Blood Money (2012 film)

Blood Money is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film[1] directed by Vishal Mahadkar and produced by Mahesh Bhatt.[2] The film stars Kunal Khemu opposite Amrita Puri in lead roles. It released on 30 March 2012, and received mostly positive response from critics. Blood Money managed to perform moderately well at the box office. Many critics compared the film to the Blood Diamond (2006), The Devil's Advocate (1997), The Firm (1993) and to Bhatt's earlier directorial film Naam (1986).[3]

Blood Money
Theatrical release poster
Directed byVishal Mahadkar
Produced byMukesh Bhatt
Story byUpendra Sidhye
StarringKunal Khemu
Amrita Puri
Teeshay Shah
Puja Gupta
Music byJeet Gannguli
Pranay Rijia
Sangeet Haldipur-Siddharth Haldipur
CinematographyNigam Bomzan
Distributed byVishesh Films
Viacom 18 Motion Pictures
Release date
  • 30 March 2012 (2012-03-30)
Running time
109 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Budget₹90 million (US$1.3 million)
Box office₹120 million (US$1.7 million)

Plot

The story is about Kunal (Kunal Khemu) who believes he can do anything by trying his hardest. He receives a job offer through his friend Shawn (Teeshay) and his wife Nandini (Puja Gupta) in Cape Town and moves there with his wife Aarzoo (Amrita Puri). They live a happy life together, until Kunal becomes extremely workaholic. Kunal's nature irritates Aarzoo which leads to frequent outbursts and quarrels. Kunal becomes the most trusted employee of his boss Dharmesh Zaveri (Manish Chaudhary). This thing angers Dinesh Zaveri, Dharmesh Zaveri's younger brother. Kunal advances in his job. Soon Dharmesh is revealed to be an underworld gangster. The company Kunal works in deals with exporting diamonds; Kunal has no idea that it happens illegally. His boss, Mr. Zakaria, sends his hot colleague Rosa to charm Kunal and take him away from his wife. Following the day when Kunal gets drunk in a party, Rosa takes advantage and manages to make love with him. Kunal reaches his house and finds Aarzoo sleeping and accidentally wakes her up, after which they both pick up a quarrel. Soon enough, Kunal realises the crime he is a part of and decides to leave Cape Town. However, Zakaria knows that Kunal is aware of the illegal business and the only way to keep him silent is to kill him.

Kunal one day tells Aarzoo that Rosa took advantage of him when he was drunk, which leaves Aarzoo shattered and she returns him the diamond pendant given to her by him, writing that she can't live with him anymore and has gone to stay at Shawn's house. Shawn tries to console Kunal, and in the process it's revealed that even Shawn knows about Zakaria's evil plans but can't do anything in front of him. He advises Kunal not to oppose him, otherwise he might end up losing his life. Kunal then gets a call from his boss who sends him to a place where he unknowingly gives a gun and other weapons in exchange for the diamonds, to a terrorist who kills an innocent man in front of him. Kunal feels bad and returns to find that Shawn has been killed.

Then, he reveals about what wrong had been happening with him and how he wanted to leave this, to Aarzoo who later understands and joins him. Kunal tries to get help from a police officer Bobby Kapadia. He asks Kunal to get into Zakaria's cabin and get his computer's hard disk and a diary in which he keeps all his records. Kunal manages to get them but as is about to go, is chased by some guards. He gets stabbed by Dinesh Zaveri but beats him and survives. He fights against all the guards and reaches the plane area, where he gets to know that Bobby Kapadia was actually working with Zakaria, whose plan was to make Kunal reach the plane area where he would kill him. Then Kunal reveals to Zakaria that it was his plan to make him come to the plane area, and that he knew about his identity and thus was playing a game with him. As Zakaria gets up to hit Kunal, he throws the gun and beats him, till the interpol arrives. Zakaria is then arrested and Kunal is taken to safety. Later, it is shown at the end that Kunal and Aarzoo move back to Madh island and Kunal is shown reading Hansel and Gretel to little kids and the movie ends with a song.

Cast
  • Kunal Khemu as Kunal Kadam
  • Amrita Puri as Aarzoo Kadam, Kunal's wife
  • Manish Choudhary as Dharmesh Zaveri / Rajan Zakaria
  • Mia Uyeda a.k.a. Mia Evonne Uyeda as Rosa
  • Karan Mehra as Inspector Bobby Kapadia
  • Sandeep Sikand as Dinesh Zaveri
  • Shekhar Shukla as Paresh
  • Teeshay Shah as Kunal's colleague and k9

Development

The film was earlier titled Kalyug 2 and was to be a sequel to 2005's Kalyug. Director Vishal Mahadkar did not appreciate the title and changed it to Jannat 2, making it a sequel to the 2008 hit Jannat. When the public's feedback to this title turned out to be even more negative, it was finally renamed to Blood Money.[4][5]

Reception
Promotions of Blood Money at R City Mall, Ghatkopar, Mumbai

Critical

Blood Money received mixed to positive response but Kunal Khemu received positive response from critics. Jeeturaaj of radio mirchi gave it 3.5/5 stars saying "interesting insight into diamond trade and brilliant songs".[6] Martin D'souza of glamsham.com said "There are a few flaws, but I'd rather not dwell on those because the overall impact is massive" awarding it 3/5 stars.[7] Madhureeta Mukherjee of Times of India rated the film 3/5 and said "Debutant director, (Vishal S Mahadkar), tells the story well".[8]

Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com gave it 1/5 stars and wrote "Blood Money is exceptionally hollow in its aspirations".[9] Writing for FilmiTadka, Janhavi Patel gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and said, "Blood Money starts off decently but goes downhill in the second half with a laughable climax. Spend your money elsewhere".[10] Blessy Chettiar of DNA awarded 2 out of 5 stars and said, "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?"[11]

Box office

The film had an average opening at the box office. Usually, Vishesh Films' collections are a net gross of about Rs. 250 million: Blood Money collected more than 90 million in its full theatrical run in India, which is a decent amount for the Bhatt's nevertheless it was declared "Average" by Box Office India.[12]

Soundtrack
Blood Money
Studio album by
Jeet Ganguly, Pranay M Rijia & Sangeet-Siddharth
Released19 February 2012 (2012-02-19)
GenreFeature film soundtrack
LabelSony Music India

Blood Money's soundtrack was released on 19 February 2012. It was composed by Jeet Gannguli, Pranay, Sangeet Haldipur, Siddharth Haldipur (Sangeet-Siddharth); lyrics were penned by Sayeed Quadri, Kumaar.

Track list
No.TitleMusicSinger(s)Length
1."Chaahat"Jeet GannguliRahat Fateh Ali Khan4:24
2."Gunaah"Jeet GannguliMustafa Zahid4:49
3."Teri Yaadon Se"PranayMustafa Zahid4:36
4."Jo Tere Sang"Jeet GannguliMustafa Zahid5:06
5."Aarzoo"Sangeet-SiddharthClinton Cerejo4:17
6."Gunaah" (Unplugged)Jeet GannguliRana Muzumdar5:38
7."Teri Yaadon Se" (Remix)Pranay; remixed by Kiran KamathMustafa Zahid5:14
8."Jo Tere Sang" (Remix)Jeet Gannguli; remixed by Dj SavioMustafa Zahid6:18

Reception

The album received positive reviews from critics. Joginder Tuteja from Bollywood Hungama gave the album a 3.5/5 stars picking "Jo Tere Sang", "Gunaah (unplugged)" and "Chaahat" as his favourites. Musicaloud gave the album 3/5 stars picking "Chaahat" and "Gunaah" as their favourites.[13] Times of India states that "Blood Money, like all previous Bhatt films, has some great music that will help take the movie to a different level altogether".[14]

Professional reviews
Review Scores
Source Rating
Musicperk.com
Tehelka
indicates that the given rating is an average rating of all reviews provided by the source
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gollark: Polar shift meme?
gollark: It can either reflect, allow through or absorb some solar energy, but not magically get rid of it.
gollark: It does not block the entire output of the sun. You can tell this by looking outdoors depending on time of day.
gollark: It's not like it magically goes to the V O I D.

References
  1. "Kunal Khemu turning action hero for Vikram Bhatt". Mid-day.
  2. Smith, Ian Hayden (2012). International Film Guide 2012. p. 141. ISBN 978-1908215017.
  3. Blood Money not similar to Blood Diamond,Naam : Bhatt, NDTV, 29 February 2012, archived from the original on 11 July 2012
  4. "Mahesh Bhatt turns 'Jannat 2' into 'Blood Money'". IndiaGlitz. 19 July 2011. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  5. "Mahesh Bhatt's 'Blood Money': A sequel to 'Kalyug'?". IBN Live. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  6. "Blood Money Movie Review – Mirchi Bioscope by RJ Jeeturaaj – Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM". radiomirchi.com.
  7. http://www.top10bollywood.com/2012/03/blood-money-movie-review-ratings.html
  8. "Blood Money". The Times of India.
  9. Sukanya Verma. "Review: Blood Money is mindless and boring". Rediff.com. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  10. Patel, Janhavi. "Blood Money Movie Review". FilmiTadka. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  11. Chettiar, Blessy. "Review: Blood Money". DNA. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  12. "Hits and Misses of the First Quarter of 2012 – Latest bollywood Hindi Movie Features". Bollywood Hungama.
  13. Blood Money – Music Review, MusicAloud, 17 February 2012
  14. "Blood Money – Music Review", The Times of India, 12 March 2012
  15. Blood Money – Music Review, Bollywood Hungama, 1 March 2012
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