Date:19/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/19/stories/2006081920940200.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

How about some pace?

Ahista Ahista

Cast: Soha Ali Khan, Abhay Deol

Director: Shivam Nair

It is back to a more leisurely, less frenetic age. This is about a time when women dried red chillies on the rooftop and boys flew kites. Debutant director Shivam Nair's film is that kind of nostalgia exercise that is likely to get a few bonus points from those with a weakness for the days gone by.

Nair's insight is so refreshing for a newcomer. Those addas at the chaiwala, those STD booths opened till midnight, and those burqa-clad women and men in a kurta-pyjama! All making for delectable cinema: no violence, no fancy clothes, no candyfloss romance, no designer emotions. Thank God.

Just beauty...

And after a series of semi-nude girls in scores of movies, it is indeed a relief to see a girl who covers her midriff, keeps the cleavage under wraps. As a girl left stranded by her boy friend on the day of wedding at the marriage registrar's office in Daryaganj, young Soha Ali Khan manages all this without for a second looking less than charming. All along she is a picture of quiet dignity. When she lowers her gaze, she looks beautiful, when she opens her eyes, she looks sparkling. Now, if she could learn the basics of acting, she would go places. At the moment, she has her mother's beauty with her father's acting skills.

The Deol link

It is more of the same with the hero Abhay Deol, who covered himself with some glory in his debut film, "Socha Na Tha". As a typical Old Delhi boy, he fails to get the dialect right. For instance his friend is `aa raha' (coming) and not `aa riya' as they speak in the Walled City. Add to that his stiff body movements and you know this guy was meant for a five-star romance, not somebody meant to climb up a ladder to disturb an old lady drying her chillies under an open sky or chatting up the street crowd near a marriage bureau.

On snail's steps

Nair's film could have been delectable had his lead cast been better. And had the director not decided to keep the snail company. The film moves slowly, ever so slowly. Nothing unpredictable, little drama, very little pace. In short, Nair's film ends as a delectable visual treat that fails to tug at the heart. Just a test of patience.

Enamoured of the name? Go in for Esmayeel Shroff's film of the same name 25 years ago. Nostalgia is not such a bad companion, after all!

ZIYA US SALAM