Kunal Kadam (Kunal Khemmu) takes up a
rewarding job at a diamond company in Cape Town, South Africa, and
becomes his boss’ (Manish Choudhary) blue-eyed boy. Soon, he cheats on
his wife (Amrita Puri) and gets embroiled in his company’s illegal
activities. What happens next? Find out in the review of Blood Money.
Blood Money Movie Review
Rating: 1/5 star (One star)
Star cast: Kunal Khemmu, Amrita Puri, Manish Choudhary, Shekher Shukla, Mia Uyeda, Karan Mehra, Sandeep Sikand.
What’s Good: Kunal Khemmu’s performance.
What’s Bad: The insipid drama; the loopholes in the script; the below average dialogues.
Verdict: Blood Money is a poor fare.
Loo break: A couple in the second half.
Watch or Not?: Not recommended.
Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Vishesh Films’ Blood Money is about a young man whose life is turned upside down when he takes up a dream job.
Kunal Kadam (Kunal Khemmu), a business
management post-graduate, takes up a job at Trinity Diamonds, a diamond
trading firm, in Cape Town, South Africa. He is showered with money and
perks by the company and thinks that his dream of living the high life
has come true.
Kunal soon starts spending too much time
with his boss, Zaveri (Manish Choudhary), who takes him under his wing.
As a result, Kunal’s wife, Arzoo (Amrita Puri), who has moved to Cape
Town with him, spends most of her time alone at their lavish home. One
day, after a party, Kunal sleeps with his co-worker, Rosa (Mia Uyeda).
Next, he discovers that his boss’
brother (Sandeep Sikand) is siphoning off money from the company’s
accounts by undervaluing diamonds and creating fake bills. When Kunal
reports this to Zaveri, the latter reveals to him the company’s practice
of buying illegal diamonds and, thereby, tinkering with its accounts.
Zaveri gives Kunal a choice of looking into the illegal practices of the
company and losing his job, or continuing with the job and getting
richer by the day. Kunal chooses the latter option.
Kunal now executes every order of his
boss and even deals with the diamond mafia. But soon his conscience
stars pricking him and he decides to do something about it. When
Zaveri’s brother, who is envious of Kunal’s success, blackmails him with
photos of him getting intimate with Rosa, Kunal tells Arzoo that he had
cheated on her. Arzoo decides to leave him.
At his wits’ end, Kunal approaches a
colleague and shares his plans of revealing the truth to the police. The
colleague warns him not to go ahead with such a plan, as it could have
serious consequences.
What happens then? Does Kunal become a
whistleblower and reveal the illegal activities of his company? What
illegal activities is the diamond company really involved in? Does Arzoo
come back to Kunal? What does Kunal’s boss, Zaveri, do when he learns
about Kunal’s intentions? The rest of the film answers these questions.
Blood Money Review: Script Analysis
Upendra Sidhye’s story, the first half of which bears striking similarity to the Hollywood film, The Devil’s Advocate, has some potential. But his screenplay is rather tepid as it moves at a slow pace and bores the viewer. Several scenes seem to be inserted just in order to justify what follows in the drama. Like the angle of Zaveri being Zakaria (supposedly a dreaded gangster) is just too random to fit into the complete picture. The climax, which has a twist, is predictable.Moreover, the fact that there is a conflict in Kunal’s mind has not been exploited too well. Even worse, the audience’s sympathy does not go with the protagonist as he is shown to be a mean and conniving person who only cares about economic rewards. The manner in which Kunal shuns his loving wife and then, equally easily, apologises to her when he has no other choice, is rather unbecoming of him. And while he ‘sells his soul’ to his boss, why he suddenly decides to reclaim it, is not explained. If it is because of the fact his wife has left him, it surely isn’t convincing enough, as he never really cared for her in the first place. The dialogues of the film, penned by Sanjay Masoom, are disappointing.
