Blue --- Movie Review

The big Diwali release , the most expensive Indian film , Akshay's return to action film, first underwater action film ,Rahman's music, Katrina's guest appearance and Lara's sexy avatar . These are some of the tags that have been associated with "Blue" to make it look large than what it is and to make it sound like a Hollywood production rather than an Indian one . Well , it is an expensive product , no doubt about that , but it is certainly not a "rich" product .

As usual the producers have taken risk with the money but they haven't taken any risk with the SCRIPT and gone ahead with a formula based action film . The producers and director followed Hollywood path in all the production aspects except the script and the screenplay . It almost felt like the Director had a notion of "I'll make the most expensive film ever" even before he had the script .

The screenplay of the film is very much flawed and very much borrowed . It has scenes which are almost a copy of some of the scenes from several Hollywood flicks . The boxing scene being heavily inspired from a scene from "Broken Arrow" , the bike chase scene from "Torque"and the gunshot scene from "Bad Boys II" etc. On top of it , all these scenes seemed so out of place and strange with no proper logic to them .

**some spoilers in this para**

The characters of the film are also not believable and very weak . Sanjay Dutt's character "Seth Ji" is supposed to be an expert diver and swimmer yet he has belly which is definitely like that of a real "Seth" who sits on the "Galla" . Lara Dutta who is not credited as having special appearance has a role limited to the length of a song which introduces her . She has got nothing more in the film apart from the introductory song . Zayed's character is so stupid that he falls in love so suddenly with a biker chick (Katrina) and never even doubts her intentions . It is also hard to believe that Zayed Khan who pretends to be a daredevil chickens out so soon and runs to his elder brother for help . Sanjay Dutt thinks of Aarav (Akshay) as his friend even though he clearly wants only the treasure which is supposed to be hidden in a very dangerous place underwater . But the DANGER has not at all being addressed in the film . They go and retrieve the treasure with such ease that even a novice could have done it . No shark attacks throughout the film . They go underwater to play with the sea-turtles , that's it , and make a documentary which could have been made by Discovery Channel . The story of the film is so short and predictable that one or two more sentences and you will know the entire plot .

The music of the film has been terribly used by Anthony . The songs in the film start off in a very abrupt way with nothing to add to the film ."Rehnuma" which is a good track has been used in the title credits which comprise of nothing but some shots of the aquatic ecosystem . Lara's introductory song "Aaj Dil" starts suddenly and she changes her outfit in it within every 20 seconds . The title track is just for the underwater masti that the actors do . They had nothing to show in "Bhula Tujhe" so they show a recap of the entire film in it . So it would be much better if you watch the film from where this song begins , that way at least you will save a lot of time . Kylie is sitting at the bar in the same outfit in which she performs "Chiggy Wiggy" along with Akshay after he tries to flirt with her .

The performances by the various actors are also very limited . Akshay should stop playing these playboy kinda roles , at least at this age . They don't suit him anymore . His acting limits are known to everyone and he stays within those limits . Both the female actors have almost nothing to do and Zayed has just something . Zayed is as usual and Sanjay also keeps it simple . I had some expectations from Rahul Dev who plays a negative role as Gulshan but he also gets nothing to perform .

Coming to other technical aspects , the background score by Rahman also doesn't have a lot to offer . I am not sure but I think I heard a trumpet in the background score in some place in the film along with some strange sounds which seemed to be coming from nowhere .This is probably the worst that Rahman has ever done in background score . The only strong aspect of the film was its Cinematography and Laxman Utekar deserves some praise for it . I particularly loved the scenes which were shot in the moon light during the night sequences . Even the underwater camera work was great. The costumes of Lara Dutta were also good and she did look hot onscreen . The action sequences had very less creativity but nevertheless shot on much higher standards than what we usually see in Indian films . The locations in the film have also been selected brilliantly and they look splendid .

Anthony D'souza gets no points for his direction and the only thing good he did was keeping the film just around two hours long else it would have been a very unbearable experience . The only thing of the director that impressed me is how he got the producers to spend so much on this film and also convinced some of the big names literally to come on-board . There's a line from the film "Duniya Ka Sabse bada Nasha hai Risk" and the producers are now definitely at a great risk to lose a huge sum of money . Probably this is the dialogue which Anthony delivered to everyone while making this film . Though its a risk that has not been taken passionately .

In all its a film with just good visuals but has no substance to back those visuals . Blue won't give you the blues but won't make you happy either .

Movie Rating : Two out of Five ; only for the visual aspect .

Here's wishing a very happy diwali to everyone !

Yuvraaj ---Trailer Review

One of the big releases of the year , the much awaited Subhash Ghai's Yuvraaj , is all set to release and the first promos have hit the cinema halls . The film as we know starrs Salman Khan and Katrina together after a long time . In "Partner" they were not opposite each other . Apart from them the film also has Subhash's favourite Anil Kapoor and Zaayed Khan . The music is by the maestro himself , A. R. Rehman and the Lyrics are by the wordsmith Gulzaar sahaab . The duo together have given musical masterpieces like Dil Se , Yuva and Guru , all being with Mani Ratnam . This time they team up with Subhash Ghai who has also given musical hit like Taal . Yuvraaj is also a film in the Taal category i.e. a Musical Love Story . Taal is one of ARR's best works and the movie is also one of the best from Subhash Ghai . Lets hope they are able to create the same magic once again after almost Ten Years .

The magic that I am expecting gives a glimpse of itself in the promos of the film . The first trailer starts off with some musical notations being shown in the light of some candles . After that starts a beautiful orchestration in the background and we see a glimpse of all the lead actors of the film one by one . First we see a little younger looking Salman and then the eternal beauty Katrina playing a Cello . After her we see Anil Kapoor with a bouquet of flowers giving his innocent smile even at this age . Then at last we see Zaayed Khan walking on the streets . Then starts a series of some very short scenes all showing the Musical environment in which all the leads are living . The huge concert halls and musical notes etc. all giving you a glimpse of the scale of the movie and its background . Then at the end a line comes which is probably the tag line of the film "Music Binds Love " . Then at the very end we see an even younger looking Salman peeping from behind a pillar into the camera .

The trailer in all gives out very few details about the story and just gives an intro of the leads . The music in the background also gives us a hint of whats in the store . The music is just fabulous as expected from ARR and this is probably the first time he will get to use the western orchestrations in a full fledged way since this film seems to be set in London which is home to the symphonies and orchestras . The music in Taal was more Indian and had a mix of Indian and Western . But in Yuvraaj we might get to see just western classical instead of Indian classical . I am more interested in the album than the film for the meantime .

The looks of the actors are also one thing to watch out in the trailer . Katrina looks like a hollywood heroine from the 50's and looks like an exotic beauty . She is the only female lead and hence the second thing that the movie will be focussing on apart from Music would be of course her . The lead actors of the film would probably fight it out for the God's Best creations , Music and Love . Then we also get to see the "Bhola" avatar of Anil Kapoor that he dawned in his first few films . Salman also looks quite younger and he might look good with Katrina in this one .

Overall , I am looking forward to both the Album and the film which will release soon .Subhash Ghai is also looking for a hit since a long time and I hope he gets that in this film and viewers get to see a complete film . The year in any case has been very bad with most of the films leaving disappointed. I also hope that my favourite Katrina acts this time which she can and not just dances to songs . Check out he trailer :