Blue (2009 film)

Blue
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Anthony D'Souza
Produced by	Dhillin Mehta
Written by	Mayur Puri (dialogue)
Screenplay by	Anthony D'Souza
Story by	Anthony D'Souza
Starring	Akshay Kumar Sanjay Dutt Lara Dutta Zayed Khan Katrina Kaif
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Cinematography	Laxman Utekar
Edited by	Shyam Salgaonkar
Distributed by	Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd, Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	16 October 2009 (2009-10-16)
Running time	119 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹110 crore (equivalent to ₹194 crore or US$30 million in 2016)[1]
Box office	₹75 crore (equivalent to ₹132 crore or US$21 million in 2016)[2](domestic gross)

Blue is a 2009 Indian action-adventure film directed by Anthony D'Souza, and written by American writers Joshua Lurie and Bryan M. Sullivan. The film stars Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Zayed Khan and Lara Dutta in lead roles, whilst Katrina Kaif stars in a cameo appearance. Kylie Minogue appears in a musical number in the film. Blue released on 16 October 2009 and received mixed to positive response from critics. The story & screenplay were written by Anthony D'Souza while the dialogues were written by Mayur Puri. During the time of release, it was the most expensive Bollywood film ever produced with a budget of more than $25 million.^[3] Loosely based on the Hollywood film Into the Blue (2005), Blue failed to recover its high budget from the box office.^[1]

Plot

The story follows three men on an underwater treasure hunt. In the Bahamas, Aarav (Akshay Kumar) runs a successful fishing company under the title of Blue. He works with Sagar (Sanjay Dutt) who works as a diver for Aarav's fishing company. Sagar is in a relationship with Mona (Lara Dutta) and wants to propose to her soon. Sagar is under a financial crisis, and to help him, Aarav advises Sagar to retrieve the lost treasure of a sunken ship called Lady in Blue. However, Sagar refuses to go to the ship due to an unknown reason.

Meanwhile, Sagar's younger brother Sam (Zayed Khan) is in Bangkok. Sam is a bike rider, and meets Nikki (Katrina Kaif), a female biker who works for an underworld gangster named Gulshan (Rahul Dev). Sam is challenged by Gulshan to a bike race, and after Sam wins, he asks Nikki out for dinner. Before leaving, Gulshan asks Sam to work for him, but Sam refuses unless there's a large sum of money involved.

During Sam's date with Nikki, Nikki explains to Sam that the job Gulshan proposed would pay with $50,000. Gulshan hires Sam to work for him, but Sam is set up by Gulshan in failing to deliver a package costing Gulshan the $50 million. Sam must either pay his money back or die. Sam does not have the money so he explains to Nikki, whom he now loves, that he is going on holiday to the Bahamas to visit his brother Sagar and doesn't think Gulshan will find him there. Sam arrives at Aarav's company and Sagar welcomes him happily. In the Bahamas, Sam receives a call from Gulshan on Nikki's phone, explaining that he has killed Nikki, and knows where Sam is.

Soon enough, Gulshan and his crew arrive in the Bahamas and surround Sam. Aarav enters and beats everyone up, saving Sam's life. For now. Sam tells Aarav what he did wrong, and Aarav decides he needs to tell Sagar about the situation. When Sagar learns how much trouble Sam is in, Sam tries to convince Sagar to retrieve the treasure from Lady in Blue. Sagar refuses. The next day, Gulshan bombs Sagar's home, and kidnaps Mona, with a ransom of $50 million or Sam for her return. When Sagar tells Sam and Aarav, Sam decides that they need to go and rescue Mona as they already killed Nikki and will kill Mona too. But Aarav speaks up and says they don't know how far Gulshan is connected and they may all die, meaning the only option is to find the treasure, pay off Gulshan and use the rest of the money to live comfortably. Sagar is still hesitant and it is revealed that Sagar has a haunted and shocking past with Lady in Blue. Years ago, Sagar had to abandon his father at the ship to save his own life. However, after Aarav convinces Sagar that the treasure will save the lives of both Mona and Sam, Sagar finally agrees. The three of them bring the treasure up and find Gulshan sitting on the top of his ship that he and his gang have steered up next to the ship belonging to Sam, Sagar, and Aarav. He tells Sam and Sagar that Aarav hired Gulshan to do all of this. Soon there is a fight between Sagar and Aarav, and Aarav jumps into the ocean. Mona, Sam, and Sagar are forced to leave him there, and Sagar agrees never to come back to the Lady in Blue, after losing two people who were close to him there - his father and his friend Aarav.

Three months later Sagar gets a call from Aarav. Talking to them, Aarav reveals that he survived his leap into the ocean, and tells them that his grandfather was the traitorous captain of the ship, Lady in Blue. Aarav never admitted to Sagar who his grandfather was, because he didn't want to dishonor his family. Aarav explains that finding the treasure of the Lady in Blue would help bring honor back to his family name, and he befriended Sagar, knowing he was the only one who could take him to the treasure. Throughout the phone call, a woman's arm is seen around Aarav, and later, the woman asks to speak to Sam. It is revealed that the woman is Nikki, and she is Aarav's wife. She asks Sam to forgive her for deceiving him, but it isn't revealed if Sam said yes or no. However, while Sam answers there is a smile on Nikki's face. The film ends with Aarav and Nikki cuddling on one of Aarav's boats, and the end credits begin.

Cast

• Akshay Kumar as Aarav Malhotra, the owner of Blue Shipping and Fisheries
• Sanjay Dutt as Sagar Mishra, Aarav's closest friend and employee
• Zayed Khan as Sameer "Sam" Mishra, Sagar's brother and a biker racer
• Lara Dutta as Mahima "Mona" Nagar, a marine enthusiast and Sagar's love interest
• Rahul Dev as Gulshan Samnani, a gangster from Bangkok and Nikki's apparent brother
• Kabir Bedi in a special appearance as Jagat Malhotra, Captain of the sunken ship Lady in Blue
• Katrina Kaif in a special appearance as Nikita "Nikki" Malhotra, the biker chick and Aarav's wife
• Kylie Minogue in a guest appearance in the song "Chiggy Wiggy"
• Yousuf Alvi as Faulad Khan, a gangster

Music

The music of the film was composed by A. R. Rahman with lyrics provided by Abbas Tyrewala, Mayur Puri, Ajit Arora, Raqeeb Alam and Sukhwinder Singh. The music was promoted and digitally distributed by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.

The song Chiggy Wiggy was sung by pop singer Kylie Minogue and Sonu Nigam.^[4] Backing female vocals is given by Suzanne D'Mello and Phij Adams did the sound mixing for the song.^[5] Minogue also made a special appearance in the video of the song. The track "Aaj Dil Gustakh Hai", which begins with a sequence of Sukhwinder Singh's humming, followed by an acoustic guitar loop presents Shreya Ghoshal handling a westernised rendition. The backing vocalists for the song are Benny Dayal, Hentry Kuruvila, Shi Millhouse and Raven Millhouse. "Fiqrana" features vocals by Vijay Prakash and Shreya Ghoshal and was picturised as solo performances of Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta and Zayed Khan. Sanjay Dutt, the actor playing the film's protagonist boycotted the promtional events since he was not included in this song, which remained chart topper for many weeks.^[6] "Bhoola Tujhe" is a romantic song sung by Rashid Ali. The Yeri voice for the song was by Kavita Belliga. The theme song for Blue was sung by Blaaze, with backing vocals by Raqeeb Alam, Sonu Kakkar, Jaspreet Jasz, Neha Kakkar and Dilshad Khan. "Rehnuma" was sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Sonu Nigam. "Yaar Mila Tha" was sung by Udit Narayan and Madhushree with backing vocals by Ujjayinee Roy, Shi Millhouse and Raven Millhouse. This track was not included in the film.

The official track listing:^[7]

Track listing

Hindi (Blue)

Telugu (Blue)

All Lyrics were written by Rajashri.

Album reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Bollywood Hungama	[8]

The soundtrack of the movie has received positive reviews. bollywoodhungama reviewed the music saying "Blue is a good album and has all in it to make a good impression at the music stands. In a way, the album comes at just the right time when there is quite some variety in store this Diwali. Blue practically mixes up genres.".".^[9]

Reception

Critical reception

The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Anupama Chopra of NDTV called the movie an 'smartly crafted underwater thriller', criticizing and at the same time praising the performance and the cast and the dialogues.^[10] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the movie a positive review, praising the star cast and action scenes and gave the film 4 stars out of 5.^[11]

Box office

Blue was the first movie to have a budget higher than ₹100 crore which was equivalent to $25 million at the time of release.The film had a good opening minting around ₹40 crore on the opening weekend.The film however slowed down in the second week due to negative word of mouth.The film grossed around ₹75 crore in its lifetime making it a below average venture in the box office.

Sequel

The directors announced their intentions to make a sequel to Blue, which is currently titled Aasman.^[12] The cast is slated to include Sanjay Dutt, Lara Dutta, Zayed Khan, Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif reprising their roles from the original, with new additions including John Abraham, Neha Oberoi, and Sonal Chauhan.^[13][14] A. R. Rahman has been approached to compose the music.

See also

• List of most expensive non-English-language films

References

External links

• Blue on IMDb
• "Kylie Minogue makes Bollywood debut with Chiggy Wiggy". Telegraph.co.uk. 15 October 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2015. 
• "Critics pan Kylie's Chiggy Wiggy song". intoday.in. Retrieved 22 September 2015.