Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Lara Dutt, Zayed Khan, Katrina Kaif

Director : Anthony D’Souza

Musician : A R Rahman

Review:

A treasure lays buried deep at the bottom of an ocean. There are many people who want to get there by risking life, be it theirs or someone else’s.

‘Blue’ is casted as Bollywood’s first underwater movie, Directed by Anthony D’Souza , the movie is inspired from Hollywood flicks like ‘The Deep’ or ‘Jaws’, but not a copy.

The film is about a lost treasure, which three friends try to find undersea. Akshay Kumar , Sanjay Dutt and Zayed Khan play the respective roles.

With a budget of almost 100 crores, making ‘Blue’ one of the most expensive movies made in the Indian cinema.’Blue’ kick starts with a song shot under water which almost gives you an experience of deep sea diving as you get a closer look into the marine life. Two minutes into the movie and there you go, a shark scene executed by James D Bomalick with Akshay and Sanjay, probably the first and last, which is quite disillusioning because that is the only stunt you get to see with sharks as in the remaining film they seemed to have depicted well fed sharks who quite surprisingly did not bother to attack any human beings around them. What happens next, throughout the movie is a phase of events, which leave you unfazed and get out of the theatres as quick as you can.

‘Blue’ is a story of Sagar (Sanjay Dutt) who works with Aarav (Akshay Kumar) for his fishing business in Bahamas and is also a deep sea diver who knows the Pacific Ocean like the back of his hand. The movie is for the treasure in a sunken ship lady in blue, which is the sole motive of Aarav’s existence and the reason behind that, is revealed only in the climax. All is going fine in the life of Sagar and his girlfriend Mona (Lara Dutta), when his younger brother Sam (Zayed Khan), who is a rebel and had run away from home five years back finds himself in a soup in Bangkok and runs back to big bro Sagar for help. Well, nothing new and novel about the story, but the crux is that whilst you are watching the movie you realize that the screen play is very weak and so is Anthony D’Souza direction. The story could have been made into a suspense leaving some space for the audience’s imagination, however a bad screenplay by Mayur Puri, breaks the backbone of ‘Blue’.

While Indians have liked Jaws and Titanic, National treasure was a big hit, no one questioned the logic behind the story or any of the scenes, but, when a desi director does international quality work, everyone sits up and puts in their two bits of opinion.

A bad story is further affected by bad dialogues, again by Mayur Puri. Akshay Kumar looks hot and his dressing sense is quite good too, while Zayed is at his usual best, the bad boy look, Sanjay disappoints as he looks haggard and completely unfit for an action movie, while the surprise in the movie is sizzling Lara sporting four to five different and colorful bikinis and looking hot and irresistible. While Rahul Dev (Gulshan) is average and Katrina Kaif(Nikki) who has just a cameo in the movie, looks wild with her looks and breaks out from her delicate image. It is not that the movie has no ups, of course! it is a visual treat as it has some excellent cinematography by Laxman Utekar who captures the beautiful city of Bahamas in a scenic manner and the underwater sequences are worth a watch. Especially, some awesome underwater stunts by all the four actors. In terms of action outside water, ‘Blue’ fails, with some draggy long bike chases and races. The bike chase between Akshay and Zayed is quite long. All underwater stunts and antiques are excellent and quite fresh for an Indian audience, all credits for the efforts taken by the actors performing them and by underwater cinematographer Pete Zuccarini.

The music of the film is average and does not sound like A.R. Rahman’s work.

What is commendable about the movie is the guts to attempt such a movie in Indian cinema, the execution of the under water sequences, the stunts by the actors and capturing the beautiful marine life on camera. But on second thoughts with no story and screenplay in place and unlively performances with no emotional connect with audience. Two stars for the efforts by everyone involved with ‘Blue’.