Blood Money (2012 film)

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 this 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 and 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

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.

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". 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. Madhureeta Mukherjee of Times of India rated the film 3/5 and said "Debutant director, (Vishal S Mahadkar), tells the story well".

Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com gave it 1/5 stars and wrote "Blood Money is exceptionally hollow in its aspirations". 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". 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?"

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 a full 90 million in its full theatrical run, which is decent gross for the Bhatt's nevertheless it was declared "Average" by Box Office India.

Soundtrack

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

Reception

The album received positive reviews from critics. Joginder Tuteja from Bollywood Hungama gave the album a 3.5/5 stars picking "Teri Yaadon Se (remix)", "Gunaah (unplugged)" and "Chaahat" as his favourites. Musicaloud gave the album 3/5 stars picking "Chaahat" and "Gunaah" as their favourites. 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".