Follow Us
Join UsKunal Kadam (Kunal Kemmu) 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.
Rating: 1/5 star (One star)
Star cast: Kunal Kemmu, Amrita Puri, Manish Choudhary, Shekher Shukla, Mia Uyeda, Karan Mehra, Sandeep Sikand.
What’s Good: Kunal Kemmu’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 Kemmu), 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.
Blood Money Review: Star Performances
Kunal Kemmu does a convincing job as the young Kunal Kadam. He is very good in several scenes. Amrita Puri, as Kunal’s wife, has little to do, but she seems real enough. Manish Choudhary, as Zaveri, tries hard but fails to be the evil boss. The much hyped Mia Uyeda is eye candy. Sandeep Sikand, as Zaveri’s brother, disappoints. Shekher Shukla does okay in a short role as a Gujarati businessman. Karan Mehra, as the police officer, leaves a lot to be desired. Teeshay (as Kunal’s colleague) and others offer average support.
Blood Money Review: Direction & Technical Aspects
Director Vishal Mahadkar, riddled by a losing script, does a below-average job as he fails in making the narrative engaging and dramatic enough. As a result, even though the film’s running time is under two hours, it seems much longer than that. The Chahat song is very good. The other songs are average and do not add much value to the narrative. Nigam Bomzan’s cinematography is very good. The editing is sharp.
Blood Money Review: The Last Word
On the whole, Blood Money fails to entertain the audience in spite of having a potentially good subject. Not worth your time!
