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Bluffmaster
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'Bluffmaster' Who bluffed who!

By N K Deoshi
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

To say it in this movie’s parlance – Paan to achcha banaya, lekin choona kuch jayada lagaya.

The plot of Rohan Sippy’s movie ‘Bluffmaster’ walks an uncertain path. It delves a little on comedy, a little on romance and a bit on the protagonist’s impending tragedy (which eventually never comes). The end of the movie, its real redeeming factor, is connected with the point from where it starts. And by the time the end credits roll, the story comes full circle. Of course, the protagonist is now a transformed man.

Don’t

expect a laugh riot from this movie. However, it does entertain. Ritesh Deshmukh adds some real good moments of fun here and there. Nana Patekar comes and steals the show in the second half. Not much humour is forthcoming from Abhishek Bachchan, but then, he is playing a lovesick bluffmaster who has just a few months of life left to live.

The movie begins with a film producer (Tinu Anand) taking an anonymous call on someone’s lost mobile he found lying on the road. In the call, he is told to collect a huge sum of money from a garbage can. The money is presumed to be the ransom paid to the kidnapper who lost his mobile.

The producer tries his luck. He finds the money there. But then, the cops come. The head cop (Abhishek) begins planting more evidence at the ‘crime site’. The producer begs and offers big bribe. The head cop relents. The bluffmaster has struck.

Meet Roy (Abhishek Bachchan), a street-savvy bluffmaster who knows many a trick in the con game. The only thing he doesn’t bluff is his romance for Simi (Priyanka Chopra).

On his engagement day with Simi, Roy’s reality is exposed in front of her entire family. The engagement is called off and Roy is left pining for Simi’s love.

In the meantime, Roy meets another connie. This junior connie, name Dittu (Ritesh Deshmukh), tries unsuccessfully to bluff Roy. He later becomes Roy’s chela.

While Roy is trying to regain Simi’s love, he comes to know a shocking truth. He has brain tumor. His doctor, Dr. Bhalerao (Boman Irani), says he has just three months left to live.

When Roy tells Simi this truth, she thinks he is playing another one of his tricks to get her back. A serene and spurned Roy decides to live his remaining life to the fullest.

He wants to pull off one last big con on Chandru Parekh (Nana Patekar), who made Dittu’s father a pauper after conning the old man. Dittu wants to even the score with Chandru by conning him in return.

Roy teaches Dittu the tricks of the game and the two manage to dupe Chandru of crores. But Chandru won’t go down so easily. It’s not the money, but his “image” that has been challenged.

As the climax draws closer, Chandru hits back. He abducts Simi and demands Roy to return the money to save the girl.

Roy, who knows his eventual fate is to die, faces Chandru’s gun...What follows next will certainly take you by surprise.

‘Bluffmaster’ begins excellently. The very first sequence sets the movie’s pace. But the story derails whenever the movie goes onto the romantic track involving the lovesick bluffmaster repeatedly approaching his ladylove.

Frankly, Abhishek’s character in the movie should have been better chiseled out. Roy is a somber bluffmaster who reacts with repulsion to the comedy going around him. Add to it Abhishek’s own serenity that lends a further serious look to the character. Ideally, Abhishek is not suited to this role. An actor like Sanjay Dutt would have done wonders to it.

Ritesh Deshmukh delivers what is expected of him. He chips in some good, humorous moments.

But it is Nana Patekar who pales everyone with his lively, lecherous and funny act. He plays an Hotelier who keeps secretaries for more reasons than just typing. He worships himself in the mirror and knows well how to square up with anyone who causes him some harm.

The best part about Nana’s performance is the way he delivers his lines. His dialogues, particularly in the pre-climax sequence, are extremely hilarious.

Boman Irani, too, acquits himself well. His humour is lighthearted. He really excels in one scene when he gives life’s wisdom to the bluffmaster.

Priyanka Chopra enacts her part well, but her character has little direct significance to the story except the fact that she happens to be Abhi’s ladylove.

In a nutshell, Rohan Sippy offers a mixed package in ‘Bluffmaster’. The movie’s plot doesn’t move in a straight line. It meanders between romance and comedy. Thankfully, the songs in the film are not a hindrance to its pace.

Only two bluffs in the movie are intelligently conceived. The first one comes at the beginning, the other at the very end.

No two thoughts, the end of this movie redeems all its shortcomings. This is the reason enough to see ‘Bluffmaster’ once.

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