The spectacular debut of the feature film Bluff is an outstanding version of the conflict of Sheikh Shahnavaz, which was shown several times in Hollywood. However, in only a few of these films you can really catch every moral dispute in which the characters are involved and comment on something inherently reasonable.
In “Bluff,” a difficult beginning can actually make you frown and doubt what the director is trying to do with a superficial and quick introduction. But the path he decides to take is a completely different one. With obvious certainty, with the help of a good main role and an impressive secondary character, Shahnavaz tells a story that wants to remain real until the end. There are no fancy frames or noisy action montages here. A bluff is rather a tiring exercise, representing internal conversations about a questionable but necessary action. Needless to say, it’s also a wise decision by a director who understands his limitations of indie film and makes the best use of them.
Detective Sergeant Daniel Miller was suspended for something questionable. However, everything is an obvious plan for him to go undercover on a mission to investigate the medicine business in the city. He is almost forced to agree. There is something in his past that bothers him at the sight of these substances.
Now Danny has a new identity and he stumbles upon a street addict who associates him with a medicine dealer. Cook is the name of the addict and becomes Danny’s best ally in the action against Ingram, a brutal medicine baron who, without hesitation, places orders when his dealers go beyond what is allowed and even consume the product. Danny needs to be careful to stay within the scope of his mission as the control is difficult.
Sheikh Shahnavaz could have made it easier. He could strike an average action movie, decorated with a couple of well-filmed scenes and a third act, teeming with villains with a climax and long conversations. Instead, he chooses something more dramatic, almost personal. “Bluff” is not the action movie you expected. It’s more of a drama with unnecessary allusions to a thriller.
And then your third act begins.
The disaster caused by Danny’s personal conflict seems to be traced in the plot of the film. Just at the moment when you think that everything is going at a fast pace, Shahnavaz insists on muffling the light and staying in passive territory. One where guilt requires Danny to step out of his comfort zone and show the true status of a damaged mind that has never sought redemption. At this point, we begin to understand what his intentions were by delving into them. In the final scene, the director almost forces the viewer to turn his gaze away from the rough statement of reality with which a character like Danny has to deal. Literally in the last seconds we think that compassion is the product of director manipulations. But no. This is not such a movie.
It is a more interesting film than an average indie film, created according to the rules of the genre, and the characters behave as they should, in order to meet the unhindered requirements of the viewer. “Bluff” is a good movie, but it’s more than that. It is an exciting crime story that will allow you to have a conversation. Talk about human nature in the face of the chaos caused by the gloomy reality in which you have decided to live, or by a past that keeps secrets that you do not always want to experience.