| Bluffmaster 
First it was a string of special appearances that he did for films
produced or directed by friends whom he just couldn’t refuse, like
Salaam Namaste, Ek Ajnabee, Home Delivery. And now, on the heels of
Bunty Aur Babli, here’s another Abhishek Bachchan film that features
him as a con-man. Only, this one’s got a better plot that’s much
tighter, and after quite a while, here’s a script that’s not an
afterthought but the centrespiece of the entire creative effort Rohan
Sippy has put into crafting Bluffmaster.
A fast-paced con caper with a humungous sting in its tail,
Bluffmaster opens smartly, and quickly introduces the characters with
deft thumbnail strokes. From the word go, director Rohan Sippy takes
the plot by the scruff of its neck, and within 10-15 minutes, the
story is ready to zoom. Roy Kapoor is a young, smart conman, the
confident and self-proclaimed Daddy-O of the world of cons otherwise
filled with wannabe conmen. Establish all this with one quick caper,
introduce the lovely lady he worships (Priyanka Chopra) to whom he
expresses his love (but has never revealed what he does for a living).
Well, Roy proposes to Simmi, who accepts, and till their engagement
party all is well, until, at the end of a song n dance, who should Roy
bump into but the very man he duped through the elaborate opening con!
And Roy’s world falls apart – coz Simmi is aghast when she learns Roy
is a conman. Eyes smouldering with agony, she slips Roy’s engagement
ring off her finger and dumps him, her righteous heart broken. So,
here we are, only about 15 minutes into the film about a
super-confident Bluffmaster who’s nursing heartbreak, and who’s
already conned a tough cookie who will get back at him. What will Rou
do next? Where does the film go from here?
 Places.
For, even as Roy refuses to give up on Simmi and tries to win her back,
a young wannabe conman enters his life. Dittu (a very competent Riteish
Deshmukh) tries to pull a con on Roy, who sees through Dittu and his
partner’s plan and puts them in their place. And before long, Dittu has
latched on to Roy, acknowledging him as the maestro and begging Roy to
teach him the tricks of the con trade. But the smart, calm and smooth
Roy considers Dittu an embarrassment. However, Dittu persists, and
Roy, torn between his love for Simmi who has turned him down, and an
obligation to Dittu, finally gives in and decides to teach Dittu the
tricks of the trade. In the process there are several hilarious
escapades – some starting as seemingly disconnected with one another.
Before long there enters into the scene, A dangerous, swarthy
character, Chandru Parekh, a really nasty number who is so
self-obsessed, he prays with a pooja thaali to himself in the mirror,
and has done something terrible to incur the wrath of Dittu, who wants
revenge. But Roy refuses to be drawn into Dittu’s personal battle.
Though not for long, for Simmi enters the picture… and then, Roy
decides to support Dittu. They give themselves seven days to make
Chandru suffer.
Really, Bluffmaster scores because it is an entertaining con caper
slickly told with the help of some excellent performances for
characters that have been extremely well crafted. As a conman, Roy is
master of all he surveys, but as a rejected lover, he is equally
confused, and Abhishek looks and portrays the part of a stylish and
debonair conman who is flustered in love. This is his best performance
in a commercial film after Yuva (where he shared the limelight) and
Phir Milenge, and in Bluffmaster, he’s finally proved he can carry a
film singlehandedly.
Priyanka Chopra is competent as Simmi Khanna, the young woman who
puts honesty and principles before love and hence dumps Roy, but the
best of the supporting cast is the actor par excellence, Nana Patekar,
who excels as the dangerous Chandru, the man who drove Dittu’s father
to an amnesic old man, and for which Dittu wants revenge. Nana has some
extremely funny lines, and delivers them as only he can, getting under
the skin of the role perfectly.
 Another
superb character, played equally well, is that of Doctor Bhalerao.
Boman Irani lives the bumbling middle-aged doctor bordering on
forgetful senility, and a special highlight of his role is the scene in
which he explains to a dejected Roy his own philosophy of life, and why
it is important to live life to the fullest. (Some of the scenes
refrerred to in this review haven’t been placed in context as that
would take away from the film’s enjoyment and element of surprise)
Although the hugely popular album has several songs, one feared they
would slow down the film, and that would have hit at the biggest
strength of the film – pace. Mercifully, Sippy hasn’t used too many
songs in the film – Sabse Bada Rupaiya’s remix sung by Chetan
Shashital and with a couple of lines used from Mehmood’s original song,
is used to package and introduce Abhishek as the stylish conman. Of
course, Abhishek’s singing / reciting debut ‘Right Here Right Now’ is
the best song of the lot, well picturised in the film to take the story
of Roy’s relationship with Simmi forward, and again, as an end titles
bonus, where we see a stylish picturisation on Abhishek, Priyanka and
Riteish.
 Overall,
a great job by Rohan Sippy, but I cannot imagine him or anyone else
having been able to achieve what he has if it weren’t for Sridhar
Raghavan. Raghavan who? The scriptwriter, that’s who. The man who
wrote Khakee, and has crafted some of the best thrillers on television
too in the past, including C.I.D. and Aahat. Raghavan’s screenplay,
intriguingly complex and challenging to lovers of twists in the tail,
keeps coming at you from all sides as the story unfolds with its
edge-of-the-seat mix of humour and drama, and only when all the pieces
fall together to make a perfect picture can one really appreciate how
well crafted the whole thing is. On the honesty front (to the viewer,
that is), Raghavan’s script cannot be faulted except for one place,
where, in an effort to build realism, Roy and Dittu are mercilessly
beaten up by interrogating police officers. Watch the film and then
come back to this statement – it’ll make sense for the obvious reasons
then.
OK, now, for the long and short of it: Bluffmaster is a slickly
packaged comic con yarn that is racy, doesn’t take liberties with
logic, holds your attention, and keeps you trying to outguess the
climax. It succeeds, you fail in guessing the climax, and when you have
a taut screenplay that is urbanely tongue-in-cheek, peppered with some
very funny lines, peopled with well detailed and very funny characters
performed by some of the best cast actors for each role, and good music
completing the package … well, you have a four star entertainer. Kudos
to director Rohan Sippy for Bluffmaster.
By all means, watch the film. You’ll have a great time. (Direct Link - Right click and choose 'Save Target As')
Sabse Bada Ruppaiyy
Say Na Say Na
Tadbeer Se Bigdi Hui Taqdeer
Right Here Righ Now
9 Parts of Desire
The Gateway Theme
Bure Bure/Boro Boro
Do Aur Do Paanch
Indi
Neelaa
Parde Ke Peeche
Come Fishing (Bluffmaster Theme)
Right Here Right Now (Hip-Hop Mix)
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