A Ganesh Nadar writes Mod has so many repetitive scenes that it should have been named repeat mode. Post YOUR reviews here!Mountains, waterfalls, greenery, and Ayesha Takia -- they all have one thing in common: they are pleasing to the eye. You get plenty of all this eye candy throughout the film, including a little train that winds through these pretty hills.
There's a station called Ganga and an old man sitting there watching the little train every day, waiting for his wife, we are told. She doesn't turn up till the movie ends.
The old man is a drunkard and a Kishore Kumar fan. Ayesha plays his daughter and you will not find a more unlikely pair. Whenever one asks an actor about her new movie, she will almost certainly say, 'this role is different'. For once, this turns out to be true. This is one movie like none other.
It's a love story where one lover is actually dead, another lover who is alive likes to pretend he is the dead lover, and a third lover who tries to buy love. And all are after Ayesha. You cannot blame them, she looks really cute.
The movie opens with a shot of Ayesha sleeping, then waking up and taking coffee out for her father who sleeps in the open because his daughter won't let him into the house.
Then there is a marriage scene where Ragubir Yadav and his band are playing music -- they are Kishore Kumar fans. All the songs they sing resemble something out of the sixties. Even the clothes people wear at the wedding are from the sixties.
You don't see a single mobile in the movie till the last scene. Ayesha doesn't carry one because it gives you brain cancer,
Out of 12 reels, 10 are focused on Ayesha. The rest of the cast have to make do with the remaining two. All one can say of the hero is that many a time one is left wondering why he does what he does, and many a time he looks like he doesn't know why he does what he does.
If you see the hero jumping out of a window, you will see the same scene a dozen times. Ditto for the heroine. If they are sitting near a waterfall, the same scene is repeated another dozen times. A shop with 'Mohan-since 1947' inscribed on it is shown a dozen times.
This continuous repeat of scenes makes the movie totally boring. Looks like the cameraman ran out of ideas and so kept repeating the same scenes ad infinitum.
Ayesha does a fantastic job taking up where she left off in Dor. She often moves the audience to tears, a real Meena Kumari in that regard. I would like to make a special request to her that the next movie she acts in should be a comedy, just to make up for all the tears we wiped from our eyes this time.
The doctors, nurses, and attendants also repeat the same antics many times -- just in case you missed them the first few times. Instead of calling it Mod they should have called it 'repeat mode'.
It's a lovely story with great actors, and great scenery. What screws it up is the slow movement. You really have to have patience to watch the movie or be happy just to watch Ayesha.
Wish director Nagesh Kukunoor had someone to tell him that slow and steady doesn't win races any more. You have to be fast and racy. A must-see for Ayesha fans; the rest can give it a miss.
Rediff Rating: 
