Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

While the fascinating frontiers of underwater has been a theme that is touched by the world of Hollywood on a regular basis, the Indian cinema has turned to it after a long- long time with BLUE. BLUE is the first full length feature film where the underwater forms an interesting backdrop for development of plot of the film.

It indeed is one of the intriguing phenomenons of the Indian cinema that though India is blessed with one of the most beautiful and enchanting geographical expanses, they seldom are used as a theme to build up a story.

BLUE should change the trend and could also evince interest in the world of underwater for the average Indians. After all, in mythology as well, expanse of water has played an interesting role be it in the form of Varah Avatar or the mythical Dwarka of Lord Krishna. Inspite of such illustrious history, focus on underwater has not been in the same proportion and it could be owing to the fact that logistics involved are immense and has been made possible owing to the collaboration with the foreign crews and technicians as BLUE has undertaken.

Interestingly enough one of the biggest entertainers that Hindi cinema has ever produced, Manmohan Desai had used the underwater as a prop for climax in his film PARVARISH; it is altogether a different matter that the underwater shots were in the swimming pool than in actual sea. Besides, DOSTANA of Amitabh Bachchan had used sea as a backdrop for few scenes and so had DAYAVAAN. For that matter the real sneak curtain raiser for the exciting possibilities that underwater could unfold was provided by Ramesh Sippy in SHAAN, where he had built up the den of the villain in the middle of nowhere deep in the sea. The same however could not be followed up subsequently.

This incidentally begs a question. Is it owing to the fact that the swimming was not a forte with our stars of the yore that the films having swimming as an integral element where seldom used as a theme, but for occasional shots of a swimming pool thrown around?

Besides, the penchant for action in all myriad ways could have been the catalysis for the action stars of the likes of Akshay Kumar and Sanjay Dutt to come together for BLUE. Incidentally BLUE has other firsts to its credit, including a female star in the form of Lara Dutta also vying shoulders with her male peers underwater. Besides, BLUE is also the first film whose music has also been released on pen drives and micro scan discs, keeping in tune with the current penchant of the audience to listen to music through these days. Also another first for BLUE is that its advance booking has been opened more than 10 days before the film is to be released and it would be interesting to observe whether this initiative ensures full house for a longer period.