Bluff Master

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.

Bluff Master (1963) : Brief Review -

The iconic Dahi Handi song and Shammi Kapoor stand out in Manmohan Desai's bluffy masala flick. Desai, who became a successful director later, had some expected struggles in the early days. After the melodramatic Janam Janam Ke Phere (1957) and the socially and religiously challenging Chhalia (1960), he finally moved towards a masala genre, which later became his identity. Bluff Master is an interesting concept for sure if we have to consider the early 60s Bollywood films-the con stuff. But the poverty factor-I mean, the hero being poor and in debt (and his mother)-was definitely corny stuff. Old Hollywood was doing the same after the mid-30s and throughout the 1940s, but with less drama and more crime, con, and noir elements. Bluff Master bluffs too much in the beginning, only to make things more interesting, but struggles in the conclusion part. The happy ending was expected, but not like this. Suddenly, all those neighbors who had cancelled Ashok appeared from nowhere, and it looked so chaotic and illogical. The heroine being too loyal to the hero despite knowing his truth and keeping his mother to her were definitely not reliable characteristics for a rich and sensible woman. Like I said, the film gets too bluffy and preachy in the end, giving off a sense of immature vision. Desai wasn't a pro-level director then, and his previous two films also fell in the same category. The problem with Bluff Master is that it was easier compared to Chhalia and JJKP, and still it couldn't get above them. The iconic Dahi Handi song, "Govinda Ala Re," is ageless and evergreen. It's been 61 years already, and I hear it every year at dahi handi functions. I'll hear it next month, too, on Dahi Handi 2024. Shammi Kapoor was cute and charming even with those bluffs and conning, and Saira Banu looked gorgeous. Lalita Pawar and Pran both get tailor-made roles, and Desai's direction neither bores you nor excites you much. Overall, a one-time flick.

RATING - 6/10*

By - #samthebestest.