Wild goose chase
Movie Name: Kidnap
Directed by: Sanjay Gadhvi
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Imran Khan, Minissha Lamba, Vijay Malvade
Showing at: City Pride Kothrud, City Pride Satara Road, Fame Akurdi, Gold Adlabs, Mangala, Inox
CAN clean-cut Imran Khan, after playing good so well, go bad with equal felicity? Not, if his director is Sanjay Gadhvi.
Curvy lass Sonia (Minissha Lamba) has an altercation with equally curvy mom (Vidya Malvade). Off she goes for a dip in the sea, all the better for us to see some more of her waist-to-hip ratio. Next thing, she wakes up in a strange house, with a strange guy (Imran Khan), with his back to her, making tea at a stove. "This is a kidnap", strange guy intones, and keeps stirring the pot. Out pops protective pa (Sanjay Dutt) on a rescue mission, which consists of a series of lax wild goose chases all over Mumbai.
Clearly, all ideas of knife-edge suspense and adrenalin rushes were very far from the director's mind when he dreamt up this long-drawn plot which mixes childhood trauma, revenge, and unhappy marriages, with less than average results.
Sanjay Dutt is a dab hand at revenge sagas, having done so many before. And Imran had shown his ability to do a superb character read in Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na: Gadhvi, who had created dhoom with both the Dhoom movies, swings unconvincingly between suspense and song, and gets neither right.
The overhang is evident in Lamba's bikinis and tankinis She is also plonked under a waterfall in a transparent white shift, with Imran brooding by the side. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Magic-less
Movie Name: Drona
Directed by: Goldie Bhel
Cast: Abishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Kay Kay Menon, Jaya Bachchan
Showing at: City pride Kothrud, City Pride Satara Road, Fame Akurdi, Gold Adlabs, Mangala
SUPERHEROES who save the world are still, despite Hrithik Roshan, a Western concept. The Roshan lad wore a zigzag mask, which hid half his face, and a flowing cape: He spoke Hindi and romanced Priyanka Chopra, but he looked faintly like Superman. Abhishek Bachchan takes on the mantle of the next Bollywood superhero-a totally desi mahapurushr—in a white tunic embossed with golden stars. He also speaks Hindi and romances Priyanka, but looks nothing like Superman. He doesn't even, sigh, have a mask.
What he does have is a nasty mother-and-son duo, making his life miserable. Every so often a blue rose petal floats in to comfort him. And then, one day, he acquires, in rapid succession, a gem-studded bracelet, a gorgeous bodyguard (Priyanka), the knowledge that his own mother Rani Jayati Devi (Jaya Bachchan) abandoned him when he was a young child, and that he is not an ordinary mortal, but a Drona, keeper of the faith that he has to save from the evil jaadugar Riz Raizada (Kay Kay Menon).
Oh, this could have been such a wonderful fantasy, harking back to ancient Indian tales of intrigue and mystery, full of tilasmi nagris, and jaadui talwaars. The special effects are absolutely fabulous; the top-notch quality is a first for Indian cinema. But the plot's ludicrous. Goldie Behl filches from here and there (Harry Potter, The Lord Of The Rings come instantly to mind), and gives us a slow, slack story.
Fairy tales work only when the strange and fantastical are buoyed by credible characters, not by poor, misguided actors, looking as if they had strolled out in fancy dress. Abhishek can't lift his turgid Adi aka Drona off the ground, Priyanka's martial arts moves are buried under the cleavage-flashing red and yellow billowing shifts. Only Kay Kay, the black-hearted magician, carries off a gelled Mohawk and a curved silver hook on his forefinger with élan.
If only his magic had spilled over to the movie.