If you walk into Blue expecting anything more than a slick action film, you will be sorely disappointed. However, if your movie tastes run more towards Dhoom than Deewar, then Blue has much to recommend. Beautifully directed by newcomer Anthony D’Souza and starring the Khiladi himself, Akshay Kumar, Blue is a fast-paced thrill ride.
The blue of the title refers to the blue water of the Caribbean, which is where the film takes place. Akshay Kumar plays Aarav, a wealthy scuba diving enthusiast who is the kind of person who gets his own name tattooed on his back. Aarav spends his days puttering about on the water in his giant yacht with his friend/employee Sagar (Sanjay Dutt). Their placid lifestyle is punctured when Sagar’s brother Samir (Zayed Khan) suddenly shows up and brings trouble with him in the form of a tough gangster played by Rahul Dev.
Zayed Khan and Akshay Kumar are both in fine form. There really isn’t much acting required to drive the story forward since the stunts take precedence over plot but Zayed looks like a natural on his motorbike and Akshay, of course, is right at home swimming amidst the sharks. Sanjay Dutt, on the other hand, brings his C game to the film. His varying levels of fitness throughout the film were a little distracting as he belly would grow and shrink from scene-to-scene. Fortunately, most of the heavy lifting was left to the younger two heroes.
With the macho atmosphere of Blue, it’s not surprising that the ladies didn’t have much to do. Lara Dutta played Maya, Sagar’s girlfriend, a role that required not much more than the ability to wear a bikini and pose, two things she does admirably. While Lara’s bikini may satisfy the eye candy quotient, she does not have much of a screen presence and cameos from Katrina Kaif and Kylie Minogue generated much more excitement in the audience. The two K’s light up the screen with Kylie’s ‘Chiggy Wiggy’ as the highlight of the first half of the film. I can only hope that this is just the beginning of a long career in Bollywood item numbers.
A. R. Rahman’s score, while not his best work, fits the mood of the film. The breezy songs bring to mind lazy days on the seashore and the orchestral touches brought to mind classic Hollywood thrillers.
But actors and songs aside, the real fun in watching Blue is the action. The camera work is beautiful and all the action is easy to follow – from the motorcycle chases to the shark wrestling to the gunfights – the sequences have clearly been composed with some thought. There is none of the visual vomit that makes directors like Michael Bay so tedious to watch. Anthony D’Souza is name to watch out for in the future.
In short, the plot is weak, the actors uneven, the songs mediocre, but none of that really matters in an action film. Blue is a lot of fun and if you are an action junkie, you will not be disappointed.
