Cast: Kunal Khemu and Amrita Puri
Director: Vishal Mahadkar
Ratings: 2/5
Wastage of Talent, blood and money...
By Priyanka Ketkar
"Tumhe kuch nahi hoga Kunal... Tumhe wapas aana hi hoga kyunki mein vidhva hoke Mumbai wapas nahi jaana chahti..." That is the highlight dialogue of Blood Money where a wife wants her husband to return alive not 'coz she loves him but 'coz she doesn't want to go back to Mumbai as a widow (Oh God, this is Kalyug! No, no, not the movie... What has the world come to).
Anyway, basically Vishal Mahadkar's Blood Money is about money earned by selling your soul (i.e. blood) and shedding few drops of Kunal Khemu's blood.
It is a Hansel and Gretel story (nice reference used in the film) where Kunal (Kunal Khemu) and Aarzoo (Amrita Puri) are lured into their dream life just like Hansel and Gretel are lured inside the chocolate house and behind all this sweetness is actually an evil witch. After doing MBA, Kunal lands a job in Cape Town in the Trident Diamonds Company as a don't-know-what. What looks like a sales job slowly turns murkier as he is pulled into the quicksand of politics and much more. Kunal's ambitions get the better of him and he starts losing sight of the truth and the reality. A drunken, unintentional one-night-stand with an office hottie ends him in more trouble than he can imagine. Little Ms. Goody two-shoes is hurt and lonely and alone.
Finally after losing his wife and seeing the way in which he actually earns his money, he wakes up and decides to finally rise in revolt. Will he succeed? Will he expose this Blood Diamond racket?
Kunal Khemu is brilliant without any doubt. Not only does he suit the character well, but also shoulders the responsibility of taking the character through successfully, in an excellent manner. Sandeep Sikand and Manish Choudhary have also done good jobs but they could've been utilized in a much better manner. Amrita Puri is alright but at times she overacts and at other times it feels like she can't act at all.
Good acting and okay-ish music along with good locales... Is that enough to make a good movie? Definitely not and Blood Money proves it. The story is very predictable. Till interval the movie feels stretched but after that it is as if the director suddenly realized that he is running out of time and hence tried wrapping up the movie real fast. The dialogues are silly and towards the end the movie simply becomes a joke. Some characters are introduced without any reason or rhyme and their parts are left hanging like loose ends.
What starts-off well and builds up pretty well, suddenly becomes sloppy and lame. Two things you must know- Firstly, although it is similarly depressing like Kalyug, it is in no way a re-make or a sequel to the movie and definitely not a remake of the English movie Blood Diamond.
For those of you who don't know Hansel and Gretel's story, this movie will be a perfect opportunity to know that story; but for others who know the story, Blood Money is as old, stale and repetitive as the Hansel & Gretel's story itself.