Slow and not so steady

Two weeks ago, we had Mausam, which could have been a sensitive romantic film but went haywire

Slow and not so steady

Mod
Cast: Ayesha Takia Azmi, Rannvijay Singh, Raghuvir Yadav
Director: Nagesh Kukunoor
U/A
Rating: **

Two weeks ago, we had Mausam, which could have been a sensitive romantic film but went haywire. This week, we have Mod, which again manages to just about reach the could-have-been line. Mod to its credit has a sensitive story of an extremely lovable girl falling for a boy who is in love with her since their school days, in a small idyllic town.

Andy (Ranvijay Singh) is so in love with Aranya (Ayesha) that he dunks his watch everyday in water so that he can get it repaired in her watch repair shop. There is a problem in the form of another classmate Abhay. The movie has some super-cute romantic moments, even though the smart Aranya falling for the clumsy, slightly cuckoo Andy seems a bit unbelievable.

Aranya has a father (Raghuveer Yadav) who is also a die-hard romantic and is waiting for his wife who's left him, while he croons to Kishor Kumar songs. Aranya's bua (Tanvi Azmi) owns a restaurant and gives free love advice to Aranya. What could have been a beautiful love story turns into a mammoth drag, thanks to the slow pace of the film. Ayesha Takia looks super cute, but the camera lingers on her forever, while you are aching to see some action.

Even the beautiful location starts to get on your nerves, as one particular spot is shown so many times, that you start feeling like you have been living there forever. Some of the characters, like the doctor at the mental hospital (Anant Mahadevan) or Abhay's mother seem to be sketched hurriedly with some cliched dialogues thrown in for them.

Ayesha gives a superb performance and must say Randeep does a decent job too, considering that he has a difficult role to play. But in all, a far from satisfying experience as by the end of it, the tortoise-ish pace of the movie gets boring enough for you to stop caring about the emotions of the characters involved. Watch Nagesh Kukunoor's earlier films like Dor if you have some time to kill.

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