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| Edited By: Blessy Chettiar |Source: DNA |Updated: Nov 21, 2013, 01:44 PM IST
Film: Blood Money
Director: Vishal Mahadkar
Cast: Kunal Khemu, Amrita Puri, Manish Choudhary
Rating: **
Blood Money’s trailer gives out the film in 2.05 minutes. And if those posters of Kunal Khemu in the pool with a bunch of babes are stimulating enough to drag you to the theatre, think twice.
Kunal Kadam (Kunal Khemu) is a fresh MBA who bags a job with Cape Town-based Trinity Diamonds. Headed by businessman Zaveri (Manish Choudhary), Trinity Diamonds deals with more than just diamonds. Attracted to the high life, Kunal takes up the job and moves to South Africa with wife Arzoo (Amrita Puri). Having tasted success through hard work, Kunal sees himself sucked into the big, bad world of diamonds, the mafia and even terrorism.
With a good life also comes the stress of maintaining relationships and a character to be proud of. A typical slum dog story, Kunal is torn between success in a world of glittering diamonds and a conscience turning darker than coal.
Writer Upendra Sidhye’s story is believable but the execution barely rises above average. Director Vishal Mahadkar extracts decent performances from his cast. Kunal Khemu steals the show as a man caught in personal and professional conflict.
Amrita Puri, for the first time in a lead role after her impressive Aisha stint, is strictly okay. You want to take her seriously but lines like “Tumhe mere saath Mumbai chalna hoga. Main yahaan se vidhwa hoke nahi jaana chahti” ruin it. May be a better script and we can see if she can work some magic on the big screen. Manish Choudhary as Zaveri/Zakharia is “superb”-ly annoying, while the actor playing his brother deserves to be shot for over-acting.
The lead pair salvages the film to an extent, but a limited scope of the script binds them both from making it an entertaining trip. The out of sync sound in many scenes makes Blood Moneytechnically unstable. Add to all this innumerable songs.
Wait for Blood Money’s television premier. Or else, watch the trailer. Why waste 2.5 hours on something you can watch in 2.05 minutes?
