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  Manisha Lakhe

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Nagesh Kuknoor going M Night Shyamalan way? He presents the ever effervescent Ayesh Takia in a wan, hidden in woolies and scarves, teary eyed role. And offers us the hottie Rannvijay in a role that starts out to be cute then derails into the bizarre and outright silly at a point.

In a small picturesque town of Ganga, Ayesha the watch repair girl lives with a host of practically picaresq …

Nagesh Kuknoor going M Night Shyamalan way? He presents the ever effervescent Ayesh Takia in a wan, hidden in woolies and scarves, teary eyed role. And offers us the hottie Rannvijay in a role that starts out to be cute then derails into the bizarre and outright silly at a point.

In a small picturesque town of Ganga, Ayesha the watch repair girl lives with a host of practically picaresque characters. I say picaresque because the characters could have been comic, but they’re not. Nagesh Kukunoor takes himself way too seriously for that. He wants to offer us cinema with heart.

That’s why you have Raghuveer Yadav (who gets to play Ayesha’s dad) who is sometimes drunk, sometimes head of a local band that calls themselves Kishore Kumar fans (revenge because he was denied permission to make the Kishore biopic?). Good thing Raghuveer Yadav can sing, but oh mah gawd! Ramleela in Delhi 6 is one thing, but aping Kishore Kumar is quite another. Every time they sang, I wondered if Kishore Kumar pictures and posters would unhinge or unglue themselves and make the great escape...

Then there’s the fat pawn shop owner... Did I just use the politically incorrect word ‘fat’? yes indeed. Ayesha and the large shopkeeper exchange what is supposed to be amusing dialog about using the vibrating belt to become as fabulous as Salman Khan. It isn’t.



Then there’s the gorgeous Tanvi Azmi who is friend, philospher, guide and aunt to Ayesha. She runs a restaurant and wears beautiful ear-rings. Don’t ask why the restaurant is so full in that small town.

The hero, played beautifully by Rannvijay (you’ve seen him in the VJ avatar on TV) shows up at Ayesha’s doorstep one fine day ringing the bell again and again, holding out a sodden watch. He stays holding it until she takes it from him, continues to look at her oddly, sits down on the chair she points to as if he were demented, he has a goofy grin, and folds a hundred rupee note as an origami crane and places that note on a dish as payment. Now as audience, we realise that some of the stuffing is missing from the boy’s sandwich. But Ayesha finds it cute.



If you think that is cute, then you’ll see him arrive at her doorstep again and again holding out a watch. That’s when you realise that you are more irritated by the fact that origami cranes are made with square pieces of paper (he makes them from hundred rupee notes that are rectangular) than his odd manner. And if Ayesha finds it cute, who are we to complain?

We see them sit by the waterfall, he makes an attempt to kiss her (he doesn’t, but she thinks he’s ‘manly’) and fail (why doesn’t she kiss him, she likes, him, isn’t it? But we won’t ask such questions because we’re suspending disbelief).



We won’t ask why only the cast of the movie is wearing winter clothing while the villagers and the staff at the mental hospital are in their summer shirts... Oops! Yes, there is a mental hospital. Apparently the hero has a veritable party of two in his head, and both love Ayesha. But he’s so cute, this Rannvijay, we feel terrible tittering at dialog like, ‘I have been on the internet, and I think I have the cure...’

After that dialog the whole movie sort of falls sharply down the precipice of irrationality. And the languorous pace that you liked initially begins to annoy you. What is with Ayesha wearing lipstick in the pawnshop while the large chap looks at her longingly? Why is there a construction company guy saying really inane, inexcusable things like, ‘This green cover has to go’ (cheap ruse that one!)? Why are we not horrified at how everyone finds Ayesha ‘cute’ when she falls in love with an obviously schizophrenic chap? How is the end justified?



But then the answers are so tedious, you would not want to waste your time and multiplex ticket money on this one. The lead cast gets a heart each but the rest is laughable.