Expectations are sky high … the most expensive hindi movie … chartbusters from Rehman … great action pieces … good looking underwater scenes … promise of a treasure hunt in the plot. Unfortunately, Blue then delivers too little, too late. Instead of a being an interesting story which integrates all these individual elements, we get a disjointed and lethargic story which seems like a remote auto-oscillating between National Geographic, AXN and MTV.
But to begin at the beginning, Sunjay Dutt works for Akshay Kumar, at his fishing yacht(?). Akshay keeps asking him to help him find an ancient hidden treasure, but Sanjay steadfastly refuses. However, when younger brother Zayed Khan gets into a jam, Sanjay agrees to Akshay’s proposition. Of course, the script takes until the interval to arrive at this basic set up. And precious little happens by way of a resolution, even in the second half.
The basic problem is in the development of Akshay and Sanjay’s characters. Both have significant back stories which lead to their present day motivations, but these are revealed too late in the day and in a very cavalier fashion also. The much hyped ‘treasure hunt’ . finally seems like a school picnic. Director, Anthony D’Souza seems to have forgotten the basic that cinema is an audio visual medium … it should be ‘show’ and ‘tell’. In Blue unfortunately, far too much is just ‘told’.
Rahman’s songs are great, but the background track is devoid of his usual deft touch. Laxman Utekar’s cinematography is world class, but is completely let down by a pedestrian script and screenplay. Lara Dutta and Rahul Dev are decent in their small parts. Zayed Khan continues to be irritatingly repetitive and monodimensional. Sanjay Dutt is decent but looks rather tubby and old, and the continuity glitches with his hairstyle are appalling. Finally, Akshay Kumar’s acting and star power is called upon to salvage this ship from sinking - and he succeeds to a large extent … the only time that the movie engages, is when Akshay’s on screen. But in the final analysis, Blue is let down by an amateurishly developed story, and casual direction. Unfortunately, debutant director Anthony D’Souza is credited for both.
So stay at home, and randomly thumb your remote through National Geographic, AXN and MTV … watching Blue is not going to be any better.