Directed by: Vishal Mahadkar
Produced by: Mukesh Bhatt
Story by: Upendra Sidhye
Starring: Kunal Khemu, Amrita Puri
Rating: **
Kunal Khemu plays Kunal while Amrita Puri is his wife Aarzoo. A middle-class couple (we have heard that too many times before) struggling with big dreams. Their life changes completely when they move to Cape Town, South Africa. Kunal gets a job with Trinity Diamonds and that means ignoring his wife as he climbs up the professional ladder under the tutelage of his hard-to-please boss Zaveri (Manish Chaudhari) while having a drug-hazed liaison with office hottie Roza (Mia Uyeda) and making Zaveri’s younger brother jealous. He then gets sucked into the unscrupulous activities of the diamond company. Will he be able to disentangle himself from this dangerous mess?
Image: Blood Money Movie Theatrical Release Poster | Courtesy: Vishesh Films.
Blood Money offers nothing new or original. It has obvious shades of Tom Cruise starrer The Firm which was based on John Grisham’s novel of the same name. The premise of an ambitious man joining a fancy company and unravelling their dirty activities is the same. The first half moves surprisingly fast. The scene where Kunal convinces a buyer is engaging. The second half, as usual, is over-dramatic, slow, and boring. The twist in the end isn’t “superb!” It is rather quite laughable and unconvincing because everything is explained with just a few dialogues! Towards the end, it becomes very filmy with a bleeding Kunal taking on four guards at a time. He vacillates between almost dying and behaving like he does not have a wound at all! And Aarzoo does a pooja for him. That is so 1980s! The music is the usual Bhatt fare but nothing memorable. The cinematography captures Cape Town's beauty and is a plus for the movie. The background music is overdone and borrowed heavily from Inception, as is the poster.
Kunal Kemu is a sincere actor and carries the graph fairly well but he doesn’t have the star presence or charisma to do a solo-hero film. Amrita Puri is a dependable actress. She also finds her groove and they look good together but you don’t care much for the couple. Manish Chaudhari (of Band Baaja Baaraat and Rocket Singh fame) is excellent and pitch-perfect as the diamond trader. Sandeep Sikcand is somehow effeminate and has over-acted in his role. Mia Uyeda is pure eye candy and her “acting” and dialogue delivery is paralysed.
Blood Money starts off decently but goes downhill in the second half with a laughable climax. Spend your money elsewhere.
