Love Today (film)

Love Today is a 1997 Tamil romance film written and directed by Balasekaran, who made his debut with the venture. This film features Vijay and Suvalakshmi in the lead roles while Manthra, Raghuvaran, Karan and Bindu Panicker all play other supporting roles. The film opened to big positive reviews from critics and did well at the box office.^[2] The Movie was declared as an All Time Blockbuster by completing 175 days at the Boxoffice.^[3] It was also dubbed in Hindi as Dil Ki Dagar.^[4] The movie was remade into Telugu as Suswagatham (1998) starring Pawan Kalyan and Devayani.

Plot

Ganesh (Vijay) is a college graduate who lives with his father, Chadrasekhar (Raghuvaran), who is a doctor. Ganesh's father is easy going and pampers his son with whatever he wants. Sandhya (Suvalakshmi) is a daughter of a very strict police officer Vasudevan (Rajan P. Dev), who is always suspicious that his daughter would have a love affair. Sandhya makes up her mind that she would never fall in love and disappoint her father and her ambition is to get a gold medal in her college degree.

One day Ganesh spots Sandhya and falls in love at first sight. Even though Sandhya catches a good glimpse of him, she tells her friend Fathima she likes no one. Ganesh goes to the bus stop everyday to see Sandhya. He tries to get the advice his friends Ravi (Sriman) and Peter (Karan) to convince Sandhya to marry him. Their advices go in vain as she does not care about him. She confronts Ganesh one day and tells him not to waste his time on her.

Ganesh does not give up and gets hold of Sandhya's friend, Preethi (Manthra) and she tries to talk to Sandhya, but she is unmovable. Vasudevan becomes suspicious of Ganesh and Sandhya and uses physical force on him. He also verbally abuses Sandhya, even though she tries to explain her innocence. She is forced to leave town because of this.

Ganesh finds her whereabouts and leaves his father to go out of town and find her. As he is roaming around trying to find her, his father has an accident and passes away. His friends desperately try to find his whereabouts, but they cannot trace him. Peter ends up performing the last rites for Ganesh's father. Ganesh arrives and gets heart broken that he could not even perform the cremation for his father.

At this point, Sandhya realizes her love for Ganesh. She reveals her feeling for him and tells him that she loves him and wants to spend the rest of her life with him. But he rejects her feelings and says to her, "I've lost everything because of love. I didn't have a chance to see my father's grave, and so it's not worth it." The next day, Sandhya is found to be standing at the bus stop, waiting for Ganesh to come. Ganesh meanwhile, takes the recommendation that his father had written for him before his death and goes for his first interview.

Cast

• Vijay as Ganesh
• Suvalakshmi as Sandhya
• Manthra as Preethi
• Raghuvaran as Chandrasekhar
• Karan as Peter
• Rajan P. Dev as Vasudevan
• Bindu Panicker
• Dhamu as Siva
• Sriman as Ravi
• Ramji as Peter's friend (Special appearance)

Production

In an interview around the time of release, Vijay mentioned that he signed the film to give the audience what they want — fights, fast songs and a message, mentioning he had similar success from Poove Unakkaga.^[5]

Soundtrack

Soundtrack is composed by newcomer Shiva. His realname was Omar and he earlier composed an album. The lyrics were written by Vairamuthu, Vaasan, Vaigarai Selvan, 'Pattukottai' Shanmuga Sundaram.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were secured by Sun TV. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.

Critical Reception

The film generally received positive reviews. Prabha and Pady Srinivasan of Indolink.com appreciated the film due to "its different ending", and said Vijay and Suvalakshmi both sparkle in their respective roles.^[6] The film became one of several successful films in the romantic genre with Vijay featured in throughout the late 1990s.^[7] The success of the film prompted the director and actor to come together again immediately for a film titled Priyamudan, however the title was later used by Vijay for a different project.^[8]

Remakes

The film was later remade in 1998 into Telugu as Suswagatham starring Pawan Kalyan and Devayani, with the film doing considerably better business in the Telugu version and it was remade in Hindi as Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai with Aftab and Amisha Patel which was released in 2002.^[9] Dwarakish remade the film in Kannada as Majnu starring his son Giri in lead role.^[10]

References