Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Genelia D'Souza, Om Puri, Tinnu Anand, Smita Jaykar

Director: Mandeep Kumar

Rating: ** 1/2

It's a sweet love story. A little too sweet perhaps. But handled impressively well, considering it is Mandeep Kumar's debut direction.

Viren (Ritesh Deshmukh), is a rickshaw driver in Haryana. Minnie (Genelia) is from a rich family and she wants to escape from getting married to a no-gooder, so she forcibly gets herself kidnapped by hapless Viren. They in turn end up getting kidnapped by kidnapped by someone else.

Ritesh doesn't suit the role of a Haryanvi gentlemen, for obvious reasons. But his comic timing more than makes up for it, and he puts in a sincere performance. A chulbuli heroine in a Hindi film generally ends up being a pain, but must give it to Genelia for making her role bearably and actually endearing. She goes a little overboard once in a while, but we can let that pass.

The best thing I like about this film is the consistency of direction. The film stays true to its fibre and its environment. And yes, a special mention should be made of the dialogues (Dhieyo Sandhu). They are funny and actually fit well into the setting of the film. Even though the girl falling in love with her kidnapper (forced or otherwise) is a weather beaten story premise, this one has some surprise twists and turns. The 'Agwah ghar', the chief kidnapper Chaudhuri (Om Puri), who is struggling to keep up with his growing 'business', the magical thief (Chitrashi Rawat) etc add to the fun.

Remember the time you had too many laddoos or barfis? You were happy but a little uncomfortable and kind of mentally sworn off sweets for a while? You get that feeling from this film. But then what the heck, if you have a sweet tooth, just watch it once. You will come out smiling.

Sweet is always better than the insipid fare that is sometimes served to us, in the name of a romantic movie.