Bluff Master (1963)

Bombay-based Ashok is a fast-talking conman who will do anything for a buck, cheat, steal, and even sell a laundry receipt as a lottery ticket. He has, however, written to his village-based... See full summary »

Director:

Manmohan Desai

Writers:

Manmohan Desai (screenplay), Madhusudan Kalekar (story),

Stars:

Shammi Kapoor, Saira Banu, Niranjan Sharma

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Shammi Kapoor	...	Ashok
Saira Banu	...	Seema (as Saira Banoo)
Niranjan Sharma
Mohan Choti	...	Mohan Choti
Tun Tun	...	Lajwanti
Rashid Khan
Charlie Walker
Jugal Kishore
Shyamlal
Anand Joshi
Santosh Kumar
Lalita Pawar	...	Ashok's mom
Pran	...	Kumar

Storyline

Bombay-based Ashok is a fast-talking conman who will do anything for a buck, cheat, steal, and even sell a laundry receipt as a lottery ticket. He has, however, written to his village-based mom, that he is the owner of the Taj Mahal Hotel, and is very wealthy, although he lives in a small room in a chawl. Ashok meets with Seema, and both fall in love. Seema has another admirer in Kumar, who will do anything to marry Seema, include abduct Ashok's mom, and hold her captive, until Ashok complies with his demands.

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Plot Keywords:

lottery ticket | redemption | camera | con artist | picnic | 

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Genres:

Romance

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Filming Locations:

R.K. Studios, Chembur, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company Credits

Production Co:

Subhash Pictures

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film's censor's certificate (#73949 dated 8/2/74) states that the film is in Urdu.

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Connections

References Mem-Didi (1961)

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Soundtracks

"Socha Tha Hum Pyar Na Karenge Surat Pe Hum Yaar"
Lyrics by Rajinder Krishan
Music by Anandji Veerji Shah and Kalyanji Veerji Shah (as Anandji and Kalyanji)
Sung by Mukesh

User Reviews

Shake it, Shammi; smile, Pran!

Disclaimer: these comments reflect only my own tastes, feelings and ignorance. I like watching Bollywood DVDs (among other reasons), for the option to play just the songs. They often (but not always!) make more sense in the context of the plot, but what I'm really interested in are the musical numbers. If I don't like the music, I probably won't like the film. As a United Statesian, I am pretty clueless about Indian culture, except that I like watching these films. I've enjoyed watching the films of the Kapoor dynasty; Raj is my fave, but little bro Shammi is fun, too. He has a reputation as the Indian Elvis. I think this is more evident in other films where he adopts a more western style. Here the music sounds more traditionally Indian (except for the "Spanish" number), with great playback singing by Mukesh, Rafi, Lata & her little sister Usha. I wonder who did the voice for Shammi's drag number?

As far as I know, Shammi is straight, a family man and all that, but the first time I saw him, perhaps in scenes from Teesri Manzil, he set off my gaydar. I immediately suspected my cultural ignorance, but his moves can be so fey that to these eyes he looked like a big queen. Hey, I'm not knocking it! Like Elvis, he is provocative, with strange twitches. So I was delighted in this film to find he had a musical number as female impersonator. He seems to be having fun. I think the person seated almost immediately behind him in this scene may also be a man dressed in woman's clothing.

But my favorite Shammi dance number in this film is when he joins a procession singing a song about Govinda. He gets to display his abandon in a "wet" scene, and then climb a human pyramid to reach a pot.

Pran, the eternal villain, gets to do a little dancing, and in the picnic number he even smiles like he might actually be having fun, rather than his usual sadistic leer. However, he has plenty of creepy smiles in a later song when he dances with Saira Banu in the "Spanish" number, she in a fabulous gown and Pran brandishing a whip. Throughout the film his character wipes his nose with his hand, perhaps to make him more disgusting, but he did it so often that I wondered if his character was cokey. (Again, cultural bias.)

I also like the accordion in the soundtrack.

Plus, Saira sure looks cute holding a sitar, her bare toe taping in the foreground.