Had it not been for Imran Khan , Sanjay Gadhvi’s movie Kidnap might have been a good nap.

Picking out plot-holes in this purported thriller can be a tedious job as tiring as a chubby Sanjay Dutt hopping across the roof-beams of an under-construction high-rise building in pursuit of his daughter’s kidnapper. Quite obviously, the lithe kidnapper slips out of his hands, just like the plot keeps slipping out of Gadhvi’s grip throughout the course of this strictly timepass film.

The only silver lining is Imran Khan, who, armed with his mysterious screen presence, holds you to your seat for most part of the film. But then, every silver lining has a dark cloud nearby.

The movie tells the story of a young, angst-filled man (Imran Khan) who kidnaps the daughter ( Minissha Lamba ) of a rich industrialist (Sanjay Dutt) to settle an old score. Instead of demanding a huge ransom, the kidnapper holds the businessman to ransom and plays a game with him. In the game, the kidnapper makes him do things like burgle a rival’s house, rescue a prisoner from a high-security jail, and even kill someone.

Now, there has to be a reason strong and sound enough for the kidnapper to make the businessman do such crazy things. When that subplot is revealed, the movie hits rock bottom and you somehow manage to stop yourself from pulling your hair. The subplot shows how Dutt had once wronged a teenaged boy. Without giving away the plot, I will safely add that it is so embarrassing to watch that you want to hurl your popcorn bucket to the screen, if only you hadn’t paid out of your own wallet for it.

Thriller is a genre that doesn’t allow room for much cinematic liberty. The script has to be taut and the plot must unfold in such a way that the viewer is able to piece together the jigsaw and connect the dots by the end. But what you come across in ‘Kidnap’ are a lot of missing pieces and loose ends.

Sanjay Gadhvi doesn’t rely so much on logic as on convenience. He shows the captive Minissha Lamba fashionably dressed in clothes so skimpy that they keep distracting the sullen kidnapper time and again. And as a viewer, you completely empathize with the lad. For, throughout her captivity, Minissha’s character is undeviatingly focused on her dresses, be them cleavage-flaunting gowns or hot pants with shimmering belly chains to boot.

Imran Khan holds the film together by rising above the shoddy script solely by dint of his performance. Though he doesn’t do anything stellar, there’s something about him that catches your eye whenever he is on the screen. Hot as a potato and cool as a cucumber, Imran walks through his role with menacing ease. Minissha performs well but her styling looks very odd on her character. Sanjay Dutt is okay as long as he doesn’t do action. There’s a scene in which he tells the kidnapper to go to hell, and his wife, Vidya Malvade , vents out her anger on Dutt. He turns to her and says: “you’re over-reacting”. He should’ve said “you’re over acting”.

‘Kidnap’ does have a few good sequences. The movie’s music is average and the item by Sophie Choudhary or the beach song by Minissha fails to lift your spirits.

What does kick the adrenaline is a superbly executed chase sequence in which Imran hops across buildings and climbs up scaffoldings like a monkey. For this sequence and for Imran’s performance, ‘Kidnap’ gets two stars.

Rating: **

Sanjay Dutt and wife Manyata are having tension between them. The reason Sanjay kissed Vidya Malvade in Sanjay Gadhvi’s Kidnap. The two stars who are playing husband and wife in the movie have shot a very intimate kissing scene. This has not gone down too well with Manyata. Sanjay tried explaining her that it was a part of the script but his arguments were not convincing enough for her.

This is not the first time a kissing scene in Sanjay Gadhvi’s movie has created controversy. The lip lock between Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Bachchan in Dhoom 2 had upset Abhishek Bachchan. This was just before Abhishek’s marriage with Aishwarya but the director did not edit it as it would have gone against the script.

Well lets hope this reel kiss does not create a rift between Sanjay and Manyata in their real life.

Dutt is seriously thinking of throwing his hat into the political ring. “If I get a ticket, I’ll stand for the next elections,” he told BT, “but not without making sure that I can devote enough time to my constituency. I don’t want to be a sleeper politician. There’s no point in taking on more responsibility unless I’ve the time. And nowadays, I’m so busy with my film assignments that I hardly get time to sleep properly.” His father, Sunil Dutt, for long was an MP from the Mumbai North-West parliamentary constituency, which is a responsibility now adopted by Dutt’s sister Priya.

This has to be the best phase of Dutt’s career, truly, and he’s looking at politics as an opportunity to give back to the public what he has received in abundance. “But to do that, I’ll have to cut down on my film assignments,” said Dutt, who is booked solid till the end of 2010. “I don’t want the people who elect me to say, ‘Arrey yaar kuch kar nahin rahe ho’.” His market value is Rs 12 crore a film thanks to buddy Suniel Shetty who set the trend by paying Dutt the price he thought Dutt deserved. “I’ve never been happier personally and professionally,” admitted Dutt. “I’m doing great work and I work only with people I’m comfortable with. I’ve wonderful friends like Anna (Shetty) and a truly amazing wife to go back to at the end of the day. What more can I ask for?”

He’s got two films coming up, “And both give me a chance to move completely away from the gangster’s role that I’ve been doing repeatedly. I was getting bored of that.” And, films and politics aside, Dutt is also considering accepting a proposal made by the Olympic boxing heroes to become a sort of brand ambassador for the fighting sport. Olympian Akhil Kumar is a huge Dutt fan. “This kind of adulation puts a big responsibility on my shoulders. I’ve to be very careful about my public image,” said the macho actor who knows that “except for cricket and tennis, all games are neglected in India”.

Source:TOI

. He will play the role of gangster Haji Mastan who along with Karim Lala and Varadarajan ruled the streets in Mumbai in the 1970s, extending their influence into politics and Bollywood.

“The film will portray a period in Mumbai when the city first saw what organised crime was and the extent of violence it can cause,” says Milan. “Our film is based on what the city went through in that period, how suddenly the gangsters ruled the streets and people were terrified.”

Haji Mastan has been seen on film before. Amitabh Bachchan played a role based on him in Deewar and is said to have met him to observe his mannerisms. Mastan, who had connections with Dilip Kumar, died in 1994.

50-year-old Sanjay Dutt is currently shooting in South Africa for the movie Chatur Singh Two Star and has recently signed a nine-movie deal with Balaji Films.

They made it public this Wednesday when they placed half-a-page advertisement in a marathi newspaper ‘Saamna’ wishing Bal Thackeray on his birthday by Mr Sanjay Dutt and Manyata Dutt. Media is all abuzz with the news that Sanjay and Manyata had tied the knot on October 19, 2006 and that Dutt has her name tattooed on his body.

However, sources close to Dutts say that these are all rumours and that it was Manyata and not Sanjay who is away in Hyderabad shooting, who personally vetted the advertisement before it was sent to print

What is undeniable, however, is that the lady is at present completely in charge of Sanjay’s life and his household and that his sisters, Priya and Namrata and daughter Trishala are not particularly enamoured of her. Recently, one of Sanjay’s close friends points out, Manyata insisted on having the house she shares with Sanjay painted in pink, a fact that did not go down well with the rest of his family. Well, his family may not be in a mood to accept her, but tis true that Manyata has stood by Sanjay through his thick and thin and that Sanjay is completely in love with the lady.