The reviews for Sanjay Gadhvi’s newest film Kidnap have not been that good and at the box office the film is certainly not doing as well as was hoped. The reviews have been very critical of the script and recently the director spoke with Sify.com to defend his Kidnap. Here are some highlights from that interview.
Gadhvi really feels that the critics have been “harsh” in their reviews adding, “I know everyone’s just doing their job, but a critic from the electronic media even refused to give the film a rating! I can sense real rage. I can feel people demanding to know, how I could give them Kidnap after Dhoom. But hello, how can you hold my past work against me? Please take the Dhoom stamp off me!”
He denies that the film is any way predictable saying, “You can say that you didn’t get the film, or that Sanjay Gadhvi failed to get you into the world of Kidnap, but you can’t say it’s predictable.”
Revealing some of the big plot twists (so skip this answer if you have not seen the movie) Gadhvi went on to say, “Because no way in the world can anyone predict that the heroine, after a seductive song, will stab the hero. Most, during that song, assumed it was going the typical filmi way! The attempted rape is surprising; that the characters go to the wrong house is unexpected; Sanjay Dutt refusing to bow down to the kidnapper is unpredictable!”
He did concede that the part where Sanjay Dutt’s character changed from a police officer’s uniform to fireman’s uniform was a bit outlandish but says it was Dhoom induced, “That’s the only part where there was an influence. When you’re giving up alcohol, you need months of abstaining for the alcohol to come out of your system. I am a human being and there is still some Dhoom flowing in my veins!”
Then talk turned to costuming and especially Minissha Lamba’s outfits (again a spoiler so read only if you want to really know), “You have to watch my film carefully. When she’s looking around the kidnap den, there’s an open cupboard with clothes that have a tag on it. The only outfit I am willing to take slack about is the black one in the end. But this is a Hindi film. She’s going to point a gun at her kidnapper at that time, so I like her to look powerful.”
There has been an uproar surrounding the fact that Vidya Malavade is playing Minissha’s mother, which
Vidya has defended and so did Gadhvi including her look in the film, “The character of the mother (Vidya Malavade), despite the divorce, still loves her husband. So when she goes to tell Dutt that he must save their daughter, like most women, she’d be particular about her appearance. See, a much younger actress agreed to do the role of a mother.
I know what she’s thinking – that there’s a younger girl in the film; I should be dancing around trees with Akshay Kumar. So you let some things happen…give the character a vivacious look. Besides, why does every mother have to look like Nirupa Roy?”
Finally he answered the charge that many critics felt there was a big fault in the script, the fact that Minissha’s Sonia did not know she was being held in the house she had previously lived in, “I was shocked when I read that. Because the film explains that she was living in that home eight years ago. Many children whose parents divorce are in denial and often erase past memories.”
