Bluffmaster!
File:Bluffmaster!.jpg Poster
Directed by	Rohan Sippy
Produced by	Ramesh Sippy
Written by	Rajat Aroraa Shridhar Raghavan
Starring	Abhishek Bachchan Priyanka Chopra Ritesh Deshmukh
Music by	Vishal-Shekhar Trickbaby Sameeruddin
Cinematography	Himman Dhamija
Editing by	Amitabh Shukla
Distributed by	Entertainment One Pvt. Ltd
Release date(s)	16 December 2005
Running time	139 mins
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	8 crore (US$1.6 million)
Box office	31.3 crore (US$6.24 million)

Bluffmaster! is a 2005 Bollywood romantic comedy film directed by Rohan Sippy, son of Ramesh Sippy. The film stars Abhishek Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles and also features Arash Labaf, an Iranian singer in a special appearance. The storyline resembles the Argentinian film Nine Queens (2000) and Hollywood film The Game (1997), however it is not related to Manmohan Desai's 1963 film of the same. The film released on 16 December 2005, to positive response from critics and public, despite being an average grosser at the box office.^[1]

Synopsis[link]

Roy Kapoor (Abhishek Bachchan) cons everybody, even his girlfriend Simi (Priyanka Chopra). On the day of their engagement, however, Roy's true face is exposed & Roy loses Simi. As if that were not enough, Roy finds out that he is going to die in less than 3 months. Besides this, an amateur conman named Dittu (Ritesh Deshmukh) enters his life. He learns from Dittu that a man named Chandrakant Parekh aka Chandru (Nana Patekar) had duped Dittu's father & countless other of their life savings.

Chandru is a whimsical, irate & ruthless man, who will not hesitate in resorting to violence even on slightest pretext. Roy decides to do one good deed for Dittu. Roy is now between devil & the deep sea. Can the greatest conman con the death itself?

Plot[link]

Roy Kapoor is a shameless conman. In fact, Roy's girlfriend Simi too believes that he is an investment banker. One day he cons a film producer (Tinu Anand). Unfortunately, the producer turns out to be an acquaintance of Simi and thus Roy's true face is exposed. Simi calls their wedding off. Some weeks past this episode, Roy sees an amateur conman Dittu conning a doctor called Dr. Bhalerao (Boman Irani). Roy meets and foils Dittu's plans a couple of times, upon which Dittu pesters Roy to become his mentor. Roy reluctantly accepts Dittu, a film buff.

One day, Roy starts experiencing blurring of eyes, unbearable headache and blackouts. Dr. Bhalerao diagnoses him with brain tumor and says he has only 3 months to live. Roy is shattered. He wants to reconcile with Simi, while she spurns him. When Roy sees her with somebody else, he resigns to his fate and turns his attention to Dittu. Dittu reveals that his father was a simple man who was conned of his life savings by a share market scam, apparently pulled by Chandru. Chandru is a whimsical but ruthless man. Roy decides to do use his skills for Dittu. When Roy sees a news footage about a robbery in a jewellery shop, Roy gets an idea to con Chandru.

Roy sends one of his men as police to Chandru to give him a list of serial numbers of all the notes stolen in the "heist" (which they have themselves printed). Then Roy and Dittu turn themselves up at Chandru's hotel as suspicious characters with lots of money. When Chandru is convinced that they are the thieves, he proposes to give them any amount for the stolen loot. They strike a deal with Chandru. They turn down the deal, which makes Chandru raise the price. Chandru privately arranges another deal with Roy: Roy gets full money if he kills Dittu. Roy apparently accepts the deal.

Meanwhile, Simi re-enters Roy's life after learning that he was indeed telling the truth about his condition. She has broken her marriage and wants to be with Roy in his last days. Their relationship blossoms again.She learns from Roy why he took up to being a conman. As per Chandru's deal Roy kills Dittu & tells Chandru to meet him in Maratha Mandir. It is revealed that Dittu is not dead, he has faked it as part of their con.

Chandru arrives with the money at the theatre as promised. But Dittu shows up behind them suddenly & shoots Roy to death, taking advantage of a shooting scene being shown. Dittu demands 5 crore rupees at gunpoint from Chandru. Chandru arranges the money to be delivered before the film ends. After the payment, Chandru returns back & Roy is shown to be alive. The con arranged by Roy & Dittu has been successfully executed. Unfortunately, Omar, a man conned earlier by Roy, has seen the whole thing.

When Roy & Dittu are celebrating, Omar confronts the duo. Roy suddenly faces one more blackout while Omar runs away with the money. Roy has never told Dittu about his condition. When Roy opens his eyes, he is in Dr.Bhalerao's hospital. He sees a pained look on Dittu's face who has learnt Roy's secret. Dr.Bhalerao tells Roy that his cure is possible abroad, but money is the problem. Roy withdraws all his life's savings. Suddenly, he gets a call from Simi. He answers, but hears the voice of Chandru.

Chandru threatens him that if he doesn't return the money, Simi will suffer. Roy heads towards the rendezvous location with Dittu. He instructs Dittu to forget whatever Roy has taught him & live rest of his life as a reformed man. He also tells that he will see to it that Simi comes down safely, upon which Dittu should escort her to safety. Roy comes on the top floor to meet an angry Chandru. Chandru leaves Simmi, but has a scuffle with Roy. He angrily pushes Roy from the roof.

Roy falls down, but instead of dying, ends up on an inflated plastic bed and survives. Confused, he turns towards people surrounding him, only to learn that they thought it was a film shoot. Roy tries to call everyone from Simi to Dittu and Chandru, but gets no response. Then he realizes that he has been elaborately conned. After learning that he has no brain tumour, he heads to a place where he thinks everybody would be present. As expected, he meets everybody and as Dittu gives real introduction of every partner, Roy is left amazed.

Dr. Bhalerao is actually a vet while Chandru is the script writer for all the drama (who in reality is afraid of smallest of the things). Roy learns that Dittu is actually Arjun a film-director, and is the son of the producer he had conned and that even Simi's second engagement was fake. Then, Dittu explains in detail how the whole operation was planned. After learning that it was Simi and Dittu's idea to teach him a lesson, Roy approaches and makes up with Simi.

Cast[link]

• Abhishek Bachchan as Roy Kapoor
• Priyanka Chopra as Simran Saxena aka Simi
• Ritesh Deshmukh as Aditya Srivastav aka Dittu
• Nana Patekar as Chandrakant Parekh aka Chandru
• Boman Irani as Dr. Bhalerao

Allusions[link]

• When Roy and Dittu attempt a con in a cinema hall, the movie playing is Ramesh Sippy's hit film Shaan. This film starred Abhishek Bachchan's father Amitabh Bachchan.
• The song Do Aur Do Paanch is originally from the film of the same name, which starred Amitabh Bachchan, the father of Abhishek, lead actor of this film.
• Majority of the background music of the film & some dialogues were taken straight away from various films of Sippy Productions.
• The film is based on the movies Criminal and Nine Queens.
• The movie bears many resemblances to the Hollywood film Matchstick Men, a Ridley Scott film starring Nicolas Cage. Interestingly Cage's name in Matchstick Men was Roy and Bachchan's name in Bluffmaster is Roy Kapoor.
• The movie is also inspired by the 1997 Michael Douglas film, The Game.

Soundtrack[link]

The soundtrack was released in 20 November 2005. The background score was done by Sameeruddin.

Track listing[link]

1. Sabse Bada Rupaiyya: Mehmood, Chetan, Saira Hussain, TrickBaby – 4:09
2. Say Na Say Na: Aneela, Robert Uhlmann, Arash – 3:16
3. Right Here Right Now: Abhishek Bachchan, Sunidhi Chauhan – 3:02
4. 9 Parts Of Desire: TrickBaby (Hussain, Ager) – 3:48
5. The Gateway Theme: Sameeruddin – 2:47
6. Boro Boro: Robert Uhlmann, Arash – 3:06
7. Do Aur Do Paanch: Kishore Kumar, Sameeruddin – 4:29
8. Indi-Yarn: TrickBaby (Hussain, Ager) – 3:58
9. Neela: TrickBaby (Hussain, Ager) – 3:06
10. Parde Ke Peechhe: Jaideep Sahni, TrickBaby (Hussain, Ager) – 3:37
11. Come Fishing (Bluffmaster Theme): Sammeruddin – 2:42
12. Right Here Right Now (Hip Hop Mix): Abhishek Bachchan, Sunidhi Chauhan – 3:43

Box office reception[link]

Bluffmaster! got some hard reviews. However, it was the third highest opening of the year 2005. The film was declared an average grosser at the box office.

References[link]

1. ^ "Box Office 2005". Boxofficeindia.com. http://www.boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=211. 

External links[link]

• Bluff Master at the Internet Movie Database