The 120 minutes of Blue cost Rs 120 crore. That’s one crore for every minute of screen time. But why is it that more than the screen, you keep an eye on the time. Exactly what Kylie Minogue says, when Akshay asks why she is looking at him: “There’s a giant clock in that direction... Baby, I was just keeping time.”
Blue can be the costliest film coming out of Bollywood but it is also not very short of being one of the worst films to have come out of the industry. Ever since Yash Raj Films did it, in fact twice over, every big-budget movie tries to orchestrate a dhoom.
Now, both D and D:2 had a script and Blue obviously doesn’t. First-time director Anthony D’Souza should have rather credited himself as a project designer. A boxing match, a fast and furious bike race, a lingerie commercial, he tries to pack it all in.
But what the first half actually becomes is a lousy apology to justify that everyone in the film needs money — and loads of it. Aarav (Akshay) needs it for kicks, Sam (Zayed) needs it to ward off the baddies, Sagar (Sanjay) needs it for his brother Sam. And even Mona (Lara) needs the sona for some marine school. So, if you go in expecting an underwater film, be warned: the blue you see in the promos is just a fraction (in the second half) of a boring, bland film.
The treasure hunt itself is a joke, really. As Akshay says with all sincerity: “Humein samundar mein jaake khazana le aana chahiye.” Like getting some elish from the market for the shorshe maachh at dinner. In fact, even that’s harder to get this festive season compared to how they just stroll into the sea and straight into the treasure.
