Blue

Starring :- Sunjay Dutt

Akshay Kumar

Zayed Khan

Lara Dutta

Kylie Minogue

Director :- Anthony D'Souza

Rating :- * 1/2

Since the past one month or so wherever i go, be it a night club, or a wedding, or just usual hangout spots, i noticed the songs of "Blue" playing over 'n' over. That's called excellent publicity. It would do good to any movie, only if, with a BIG "IF", the movie is good, or at least decent. That is not the case with "Blue".

Excellent publicity can't do good for a really BAD and PATHETIC movie. When i first saw the promo of the movie i thought this might not be the most critically acclaimed film of the year but it should be a "Fun to watch popcorn movie". But no, it turns out to be a stinking affair, smellier than Mr Akshay Kumar's socks which he's wearing since his last successful film "Singh is Kinng" although that movie wasn't a good one, but still it was way better than "Blue".

First lets just get to the premise of the film. The plot revolves around the trio mainly Sunjay Dutt(Sagar), Akhshay Kumar(Aarav, Sagar's friend) and Zayed Khan(Sam, Sagar's younger brother). Also there is Lara Dutta(Mona, Sagar's better half) and Katrina Kaif(Nikki) and Rahul Dev(Gulshan).

Sagar and Aarav are friends, together they go fishing and have an occasional boxing face off. Aarav tries to convince Sagar to go treasure hunting with him, because only Sagar knows the whereabouts of it. But Sagar refuses due to the reason that his father lost his life while searching for that treasure and blames himself for his father's death.

The story cuts to Sam, who is in Malaysia doing bike races, he gets a job from Gulshan(Rahul Dev) to deliver a package, but he loses it on the way, now Gulshan wants either his package back or $50 million. Nikki(Katrina, Sam's love interest and also working with Gulshan( advices him to leave Malaysia and go somewhere else, so he goes to Bahamas to his elder brother Sagar, that's where the main story begins.

Coming to the main highlight of this film, the underwater sequences, believe me they were that good. Excellent lighting and camera angles and shots makes it look like an international affair. But that's the only thing good about "Blue". The action sequences are passable to say the least. No thrilling action sequence is to be found here. Only lame-money-spending-good-for-nothing kind of action sequences are there. Specifically the bike chase sequence, the one involving some 4-5 bikes and a train was so lame, the bikes which were supposed to be on the chase seems like they are out on a picnic and are grouping together to enjoy the sight-seeing, including the guy on the bike they were supposed to be chasing. If that doesn't make you shake your head in disbelief then the dialogs would definitely do that, for instance Aarav saying "Lets go take out the treasure from the sea", as if he's talking about going for window shopping and that too for a toothbrush. Also there's another one Mona saying "Can't we just talk peacefully with them?", even when she and Sagar are being attacked by armed men. These do work as "Unintentional jokes". And believe me there are many more.

Also the plot holes are so big you can virtually make Jupiter pass through it. For instance, the "So-Called" treasure which is lying in the bottom of the ocean is so mysterious that many people even doubt its existence and people who tried to take it out lost there lives, but our protagonist Sagar(Sanjay Dutt), sleepwalks his way through the ocean and finds out the treasure just like "that". Either he is a combination of Columbus and Sherlock Holmes or the director and his team of writers were too busy thinking about the cinematography part that they forgot about the minor details in the story.

Talking about the "so called" surprise ending of the film, the only surprise you will get is that you'll notice that most people are actually laughing at what had to be a serious moment in the film, "Unintentional Laughs" arise universally.

The second highlight of the movie is Lara Dutta, who is looking like a zillion-gazillion bucks, she rules the waves and many a hearts too. The perfect eye candy.

The cinematography is top grade, but under that glossy finish lies a decomposed chunk of wood, that is being eaten by termites and at the end what is left is that glossy finish with a BIG HOLE inside.

The music is average, although some notes are easy on the ears, but still considering A.R. Rahman is the music and background score director, the music is disappointing and so is the film.

And don't get me started on the script, like Akshay's previous outing "Kambakkht Ishq" the script is "Missing". Although at some points in the movie you feel like there's a decent script developing, but as soon as you think that, the director puts all your doubts aside and comes up with another blow up.

With holes that BIG, even the unsinkable Titanic sank, and sadly so does "Blue", but with the sinking it stinks too.

I go for * 1/2 out of five for director Anthony D'Souza's "Blue"

An opportunity lost, this film made me wonder why am I even reviewing it.

Under all that gloss lies a BIG HOLE that takes "Blue" down that smelly drainpipe which hasn't been cleaned since the medieval ages.

Watch it only when someone threatens to kill you for not watching it.

The protagonists are searching for a treasure ship that was traveling from Britain to India, and was lost at sea in the Bahamas.. yes Bahamas is en route to India! The acting is horrible, the dialogues are especially cheesy and dialogue delivery made me want to throw up. All the actors make a mess, cant actually blame them if the script was this bad. It has scenes lifted from movies like Torque and Hitch, and has an overall feel of Fool's Gold.

I liked the setting, and cinematography is quite breathtaking. It has a few decent action sequences, though the editing leaves a lot to be desired. The story is very weak and predictable, go for this one only if you have absolutely nothing else to do.

Anthony D'Souza had carefully handpicked all the ingredients to make a hit movie. Noteworthy is the cinematography which is top-notch. The underwater sequences are shot with aplomb. The background music is as good as any Hollywood movie. The songs from A R Rahman who is riding high on the success of Slumdog Millionaire are great. The choice of locales is great. And finally to rope in the international audience Kylie Minogue is roped in. The media is used effectively to generate curiosity and ensured audience is flocked to cinema halls. What else more can you ask for? Ahem - story please. Yes - amongst all the gloss and glitter somebody just seem to have forgotten to choose/ validate a proper story/ plot to base it leading to the entire affair falling like a pack of cards.

° Akshay Kumar yet again jumps on the other side to do an extended version of his character in "Ajnabee". And adopts his son's name as the screen name. BTW - the goatee didn't suit his looks in any manner.

° Sanjay Dutt was miscast. He was big, bulky and appeared averaged for the character. Also pairing with Lara seemed cradle-snatching.

° Zayed Khan makes an attempt to ultra-cool. The whole sequence of Rahul Dev and Kats is so badly written even a blind can see it coming.

° Lara is surely hots in Blue. For the first time I had to take note of her - seriously. She leaves no stones unturned to flaunts her figure in an aesthetic way.

°Kats adopts funky-techno look in her special appearance. She experiments her looks with the piercing and sadly doesn't look quite appealing.

° Rahul Dev is as usual dependable.

° Kabir Bedi role can be timed in seconds.

The execution is sleek and no two ways to that. In many movies one complains that length should have been trimmed to deliver the impact but it seems in "Blue" the editor has done a magnanimous job to extent that it fails to sink into the audience.

Mr. Anthony D'Souza - don't even think of any sequel to it ref: Air.

PS: And the "Sarkar/ Sethji" was literally getting on my nerves after a while.

Anthony D'Souza had everything going for him... Budget wise, Stars wise, Music wise, but despite all these cherry's... he fails to make a convincing fare. The script is a complete mess.

The first hr is very slow, the film doesn't move. Songs come up, including 'Chiggy Wiggy'. The second hr picks up, with the climax {which is the only proper Under-Water sequence in the film} standing out. However, the twist in the climax doesn't create any impact.

A R Rahman's music another sore point. One just doesn't get the feeling of the Legendary Music Director's genius in here.

Performance wise: Akshay Kumar is strictly okay. Sanjay Dutt is as usual, though he's looking very fat in the film. Zayed Khan is bland. Lara Dutta looks amazing and does a fine job. Katrina too looks gorgeous, as ever in a cameo appearance. Rahul Dev is good as the menace. Kabir Bedi is wasted.

On the whole 'Blue' disappoints big time.

The only good thing about this movie is it's new for bollywood audience and credit to director nd crew for THEIR hard work on the film. Sympathies aside, Indian audience have watched films like this b.f particularly Hollywood underwater films in recent years. Hollywood movies Jaws and The Deep both based on novels by peter benchley were benchmarks for these kind of films and for audience who loved this genre. Bt recent underwater films by Hollywood and now Blue are no better then the novels themselves, that is to have a story. Blue is a story less film and more about the visuals and the stunts, including wasting the bike stunts all the way in the east that led nowhere. The movie is more or less based on technical aspects of film making than based on a story of any kind. The lady in blue story is pretty good even though it consists of a stupid investigation in accusing the captain of being a traitor. At least Blue could have used this story and made it an historic marine story of sorts, but you end up having the villain(unimpressive akshay) search this treasure to "save the family's honor", while meaning no harm to put the sanjay's family thru all the tamasha.

Ther were no twists even for double crossing rahul dev was dumb, b.c he wasn't interested in this movie at all while seeing his reactions. Overall, thers no treasure hunting b.c its only for a few scenes way down the second half and towards the end of the movie. The movie is sentimental and dull in the first half, nd the second half is of no interest by the time the movie ends.