Rating :**

A few years ago, director Robbie Grewal made "Samay", a thriller with Sushmita Sen cast as a cop and single mother tracking down a serial killer. Swerving from gritty to gooey, Robbie does an about turn in "MP3".

The teen flick is a gently conceived, neatly assembled and sensibly executed puppy-love tale that throws up a few endearing moments and a whole lot of new actors.

What you instantaneously like about the young school-going pair is that they are in character. Neither Ruslaan Mumtaz nor Hazel strain for effect to show they're supposed to be falling in love for the first time.

There's a natural progression to their friendship that's never jerked by redundant drama.

Most refreshingly, the parents on both sides are supremely cool about the growing fondness between their kids. "Clean up the mess," Ruslaan's mom orders as he tucks dreamily into chocolates on the living-room sofa.

Love, if you must know, is no big deal. Live with it.

The problems come from exasperating ego clashes between the callow couple. He litters, she gets bitter. She likes demonstrative affection and he's embarrassed by it, thanks to the brood of jeering friends.

In getting the pulse of the pure feelings of first love, this flick goes beyond Ken Ghosh's "Ishq Vishq" where the pair's growing love also developed in the college campus.

The actors, grownup and still growing, in Grewal's "MP3" are naturals. Watch the two actresses who play the young pair's respective moms. They are new to the screen and therefore welcome in the mint-fresh scheme of things.

The naughty bits among the school brats are well matched by the coochie-cooing in Paris.

What you like best about this teen-dream is its unassuming pacing. No sighs of strain in the storytelling, no quickening of the pulse and no moments that repulse.

And yes, Ruslaan Mumtaz is natural and vulnerable on camera.