Blue (2009)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

If I may broadly categorize Bollywood films into two camps. One, the original works, which might even extend to remakes of films from the other regions in the subcontinent, but seldom seen outside of it. The masala formula would work its magic into creating an entertaining tale filled with a song and dance extravaganza. Then the other would be the stitching together of elements from other films, seldom referred to as paying homage or acknowledged if at all, and trying to pass them off as originals. These tend to be predictable, and plainly concealing a bad, if non-existent story. Blue unfortunately falls into the latter category.I had originally wanted to watch this on the big screen, given its tooting of the horn that it's the first to feature stunning underwater photography in a Bollywood action film. But the result here, for an actioner, is something that left much to be desired. While references to Into The Blue can be discounted by virtue of it being just another treasure hunter movie set in the high seas, the other sequences here were something that you would have seen before, from boring MI:2 motorcycle chase scenes, the Bourne Ultimatum for fisticuffs on board a boat, to the one that takes the cake involving a gunfight that was a lift out from Bad Boys 2.Lines were also found lifted from films like Hitch, but thankfully this was kept to a minimum. Set in the Bahamas with locations like Thailand also included, this film dwells on the search for the missing sunken ship Lady in Blue, which is said to contain treasures beyond a man's widest dreams. A simple, carefree fisherman Sagar (Sanjay Dutt) holds key to the location of the ship, given a diving expedition with his dad when young which resulted in a tragedy. His good friend, rich playboy Aarav (Akshay Kumar) desires that Sagar would come to his senses and make them both richer, but to Sagar it's a secret that he would bring to the grave.Enter Sagar's reckless brother Sam (Zayed Khan) who's being pursued by thugs all the way from Thailand for a sum of 50 million dollars that he owes, and you know just what the solution is for our reluctant Sagar. As mentioned the film got made through the stringing of action sequences one after another, with room for some romance between Sagar and Mona (Lara Dutta, and Sam and Nikki (Katrina Kaif in a short supporting role), but the much touted underwater action scenes turn out to be nothing more than a drop in the ocean, much of it against faceless thugs who seem to appear quite conveniently to challenge our testosterone filled trio.There's a nice twist to the story about families which gave the weak story some sense, but alas this was too little too late, as the finale was one hurried affair that seemed more like a haphazardly inserting a coda just for the sake of, damage having already been made by the uninspiring action and plot. If only it had taken time to further develop the characters beyond their cardboard caricatures, which would have made it all the more palatable in terms of story, rather than to stick its guns to the action which were cobbled from films made in the West.

With a cast like Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Katrina Kaif and Zayed Khan, I wasn't expecting a film with substance thus I already knew that this film lacked quality. There are a few pluses which I'll mention first before going into all the minuses. I liked how the Bahamas were portrayed. This is perhaps among the very few movies that shows that there is much more to it than beaches and bikinis. Secondly, the Kylie Minogue track is fun. She delivers her two lines very well. I hate that A.R. Rahman gave her such a horrible song which is only worsened by Sonu Nigam's pathetic singing but for me, Minogue is always a pleasure to watch and a treat to listen to. This also ranks among A.R. Rahman's weakest works. The cinematography is at times overdone but works in many sequences. The action sequences are boring. Not only are they lengthy but they don't even look natural on screen. The overuse of slow motion does not help. It is painfully obvious that the writer has ripped off scenes from many other films such as 'The Fast and The Furious' and some James Bond flick. Then again, one does not expect much originality when it comes to an Akshay Kumar film. The underwater sequences are well shot even thought they are lengthy and kind of pointless to the story. Akshay Kumar is quite adequate while Sanjay Dutt is miscast. Next to Lara Dutta and Zayed Khan, he looks like an old hag. Khan is terrible as always and Dutta sizzles, period. Katrina Kaif keeps reminding us again what a bad actress she is. On an end note, 'Blue' does have a few positives but overall it's dull.

The title is an indication as to what this is about and it is indeed it makes a change to watch such a movie. A skilled diver works for a man who keeps on insisting on locating certain hidden treasures in the deep Atlantic Ocean but then his younger brother, who had left him some years back, turns up.Starring Sanjay Dutt, Lara Dutta, Akshaye Kumar, Zayed Khan, Kabir Bedi, Katrina Kaif, Rahul Dev and a special appearance by Kylie Minogue, this is directed by Anthony D'Souza, written by Bryan Sullivan, while the music score is by A.R. Rahman.A slight bit of change of role for "Munnabhai," Sanjay Dutt, even though it is an action oriented movie. And unlike his previous action movies, he does perform action but in a slightly milder form but never the less, he has performed well This is also different role for Lara Dutta from her previous movie, "Do Knot Disturb," in which she had performed a comedy act. With this, she has proved that not only is she a true actress who is able to perform every part that she is offered. She also performs well in the underwater scenes when diving.. Zayed Khan's role is okay but he could have performed better seeing that he had Sanjay Dutt and Akshaye Kumar as his co – stars and Katrina Kaif could have done better if there was more to her role. A film with Akshaye Kumar is bound to have some stunts with the action and Akshaye Kumar has performed well and his characterisation is quite convincing and Rahul Dev is also good. Finally, the former "Neighbours" star and singer, Kylie Minogue, makes a brief appearance as her self, which breathes some extra life into the film. A.R. Rahman does provide some good music score as well and in one song particularly – "Chiggy Wiggy." Director Anthony D'Souza has done something that has never been done before in a Hindi film and that is to take the audience underwater. He has handled this very well and the result can be seen on the screen in the form of under water visual effects. The underwater scenes and the relevant action scenes have been handled very well. The cinematography is worth watching.This is a type of movie that can be enjoyed by those who like to watch a movie that has some action and adventure mixed in along with some romance. A good underwater action, adventure movie that has a bit of romance.

They had at least some plot that a Manmohan Desai or Subhash Ghai would have shot into a catchy movie but, instead of shooting it, they spoke it in last 10 minutes of the film. So you get the story as Sanjay Dutt speaks about his dad, Akshay speaks about his dad, Gulshan speaks about his partnership with Akshay, and you wonder that they couldn't have run out of money (the costliest film), they didn't run out of time (less than 2 hours. When interval happens at 1 hour, I hear several gasps of arey, interval ho bhi gaya), they couldn't have date problems as none of the personalities is really busy, they why the heck they didn't shoot it.So, it is about a treasure hunt. If you think you might be able to remember that Titanic itself was about a treasure hunt actually, the blue diamond, but you have almost forgotten that part is the ultimate tribute to Cameroon that this treasure chase was running just as a thin line in background while one of the most finely told love story unfolded on the screen.Kat being wifey of Akshay brought a lot of laughs from the audience, as if they had stopped counting the plot goof-ups, but we do wonder why at all Katrina accepted to do this movie for such a wafer thin role. Zayed knows she is working for Gulshan, She already knew that Zayed is going to Bahamas, still he puts all blond jokes to shame by dropping a voice message to her cell telling her that he is in Bahamas, for Gulshan to hear, and even then feels safe hiding there and showing surprise when gulshan reaches there.Bahamas is near Mexico and Cuba, how does a ship coming from UK to India reach their is the biggest unrevealed mystery of the film.Akshay's character portrayal is utterly confused. he was a good friend to begin with, though you wonder how can someone just spend his entire life befriending Sanjay Dutt just for the treasure, while womenising greedily, but leaving him at being the real manipulator, the real villain would still have been consistent and had brought some twist, but then he comes out to be the grandson of the captain and gives entire treasure to government to clear family name and even puts the 20% award legally received from government to Sanjay Dutt. What the heck is happening.It also didn't become clear why Gulshan breaks to tell Sanjay Zayed about the secret partnership he was having with Akshay. And the allegation that Akshay wanted to keep entire treasure for himself also didn't stick as Askhay didn't want that money at all.Further, if Akshay had just told Sanjay in the very beginning that he wanted to find the treasure and give it to the government to clear family name, there is good possibility that Sanjay would have agreed to do so. Then the movie needn't have to be made.And when Gulshan tells it, Sanjay just believes him forgetting his old friendship with Akshay. It seems so odd.When Akshay supposedly dies in the see, they didn't even search for his body, nor for his bike under the sea, nor even inquire about what happens to Akshay's business and property, after all, Sanjay was an employee of Akshay.And why Akshay had to remain hidden from them for 3 months at the end has been provided no reason.And After Gulshan got killed and Akshay supposedly died, why didn't Sanjay and Zayed and Lara try to bring the treasure for themselves. Sanjay and Zayed were unemployed now and Lara needed some money, or they themselves could have given the treasure to the government. Why Sanjay Dutt had not provided the treasure details to the government all his life has also not been told.If entire thing was just a make believe to trap Zayed to force Sanjay to reveal the treasure, then it looks a sickening waste that so many real guys get killed in bike chase in New York and Bahamas chasing Zayed and so many vehicles got destroyed and lives of the people in those vehicles too.Akshay and Sanjay look more like fathers to Lara, Katrina and Kylie, thus the body display scenes of ladies didn't really fume. Zayed was coolly young but it is surprising that with a spoilt single brat life he was supposed to be living, how come he gets so much captivated by Katrina (She looks elder and quite fatty to Zayed, sorry Kat fans) in 12 hours to behave like being in love. And then he was left without any partner in the visual treats of Bahamas. Why did they make Akshay flirt with Kylie when they could have made Kylie a mate for Zayed till the end of the movie.The songs didn't add to the film, but they didn't hinder the film either. Songs go unnoticed. Yaar Mila Tha is not there. I couldn't figure where at all it could have been put. The entire lyrics, the feel of the songs, the situation, doesn't fit on any character at all in the film. Film didn't have any emotion-intensive scenes at all, so no specific song was really needed for it. The great emotions that ARR had so laboriously put in some songs really served no purpose for the film.Chiggy Wiggy happens just like that, it deserved a big build up, but no. They just visit any hotel, just spot one of so many a girls who happens to be Kylie, and the dance starts, and then Kylie disappears from the film. Such treatment will scare away all other foreign celebrities from bollywood. V S Rawat