Movie Review: 'Mod';
Star Cast: Ayesha Takia Azmi, Rannvijay Singh, Raghuvir Yadav and Tanve Azmi; Director: Nagesh Kukunoor;
Debuting with an off-beat bollywood film like 'Hyderabad Blues' in 1998, actor-director Nagesh Kukunoor has proved to be one of the most creative film-makers to come out of India in the last decade and a half, if you look at the subjects he's dealt with. If it was a romance he started off with, with movies like Rockford
But Mod is not a full Nagesh Kukunoor type film. For someone who showed great skill in handling sensitive stories in movies like Dor and Iqbal, there's still a bit of heavy handedness that comes through here. However, after trying his hands at silly comedies in Bombay To Bangkok and suspense thrillers in 8x10 Tasveer, the sort of innocent romance that Mod brings along, is surely a partial comeback of the Kukunoor.
A romantic drama, Mod is an official remake of a 2007 Taiwanese film called Keeping Watch. The movie sees Kukunoor reunite with one of his favorite actresses, Ayesha Takia, who is cast here as Aranya Mahadev, a simple girl who has inherited her family watch repair store. Aranya leads a simple, rather solitary sort existence in the hills of Ooty, with her father and aunt for company.
Things change for her when one day, a customer, who calls himself Andrew, shows up at her doorstep looking to get his watch repaired. When he discloses that he is, in fact, her old high school friend Andy Raymond, played by Rannvijay Singh, the two begin a sweet romance, where he keeps coming back to her to get his water-soaked watch repaired each day. There is something strange about Andy, though, whose mannerisms seem a bit too child-like and simplistic for someone like him.
The twist is revealed mid-way through the narrative, as an Aranya in love with Andy finds herself confronted by some very painful truths and has to decide whether she can continue with their relationship.
The film's narrative is flawed major due to the pace that Kukunoor sets for it. While the courtship between Aranya and Andy is sweet to begin with, it takes far too long for the twist of the tale to come in, with the whole first half being spent in this romance. The second half drags too, as, after the big disclose, it is baffling why Aranya goes back to Andy, or, even if she does, why she takes so long to come to the decision. There's no clarification of her reasons for going back to Andy, or why she acts the way she does in the climactic moments. The not required angle with Rannvijay's parents also drags the film down.
But Mod is not a full Nagesh Kukunoor type film. For someone who showed great skill in handling sensitive stories in movies like Dor and Iqbal, there's still a bit of heavy handedness that comes through here. However, after trying his hands at silly comedies in Bombay To Bangkok and suspense thrillers in 8x10 Tasveer, the sort of innocent romance that Mod brings along, is surely a partial comeback of the Kukunoor.
A romantic drama, Mod is an official remake of a 2007 Taiwanese film called Keeping Watch. The movie sees Kukunoor reunite with one of his favorite actresses, Ayesha Takia, who is cast here as Aranya Mahadev, a simple girl who has inherited her family watch repair store. Aranya leads a simple, rather solitary sort existence in the hills of Ooty, with her father and aunt for company.
Things change for her when one day, a customer, who calls himself Andrew, shows up at her doorstep looking to get his watch repaired. When he discloses that he is, in fact, her old high school friend Andy Raymond, played by Rannvijay Singh, the two begin a sweet romance, where he keeps coming back to her to get his water-soaked watch repaired each day. There is something strange about Andy, though, whose mannerisms seem a bit too child-like and simplistic for someone like him.
The twist is revealed mid-way through the narrative, as an Aranya in love with Andy finds herself confronted by some very painful truths and has to decide whether she can continue with their relationship.
The film's narrative is flawed major due to the pace that Kukunoor sets for it. While the courtship between Aranya and Andy is sweet to begin with, it takes far too long for the twist of the tale to come in, with the whole first half being spent in this romance. The second half drags too, as, after the big disclose, it is baffling why Aranya goes back to Andy, or, even if she does, why she takes so long to come to the decision. There's no clarification of her reasons for going back to Andy, or why she acts the way she does in the climactic moments. The not required angle with Rannvijay's parents also drags the film down.
Ayesha Takia brings to this film a kind of inner conviction that makes you want to believe in her faith in the oft-abused emotion. When Ayesha speaks her lines, they don't sound written in this under-written movie about love that has gone into the realm of the surreal.
Veejay turned actor Rannvijay Singh is the nerdy stranger who walks into Ayesha/Aranya's tranquil life in a scenic soporific hill station that's threatened, rather rudely, by a construction magnate whom we overhear saying, 'The first thing we'll do is get rid of all the greenery around here.'
The camerawork by Chirantan Das shamelessly creates picture-postcard images all around Aranya's life and world. The relationships that emerge from the sedate silences of a life lived in an ageless vacuum are woven into a plot which careens between being a delicate story and an overemotional melodrama.
The movie has some truly tender supporting performances from Raghuvir Yadav, Tanve Azmi and specially Nikhil Ratnaparkhi as Takia's overweight suitor who in that one sequence where he pleads and threatens Ayesha Takia to marry him, brings so much bridled emotion into the movie you are left feeling satiated with the vast amount of talent that this carefully drawn fable-romance pitches forward.
Ayesha, of course, presides over the delicate proceedings. With her effortlessly-drawn emotions she is a treat to watch in every frame. Rannvijay in a multifaceted role that demands a variety of mood swings from the actor, is astonishingly in-charge.
Overall, 'Mod' is a film you want to see for Ayesha and Ranvijay’s beautiful romantic journey. It is a really close to heart film.
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