Blue, gave me blues

The trailers of the movie was inviting to take a dip in its suave cool blue Bahamas waters, savour its story, locales, action; the music is funky, full of beats and smacked of signature AR.Rahman tunes. And add Kylie Minogue to the charm and the producers ensured that I took the fatal bait. I watched the trailer on the idiot box many a times and wanted a dekho at this newest Rs. 80 crore bollywood flick.


The movie opens with the sequence of a shipwreck in 1947 followed by Kabir Bedi's grim face. We get back to the present times where Akshay Kumar (Aarav) & Sanday Dutt (Sagar aka Sethji) chit chatting on their boat about the last night's party where Akshay got to ride two chicks back home. They are fishing for their livelyhood when Aarav's cap gets blown in by the breeze into the blue. It being his favourite cap, Sagar tries to retrieve it and out of the blue swims up a shark bearing its jaws. Net mein hole to jeb mein hole is the mantra and both of them dive in. Aarav tames the shark & drives it away and you are ensured that the movie isnt short of style.


Aarav is the rich businessman who employs the faithful Sagar, who knows the ocean like the back of his hand. They are friendly, but fight a bitter boxing match; they are the employer-employee but share a friendly rapport and all their conversations are steered by Aarav to the Lady in Blue. This is enough to make Sagar's blood boil enough to make a cuppa tea! 


Cut to some glam quotient, and muse if Lara 'Mona' Dutta whose dream is to save the marine life and setup some kinda marine museum in Bahamas. Phew! whatta dream mate, the muse wants to save while the guy is catching fish!!!


Cut once more to east Asia, Bangkok. We get a glimpse of Sagar's chhota bhai Zayed 'Sam/Sameer' Khan who we immediately know is a brat and will get into trouble and its because of him bada bhai has to do the unthinkable. Meanwhile Kat Kaif is added for some more glam quotient. Whatever her role length is, she definitely sizzles. Action follows, Sam races Rahul 'Gulshan'Dev, wins, agrees to do a sleazy job for him, zooms again on his bike, cops chase & the streets of Bangkok see a truck overturn and balls of fire. Yup, Sam doesnt finish the job & enters Bahamas to be under the protective care of bada bhai.


Aarav, Sagar, Mona & Sam have some fun in the islands. In a happening night club, we see a stunningly beautiful Kylie singing & gyrating to chiggy-wiggy. More fun follows to the theme song of Blue. The song is very well shot with cool underwater cam scenes, corals, colourful fishes, hitchhiking a ride on a tortoises's back and adds oodles of panache & style to the movie. But does it add any to the story, hmmmfff!!!


One more bike chase follows which is rather stupid. Who has ever heard of bikes landing on the roof of a moving train, then jumping off in front of the monstrous engine, out running the train and then moving to safety! Its clear by now Sam is in trouble and the troika of boyz need to help Sam & themselves. Needless to say, we know what the second half has in store.


The first half has as much story to tell as the length of Lars's bikini.  Something that could have been said within 10 minutes is stretched to an hour. Though, there is no dearth of style the story falls flat. Second half is equally rubbish. The underwater stunts could have been done much better. The much touted scene where Akshay had to swim underwater while there is an explosion above, appears hardly for a second or two. India's officially first underwater movie managed to pour gallons of cold water over my  expectations of the movie.


Like numerous Akshay's movies, this one too has a very weak story line. Logic has no role to play at all. Imagine calling the coast guard for a may-day help in Bahamas. The climax of the movie is as stupid as in 8x10 Tasveer. First time directory Lawrence D'Souza needs to do his homework. 


The only good thing about the movie is the music and good underwater cinematography. Apparently the makers roped in the same cinematographer as of Pirates of the Caribbean fame and thankfully they got it right. Chiggy-Wiggy, Blue & Fiqurana are foot taping songs.


Lara Dutta is in purely for the glam factor. Sanjay Dutt looks ingloriously unfit. His bulging muscles have moved from his arms down to his stomach. Akshay bares his fit body & his son Aarav's tattoo on his neck. Zayed is just about ok, as ok as he was in Dus or Main Hoon Na. A highly disappointing flick worth giving a complete miss. I would rate it only 2/5, not that my opinion really matters to the Rs.50 crore that the movie has already collected!!!  

Kool Kodai

The work was driving me mad. It had my hands full to the extent that I was driven to balance the load with my feet too. Enough was enough, and we wanted to get away for a while without touching a phone, laptop, TV and not endure the Bangalore traffic.

Kodaikanal was our choice of vacation, since neither of us had been there and its not far from Bangalore either. Located on the Western Ghats on the western side of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Kodai is a much sought after hill station, to literally cool your heels. We decided to travel by train.

How we got there?

We decided to make the journey by train. Kodai doesnt have a railway station. The closest place is Kodai Road which is about 75kms from Kodai. Tuticorn Express (Train No. 6732) leaves from Bangalore at about 9:15pm and reaches Kodai road by 6:30am. A "AC 3 Tier" costs about Rs. 510 per person. From Kodai Road we expected to strike a bargain in a taxi or take a bus. The illusion was purely shattered upon alighting.

Taxis are dime a dozen there, but its the brokers who call the roost. They demand nothing less than Rs. 1100. After a hard bargain we were able to round it for Rs. 1000, only to be told by the driver, on the way, that if one approaches the taxis directly you can get away by paying about Rs.800-850. The journey takes 2hrs and the roads are good. The ghats form majority of the distance, about 55kms.

Tips: If you are making a similar trip to Kodai, think about driving yourself. Or if you know a tourist operator in Kodai, call up before hand and strike a deal. All Hotels in Kodai charge about Rs. 1000+Taxes for this trip.

What we saw?

Kodai isnt such a place where you need to do an elaborate plan to decide what to see and when to see it. Its a pretty small town and you can pretty much cover all the attractions in a single day. We booked the same taxi operator who brought us to the hotel, to take us around the town as well. To take it all in at an extremely leisurely pace we split up the tour into two halves for two days. Some of the main attraction to see are...

• Coakers Walk: Lt. Coaker, an Englishman, mapped the Kodai city. He also designed this walk which is on the edge of the mountain and overlooks the valley below. It makes for a beautiful sight of the magnificent nature. A must-see place and try to visit during the twilight hours for a better experience. But be warned that fog may play spoilsport.

• The Lake: This ought to be the most famous attraction in Kodai. Spread across almost 6 sq kms of area the vast expanse of waters have a mountainous backdrop. Boating here is a must & makes for a serene soothing experience. Take a rower boat & if you are luck the boatman Laxman will tell you interesting facts and click some good pics too.

• Upper Lake View: A beautiful spot from where you can feast on the view of the entire lake. If you have a SLR cam with wide angle lens, then you get the best desktop wallpaper you can lay your hands on. Else, you can splurge Rs.200 for 2 photos from one of the multitude of photographers there.

• Pillar Rocks: Natures show of strength and invincibility is showcased at this site. True to its name, sheer vertical rocks stand tall next to each other. Monkey menace is large here.

• Pine Forest: Touted as the Cine Shooting Place, this is really a beautiful location. Pine Trees grow in abundance here and are so dense in some places that sunlight can only trickle through in. Calm, quite & serene, this is one romantic spot any couple would love to spend lots of time in.

• Green Valley View: The name makes full justice to the place. However it is infamous for its numerous life ending missions as the steep fall ensures that no trace of any bones can be found ever. Beautiful though, one must tread carefully to enjoy the vast expanse of nature.

While these places are the bulk of the main attraction in Kodai, there are few smaller ones. Dont be fooled by names like Kodai City View, Palani View, Golf course etc. The views can be seen standing near the Kurunji Andavar Temple (dedicated to Lord Subrahmanya) while you can only glimpse at the golf course on the way to other places. There is a small Jain Temple too, but Lord Mahaveera is truly resplendent in marble. Chettiar Park & Bryant Park are not out of the ordinary but a quick visit doesnt harm. Both parks charge a minuscule entry fee and some more for the camera as well.

As I said earlier in the post, one can round off all these places within a day. If you want to do it at leisure, the max you need is two days. Apart from the sights, there is no other attractions. Night life is non-existent, while shopping offers nothing new. But some Tibetian shops near the lake have some good fare to be considered. Plethora of "Home Made Chocolates" shops are seen too, but again nothing special about them.

Other forest & trekking tours too are offered for which the forest department's permissions is a must. I am sure the tour operators can get your the permission without any hitch.

Where to eat?

Veg restaurants are not hard to find in the city, near the lake. Hotel Hilltop Woodlands, Astoria Veg, Tava are some of the restaurants which have fairly good variety to satisfy the gastronomy. The local Pizza Corner (next to Hilltop Woodlands) delivers to your hotel room too, if you want. Branded bottled water comes at a small premium. Aquafina costs about Rs.2-4 more than the MRP.

To sum up, Kodai is truly a nice place to visit to getaway from the maddening hustle-bustle of the city. We lazed, I am really lazed around in our hotel room for one more day, before we were travel bound to our next destination.

Hotel Tip

The only grouse I had about Kodai is that Taxis are the sole mode of local transportation. If you hotel is not neat the city, then you end up spending a minimum of Rs.60 per taxi trip. We stayed in Hotel Kodai International which is 2kms away from the lake. While 2kms. doesnt seem a long walk, it indeed is tiring when you walk uphill the entire distance. If you are planning a trip to the Kodai, check for a hotel which is not more than 1km away from the lake.

Numero Uno

This is my first blog ever on the cyberspace. What took me to blogging is that it helps one to connect to like minded people across the seas or land and to share & learn newer things. I fondly recollect a line from a song which goes like the more you know, the more you want to learn or something on similar lines :).

I've read various blogs on the Net and I'm amazed at the talent that people I know, have got within them. Its a pleasure to assimilate all their knowings and a true stress buster too. For long, I wished I could write like them too, but then I know that I am not them, but I'm me.

A few days ago, me & my wife took a week long vacation, which was long overdue for us. We visited a few places, had a good time and it was then I decided that I should, somewhere, log where we want, what we did, what we saw & where we stayed. Voila, blog was the answer to this. But my entire blog might not be a travelogue. It might hold whatever comes to my mind that I think is useful of sharing.

Soon, I shall be penning about our vacation!