Bluffmaster Review

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Riteish Deshmukh, Nana Patekar
Director: Rohan Sippy
Rating: * * *

The stars and director of Bluffmaster claim to have had a blast making this film — the pranks they supposedly played on each other, must have been better than what they do in the film. Because the audience can't honestly say they had a ball, even though Rohan Sippy's second film is much better than his first (Kuchh Na Kaho) and marginally better that the other disastrous caper movies attempted this year (Chocolate, Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina).

It's stylish looking, which is not such a great achievement these days, since Bollywood technicians are invariably better than the directors they work with. It's the twisted, very heavy-handed script that's a problem, played out at bullock cart speed. Sippy may have taken his inspiration from Sting, but ignored the first requirement of a caper — pace. The audience should not get time to think how this or that happened, they should just be swept along with the flow. And here, in the midst of a risky con operation, the hero takes off to bond and sing a song with his gal.

Roy (Abhishek Bachchan), an expert conman, gives it up when dumped by the woman he loves, Simmi (Priyanka Chopra). But he is pulled back into crime when he agrees to teach an apprentice, Dittu (Riteish Deshmukh). He also discovers he is about to die of a brain tumour, so he helps Dittu swindle a bigger conman Chandru (Nana Patekar).

But Chandru won't let them just walk away with his money. Sippy tries to make the plot too clever, so in the climax scene, it is revealed that nobody is what he seems to be — but of course, you can see what's up when the garrulous Dr Bhalerao (Boman Irani) comes into the picture. But why would a man as smart as Roy not wonder why Simmi always lands up where he is, why he always gets his dizzy spells when he is with Dittu, or how come he's never heard of Chandru if he's such a big shark? Just because the script rather too conveniently glosses over many such 'how so' queries. Abhishek Bachchan and Riteish Deshmukh have some giggle-worthy lines and scenes, but in the end Bluffmaster's too much talk and too little action.