Blue, certainly breath-taking in all its visual splendors of the sea, a certain first for a bollywood movie. The sea comes alive with all the amazing underwater cinematography done by Pete Zuccarini, who has ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ under his belt as one his few works. But apart from the visuals the seams starts slowly showing when it comes to the depth in the storyline, you see quite apparent depth everywhere else (look under visuals), pardon the pun but the story has a lot that is lacking.

The movie boast of a solid cast of Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Sanjay Dutt, Zayed Khan and Rahul Dev. You can say Blue has provided character where it is lacking in depth. The movie is worth the cost of the ticket with Akshay Kumar providing his charm on the big screen, flashing his pearly whites. On the other hand the many scenes with the Bikini-clad Lara Dutta was enough to keep most of the audience, well at least the male audience on the edges of their seats. But sadly the story didn’t have the same effect on the audience, male and female alike. Debutant director Anthony D’Souza has certainly pulled off a decent work though, with the stunning visuals, cinematography and the well executed stunts, the movie is an entertainer. Songs pack a punch and are catchy, and I envision people Chiggy-Wiggying with Kylie Minogue in their heads for quite some time.

‘Blue’ starts off in 1949 where a Treasure-Laden ship, ‘The lady in the Blue’ traveling from England to India sinks somewhere along the Bahamas. Now we fast-forward to present times and back to the Bahamas. We observe the comradeship of Aarav (Akshay Kumar) and Sagar (Sanjay Dutt). They fish together, have sparring matches, good times. Aarav is an arrogant,too-good-to be true, hell-as-rich Businessman and Sagar is happily married to Mona (Lara Dutta). Life is simple and good.

Now we switch to Sam (Zayed Khan) , Sagar’s younger brother who ran away from home and is biding his time as a street racer (meet fast and the furious on bikes) in Bangkok. He tangles up with the local mafia Don played by (Rahul Dev). Katrina Kaif plays the sympathetic inside girl who suggests Sam to go someplace till things cool off. He flees to the Bahamas to his brother.

Eventually he is tracked down by the Don and things go bad. Sam’s sins catch up with is brother where the lone Sagar and sobbing Mona is besieged by Rahul Dev’s Henchmen at their home. He kidnaps Mona in a scene where Sagar has his home blown up a style reminiscent of the movie Bad Boys 2. He is given a deadline to cough up 50 mil.
Both Sam and Aarav knows that Sagar has some ties with ‘ The Lady in the Blue’, some deep dark past where Sagar fears to tread upon. But seeing that this is their only resort to save Mona and get Sam off the hook, Sagar agrees to lead them to the location of the sunken ship. Some under-sea action scenes ensue in the process as twists are hurled onto the treasure hunters. This is where the storyline sort of just lets you down. The climax was so feebly constructed, it cast a derelict shadow across the otherwise well produced film.

Lara Dutta’s bikini clad body certainly helps add thrill to the otherwise damp movie, Katrina Kaif as sensuous as always, Looking heavenly spectacular although only having a cameo role. Music usually cannot be expected to have any significance in an action thriller but A.R. Rahman’s manages to give us a reason to think otherwise. The few notable tracks are ‘Chiggy Wiggy’,'Aaj Dil’ and ‘Fiqrana’. I would say the movie is worth a watch in the theaters for the sake of movie ‘experience’ and the visuals but for those who rather rough it out on a television, wait for the DVD’s.

I would give the movie a 6.5/10 and its worth the leap of faith.