams on Netflix.