REVIEW: Kidnap is seriously funny!

If there is one thing that Sanjay Gadhvi gets right in Kidnap, it is the casting. By making Vidya Malavade play Minissha Lamba's mother, Gadhvi (inadvertently perhaps) manages to appease the small but growing tribe of men who drool over older women. Being part of this clan, I had to try real hard not to hoot each time the always-in-control (oh don't we like 'em that way!) Vidya came on the screen. Dressed in stylish figure-hugging formals, Vidya was the one we were cheering for in Kidnap.

ALSO READ:'Kidnap was my Birthday gift'

In fact, if Gadhvi had made Imran Khan's character abduct Vidya instead of Minissha Lamba, there would have been much more to look forward to in the film. Think of it – a sexy divorcee trapped in a lonely house by the beach with a boy who seems straight out of college… not a bad idea for a path-breaking Bollywood film, huh?

But Sanjay Gadhvi harbours no Oedipal complex. He chooses Minissha Lamba instead. Minissha plays a 17-year-old (and almost always) scantily clad girl, Sonia, whose parents are divorced. And even though her mother Mallika (Vidya Malavade) has given her all the material comforts, she's never managed to take the place of her divorced husband, Vikrant Raina (Sanjay Dutt).

One fine morning, an adamant Sonia insists on seeing her father and an argument with her mother follows. She storms out of the house and the next thing we know is that she's been kidnapped. The kidnapper, Kabir, (Imran Khan) has an old score to settle with her father and makes him run all over the country to get his daughter back. The drama that lasts over five days changes the lives of the two men forever.

Skin, sin and the chase

Needless to say the running around is amply interspersed with skin show (Minissha wears a bikini in this one if you don't already know) and songs. But through it all you cannot help but wonder just what is the point of this cat-and-mouse game after all. When you think of it, in the end there is a scene where the two rivals (Dutt and Khan) come face to face and try to convey it.

Probably it's something to do with Gandhi Jayanti and the 'Love all and find peace' sentiment that will prevail at least over the weekend that follows. But honestly, I'm not sure I get it.

NEXT PAGE: Minissha needs acting classes