Kidnap review: Waste of money in failed cinematic attempt

The trailer of Raja Chanda’s Kidnap had raised expectation among the audience, but the film is a big letdown. The trailer suggested the film would portray the reality of human trafficking, but it is mostly about unnecessary song-and-dance sequences while the repetitive and unrealistic action sequences just bore the viewer.

The storyline seems to have been conceived only to present Dev with his muscular look in different contexts and Rukmini Maitra in a glamorous avatar.

The film begins with a father (Chandan Sen) making an appeal to the chief minister to look into the matter of his missing daughter.

In the beginning, the father’s situation hardly seems serious. The failure of the police to trace the girl and the commissioner’s fear of being questioned by the chief minister lack logical connection. The screenplay is full of jolts and abrupt turns that never quite gel with the story while space is created for the protagonists’ silly moments of romance.

The story next shifts to a pub in Dubai, where Dev (Dev Adhikari) woos Meghna Chatterjee (Rukmini Maitra) with his performance. It is sad to see this style of impressing one's love interest without her consent still on show in mainstream films.

Meghna has come to the pub as a photojournalist with an agenda, to follow the traffickers of a girl who has been missing from Kolkata for months. But the traffickers soon get wind of Meghna’s activities. Dubai's police don’t help either. Instead, information about her gets leaked. Meanwhile, Dev continues to stalk her until he saves her from some goons trying to attack her. Their friendship intensifies as Dev again saves her from the attackers.

Meghna leaves for Kolkata once her project is done and Dev promises to meet her there. However, he is surprised to not find her at the given address and realizes she has been abducted.

Certain revelations before the interval make the plot puzzling. There are a few lame attempts to show that even media houses do not fight shy of sacrificing their journalists for popularity.

Dev, in his quest for Meghna, comes across the grieving father and promises to bring back his daughter as well.

The rest of the plot is nothing but Dev hunting down the culprits on his own. As usual there is an attempt to project him as a hero with superhuman abilities but his dialogues seem utterly disjointed. The process of unravelling the racket is also unrealistic.

While the first half of the film has three song-and-dance sequences with Dev and Meghna romancing each other, there is another in the second half out of context.

There is no attempt to spread awareness or portray the close-knit human trafficking network that involves corrupt government officials. The climax could have been so much better, focusing on the evils of a crime that is one of the largest trades in South Asia. Most of the time, Kidnap just seems to be a platform to showcase the romance between the protagonists, a real-life couple.

Dev Adhikari can hardly bring himself to express any emotion. Maitra mostly holds up the film's glam quotient, as there is little scope for her to exhibit her acting chops. Chandan Sen tries his best to create an impact with his emotional performance. NK Salil’s dialogues in the romantic sequences are silly while in the apparently serious situations they are needlessly preachy.

Souvik Basu’s camerawork mostly focuses on the protagonists from low angles, to depict them as larger-than-life characters. In the action sequences, his camerawork could have been better. However, there was hardly any scope for raising tension as in all the duels, Dev is the inevitable winner. He never faces many obstacles either. He is always sure where to find the culprits, even in Bangkok.

The songs 'Ektu Jaega Dena' and 'Oi Dakche Akash' are soothing romantic compositions by Jeet Gannguli. 'Ektu Jaega Dena' has some contribution to the storyline as well, but the rest only increase the runtime. Savvy Gupta’s background score is not at all exclusive.

Kidnap is a failed attempt by Raja Chanda and actor-producer Dev, who has just wasted a lot of money shooting the film in exotic locations with beautiful costumes. This film is not likely to impress his fans much.