Tamil director Pradeep Ranganathan on ‘Love Today’, turning actor, and the evolving nature of romance
Director Pradeep Ranganathan on making his acting debut with the upcoming release ‘Love Today’, which has music by Yuvan Shankar Raja
(Originally published in The Hindu on November 03, 2022)
How does one know for sure that their partner is the right one? “It’s okay to take time in love. Not to find the right one, but to realise that there is no ‘right one’,” says writer-director Pradeep Ranganathan, quoting something he came across online.
Pradeep, who shot to fame for his debut film, the Jayam Ravi-starrer Comali, has been vocal about love and all its shades. In Love Today, his sophomore film that is set to release this week, he aims to tell a story about love through a couple (played by Ivana and Pradeep himself), who exchange their mobile phones to better understand each other.
Pradeep is confident that this will be a ‘good love story’ that talks about modern-day love. But, given the evolving nature of both love and cinema, what truly makes a love story good? “Easy ah kedaikardhu manasula nikkadhu (What comes easily will not stay in the heart). A story that shows two people sorting all differences and fighting all obstacles for love is a good love story,” says Pradeep, adding that it is the struggle that makes any quest beautiful.
Though love evolves, the core of it always remains the same no matter the generation, says Pradeep. Perhaps that’s also why he is agreeably abhorrent towards this modern social media-driven behaviour of putting down anything old-school as cringe and anyone sensitive and emotive as an ‘emoboi’. “Paasam and nesam are considered cringe-y these days. So is the case when I show a mother feeding food to her child with a melodious track playing in the background. How is that cringe? People are expecting us to emote only to a certain extent. But love is emotional, and emotions will remain the same. I believe…
Read the full interview here: