Worth a 'watch'

The opening shot of Mod shows us clocks of different shapes and sizes in Aranya Mahadeo's (Ayesha Takia Azmi) home which also doubles as her watch-repair shop. Staying with her father (Raghubir Yadav) in sleepy but picturesque Ganga, Aranya also assists her aunt ( Tanve Azmi) at the latter's restaurant.

From being adept at handling watches to asking her drunkard father to sleep outside their house, Aranya has, to quite an extent, an unusual air about her. Every morning, the father-daughter duo watch the train enter their small town - a ritual practiced ever since Aranya's mother left them.

Soon enough, romance enters her life in the form of Andy Raymond (Ranvijay Singh Singha). With his round-framed spectacles, every day he turns up at Aranya's house with a water-soaked watch. In exchange of her service he daily pays her hundred rupees, the note folded in the shape of a swan. It is soon learnt that Andy was Aranya's school-mate and is now back in her life after a good ten years.

Their part-quirky part-romantic exchanges continue till Aranya notices abnormalities in Andy's behavior. A little help from her school leads her to know that the student named Andy Raymond had died ten years ago. And this is where the story takes a turn.

The second half of the movie sees Singha, who is suffering from dissociative identity disorder, alternate personalities between Abhay (his real self) and Andy (his dead friend). How Aranya decides to help the man she loves, forms the rest of the movie.

With a love story as the central theme, Nagesh Kukunoor's Mod suffers from a sluggish pace and some inconsistencies. It, however, is a sincere effort with some good performances. Takia is adorable as Aranya and Singha too puts up a reasonably good act, specially as the geeky Andy. Yadav and Azmi are effortless as the father and aunt, respectively. In a small role, actor Nitin Ratnaparkhi beautifully portrays the resentment of an unrequited lover.

Scenes showing Aranya and Abhay's initial interactions, the one where he's found dipping his hand in a bucket of water just so that his watch gets spoilt and another one in which Ratnaparkhi 'punishes' Aranya for refusing his proposal, stand out from among the rest.

While the music is okay, Chirantan Das' cinematography captures the small town nicely.

A tribute to Kishore Kumar and a save-the-environment message are woven subtly in the movie's story. Mod may not belong to the league of Iqbal and Dor, but it certainly is worth a 'watch'.