Blue (2009 film)

Blue is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language action-adventure film co-written and directed by Anthony D'Souza, and produced by Dhilin Mehta under Shree Astavinayak Cine Vision Limited. The film stars Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Zayed Khan, and Rahul Dev. Katrina Kaif and Kabir Bedi appear in cameo appearances. Loosely based on the American film Into the Blue (2005) and its sequel Into the Blue 2: The Reef (2009), it explores a diver, haunted by his past, who must confront it in order to save his younger brother and girlfriend from a gangster, while his employer and good friend coaxes him to recover a lost, sunken treasure which he refuses to.

Blue was released during the Diwali festival on 16 October 2009 and received mixed reviews from critics. During the time of release, it was the most expensive Indian film made until then, produced with a budget of more than $21 million.^[3] Featuring music composed by A.R. Rahman, Blue failed to recover its high budget from the box office.^[1]

Since the launch of Shree Astavinayak Cine Vision Limited in 2003–04, this is the first home production from the company and the first in as many as five years to credit Mehta as a producer by name rather than the company itself; in 2010, the custom was followed up in Dabangg, with Golmaal 3 being the third and last film to do so; it is also the only Ashtavinayak film to be distributed entirely by the company itself without support from other networks.

The film opens with a ship named Lady in Blue sinking in a storm, with its captain emerging alone on the shore.

In the present day, Aarav runs a fishing company, Blue Fisheries, in the Bahamas, where Sagar works as a diver. Sagar plans to marry his girlfriend Mona. Meanwhile, Sagar's younger brother Sam encounters Nikki, a biker who secretly works for gangster Gulshan in Bangkok. After defeating Gulshan in a bike race, Sam is offered a job, which he accepts for a promised payment of $50,000. However, the situation escalates, leading to a loss of $50 million for Gulshan.

Fearing Gulshan's retaliation, Sam flees to the Bahamas and reunites with Sagar. Gulshan tracks him down, but Aarav intervenes and saves Sam. To settle the debt, Sam proposes retrieving a hidden treasure from the sunken Lady in Blue. Sagar initially refuses due to a traumatic past involving the ship, where he had to abandon his father, Aadesh Singh, to save himself. However, after Gulshan bombs Sagar's house and kidnaps Mona, demanding $50 million as ransom, Sagar agrees to the plan.

Aarav, Sagar, and Sam locate the treasure, but Gulshan and his men intercept them. During the confrontation, it is revealed that Aarav had orchestrated the events by hiring Gulshan to force the group into retrieving the treasure. Aarav kills Gulshan and escapes by diving into the ocean during an approaching storm. Believed to be dead, he is left behind as the others escape.

Three months later, Aarav contacts Sagar and reveals that he survived. He explains that his grandfather, Captain Jagat Malhotra, had commanded the Lady in Blue and was disgraced, motivating Aarav to recover the treasure and restore his family’s honour. Nikki is revealed to be alive and is actually Aarav's wife, Nikita Malhotra. The film ends with Aarav and Nikki together, while Sam’s response to Nikki remains unresolved.

• Sanjay Dutt as Sagar "Sethji" Singh
• Akshay Kumar as Aarav Malhotra
• Lara Dutta as Mahima "Mona" Singhania
• Zayed Khan as Sameer "Sam" Singh
• Rahul Dev as Gulshan Samnani
• Katrina Kaif as Nikita "Nikki" Malhotra (cameo appearance)
• Kabir Bedi as Jagat Sudhir Malhotra, Aarav's grandfather (cameo appearance)

The music of the film was composed by A. R. Rahman with lyrics provided by Abbas Tyrewala, Mayur Puri, Rajat 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.^[6]

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 promotional 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 & 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, but it is conceptualised as a song played out between the characters of Akshay and Katrina after the end of the film's plot when they talk about Zayed's character.

The official track listing:^[7]

The soundtrack of the film received positive reviews upon release. Bollywood Hungama 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]

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

D'Souza announced his intentions to make a sequel titled Aasman, which would additionally feature John Abraham and Sonal Chauhan, but following Ashtavinayak's liquidation in the face of Mehta's arrest due to failed payment of loan dues, the sequel was shelved.^[12] D'Souza later directed Kumar in the 2013 film Boss instead.

• List of most expensive non-English-language films

• Blue at 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.