It is not quite a riot of laughter, and yet it is an entertainer. Not quite a comedy, neither a full-fledged romance. Bluffmaster - Rohan Sippy directed and Abhishek Bachchan starrer released this Friday - is somewhere in the middle path of being a romance and a comedy.
The son of a great filmmaker like Ramesh Sippy and the son of the country's biggest superstar had tried their luck together once before with 'Kuch Na Kaho'. The film flopped despite none other than Aishwarya Rai being the heroine of the film. Rohan Sippy tried to learn and understand the pulse of the common viewers and has now come up with his second film 'Bluffmaster' once again with his childhood friend Abhishek Bachchan.
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A 14-reel film, 'Bluffmaster' was hyped as the best film of the season and was promoted extensively as a unique presentation. The film does have all the ingredients of glamour, glow and glitz and yet there is something amiss that could have made it strike big at the box office.
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'Bluffmaster' is a film that may be called an experiment in story narration, at least in the Indian context. The story starts with Roy (Abhishek Bachchan) appearing as a con man and trying to fleece a producer (Tinu Anand). Once established as a con man on screen, the story takes a turn and romance takes priority between Roy and Simmi (Priyanka Chopra). Roy never speaks the truth and the only thing that is true about him is that he loves Simmi by heart.
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However, on the very celebration day of their engagement, the truth about Roy's identity is disclosed to Simmi. Her faith in Roy is shattered and she walks out of his life. Roy follows her everywhere to win her heart but she is adamant. That is when Dittu (Ritesh Deshmukh) makes an entry, a small time cheater who tries his hands on Roy. Roy catches him red handed and now Dittu turns his disciple.
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Roy after initial hesitance accepts him as his protégé and teaches him the tricks of the trade of bluffing. All goes well until Chandru (Nana Patekar) enters the scene. Dittu makes Roy believe that it was Chandru who forced him to be what he is today. Roy promises to help Dittu and take revenge on Chandru. All of a sudden, a tumor is detected in Roy's brain and he is told that he has only three months to live. The shadow of death lends a change of heart and now he desires to lead a better life.
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The story derives heavily from traditional Indian con films, especially so from Amitabh Bachchan's 'Majboor'. It may also be seen as a sequel to 'Bunty or Babli' minus Babli. If Bunty was from a small town of UP, Roy is from our very own Mumbai and has taken the profession as an art. He believes that he can make a fool of any one and he is so sure of having mastered this art that he boasts about it all the time.
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Abhishek Bachchan plays a con man very stylishly dressed in designer clothes and wearing costly watches. Ritesh Deshmukh as Dittu wins many applauses. He has matured a lot from his past films. Nana Patekar rocks as ever and is once again marvelous in his performance. He makes life hell for both Roy and Dittu as Chandru in the film and emerges as a true performer suited for the role. Even Priyanka does not too badly. A postmortem of the film reveals that the problem lies with the story and screenplay of the film written by Sridhar Raghavan. It becomes very clear from the very second reel that the writer is losing focus.
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Among technicians of the team, Rohan Sippy leads the brigade and other than choosing a wrong screenplay, he gets pass marks. But, this only fault makes all the difference to the film. The climax of the film also spoils all the fun and it becomes hard to understand why he chose to take a U turn at the end. Projecting Abhishek as a prey and not a 'Bluffmaster' at the end kills the very element of the film.
'Bluffmaster', thus, fails to bluff the audience and will find it very difficult to make money at the box office. The stars for the superstar Bachchan family seem to be in an adverse position. Last week, Big B's 'Ajnabee' failed and now Junior B gets the shock of the year. Maybe days will change for the Bachchan family in 2006 as Family as been postponed for a later release now.
