Bluffmaster! (2005)

Director:

Rohan Sippy

Writers:

Rajat Arora (dialogue)
Shridhar Raghavan (dialogue)

Release Date:

16 December 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Come fishing!

Plot:

A conman Roy, gets dumped by his girl-friend. Then he finds out he has a fatal disease. On the verge of death, he resolves to do some good, by helping his apprentice Dittu hoodwink the mobster who hurt his (Dittu's) family.

Plot Keywords:

Hotel | Fish | Dumped By Girlfriend | Swindler | Double Cross

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Abhishek Bachchan	...	Roy Kapoor
Priyanka Chopra	...	Simran "Simmi" Ahuja
Ritesh Deshmukh	...	Aditya "Dittu" Srivastav (as Riteish)
Nana Patekar	...	Chandru Parekh
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Afsaraadil	...	Doorman at Five Star
Tinnu Anand	...	Parimal Bajaj
Hayat Asif	...	Chandru's Man 1
Ram Awana	...	Chandru's Man 2
Rajesh Balwani	...	Pratish Shah
Dipak Chauhan	...	Man at Shooting 1 (as Deepak Chauhan)
Deepak Dharwal	...	Simmi's Father
Vallabh Gada	...	Doctor 2
Dinkar Gavande	...	Barber
Carol Gracias	...	Dancer in end credit music video
Boman Irani	...	Dr. Bhalerao
Mangala Kenkre	...	Simmi's Mother (as Mangal Kenkre)
Ayaz Khan	...	Amit
Zabyn Khan	...	Chandru's Wife Tina
Anchal Kumar	...	Dancer in end credit music video
Manjeet	...	Man at Shooting 2
Sanjay Mishra	...	Jassi (as Sanjai Mishra)
S. Mody	...	Manager at Simmi's Hotel
Mukuleshwar	...	Jewellery Maker
Satindra Narulla	...	Bajaj's Partner
Nishit	...	Manager at King's Hotel
Supriya Pilgaonkar	...	Mrs. Malhotra
Zaver Prajapati	...	Bouncer
Rajneesh Kumar Punwani	...	Doctor 3
Rohini Ramanathan	...	News Reporter
Hemant Rege	...	Old Man at Sanatorium
Rinita	...	Simmi's Friend Tina
Dinesh Sampat	...	Bellboy at King's Hotel
Ashok Sawant	...	Make Up Man
Shabista	...	Cashier
Hussain Shaikh	...	Omar
Shivangi	...	Girl in King's Hotel
Scherezade Shroff	...	Dancer in end credit music video
Bhupinder Singh	...	Chandru's Man 3
Mahesh Thakur	...	Mr. Malhotra
Ajay Trehan	...	Doctor 1 (as Ajey Trehan)
Piya Trivedi	...	Dancer in end credit music video
Bobby Vatsa	...	Executive
Vishnu	...	Roy's Servant
Ganesh Yadav	...	Wakatkar

Runtime:

137 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

UK:12A | Malaysia:U | India:UA

Filming Locations:

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company:

Entertainment One Pvt. Ltd.

Trivia:

The movie playing in the cinema hall when Roy and Dittu are posing as income tax officers is director Rohan Sippy's first film Kuch Na Kaho.

Quotes:

Roy: [singing] Listen up y'all, this is me, my players Ritesh D, P-C-Baby and director Rohan Sippy. I wrote this for the Bluffmaster movie and these are my music makers, Vishal and Shekhar...

Movie Connections:

References Matchstick Men (2003)

Soundtrack:

Right Here Right Now

A fun film with some good tunes which will get your feet tapping.

Roy Kapoor (Bachchan) is a career conman who excels in running the "perfect scam". He's in love with Simmi (Chopra) who he's been dating for 6 months and they're getting engaged. Unfortunately at their lavish engagement party, one of his most recent cons comes back to bite him on the proverbial when the victim turns out to be Simmi's uncle! Simmi had no idea her fiancé was a conman (she thought he was a stockbroker) and BOOM! The engagement is broken off and Simmi tells Roy that she wants nothing more to do with him.

Six months later, a forlorn Roy still wanders around like a lovesick puppy and comes across Dittu (Deshmukh) another conman but rather new to the game who's pulling off a con with a doctor (Irani). Dittu and colleague drop a banger and Dittu grabs the doctor and he falls to the floor thinking he's been shot, Dittu calls an "ambulance" but in reality they're out to steal whatever they can from the doctor. Roy "rescues" the doctor and in return the doctor gives him some well meaning advice, and in the process they discover that Roy has a brain tumour and only has 3 months to live. Simmi gets engaged to another man, Dittu keeps hounding Roy to mentor him as he wants to be as good at conning people as Roy for been for so many years and he wants to avenge his father's downfall at the hands of another conman Chandru (Patekar), who is somewhat of a gangster too.

The cons at the start and climax of the film were pretty brilliant and you really don't see the end one coming, so it is quite a surprise. I think it was very cleverly done but I'm guessing there's a Hollywood film out there with a similar storyline which has been copied because I'm pretty sure Bollywood didn't come up with this idea! If I'm doing Bollywood an injustice in that comment then I'd be the first to hold up my hand and admit I made a mistake.

The film itself is reminiscent of the Michael Douglas starrer The Game but don't be fooled into thinking it's a direct copy... It isn't!

All in all Bluffmaster gets a high 9 out of 10 from me. I'd recommend fans of comedy and/or con capers give this a watch. It's a slick fast-paced film with lots of eye candy for both the male and female audience with some good laughs thrown in along the way.