Director: Anthony D’souza
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Zayed Khan, Rahul Dev and Katrina Kaif (Spl App)
Anthony D’ Souza is a first timer who dons the cap of directing one of the biggest films in recent times in terms of canvas and star cast. The expectations are bound to go high and that’s what goes against the film and most importantly the director. The same thing happened with Kambakkht Ishq which showed that only packaging does not make a film great; you need to have a competent director as well. To Akshay Kumar’s woe the phenomenon gets repeated here. Anthony D’Souza needs to learn a lot before he can handle such huge project.
Post India’s independence its treasure kept in Bahamas, a British colony, was supposed to be returned to the home country which gets lost due to ship wreck. Come to present, Akshay Kumar owns a fishing company but his main goal in life is to find that treasure apart from womanizing of course. But he needs Sanjay Dutt’s (his employee) help to unearth the hidden secret. Both have their secrets and a connection to that treasure. How turn of events lead these two to go for treasure hunt forms the rest of the story, which you will figure out very easily due to poor writing and direction.
D’souza fails to extract even decent performances from Dutt and Kumar who can deliver when required. The climax is abrupt and is quite non happening. The treatment is ordinary. The flaws of Blue are because of flaws of the director.
Coming to the good part, Lara Dutta is super hot in her bikini scenes which are quite a few. A R Rahman’s music as well as background score is outstanding as usual. The canvas is huge and cinematography is excellent but the best part is action. Done by a Hollywood director, action is the USP of the film. Though under water sequences don’t offer much due to the story, the surface action is at par with Hollywood and sets new standard for action films in Bollywood and the film deserves to be seen just for that.
Among actors, Sanjay Dutt’s character needed a much younger actor, younger to even Akshay. At 50, Dutt is anything but convincing as a struggler, who is yet to settle with his girlfriend. Akshay is good but not outstanding. Zayed is still stuck on his Main Hoon Na days and Lara does not have much to do except showing her well toned body which a treat.
Overall, Blue does not belong to its actors or to the director. It belongs to the technicians. Since the length of the film is lower than 2 hours, there is not much scope to get bored despite its mediocrity. For a regular moviegoer it is definitely recommended! It’s a visual treat.
***1/2
