Film Review: Bluff

Writer and Director: Sheikh Shahnawaz

Police corruption is back in the news and provides an interesting context for the release of Sheikh Shahnawaz’s Bluff on Amazon Prime in which a disgraced Metropolitan Police officer goes undercover to locate the kingpin of a drug’s ring outside of London. Shahnawaz proves a one-man-band here as writer, director, editor and cinematographer resulting in an over-long but enjoyable thriller that captures some of the danger and charisma of this world.

Danny Miller is suspended from duty but soon invited by his manager to take on a year-long assignment to locate a major drugs supplier. Posing as a junkie, Danny meets Cooks in a park and under the guise of friendship convinces him to introduce him to a local dealer. From there the pair make their way to Imran, a local baddie who casts a spell on Danny as he tries to identify where the drugs are coming from. But can Danny really trust anyone, even himself?

Using a dual narrative structure that follows Danny in two time periods, first as a wild haired faux junkie and later as Imran’s slick-haired right-hand man, Bluff considers what corruption looks like and how easily Miller is seduced by the power and status that drug dealing can bring. Throughout, Shahnawaz leaves the viewer to wonder how embroiled Danny becomes in these networks and, with only his former boss to answer to, whether even the mission itself is real.

Bluff struggles to make the same impact as some of the pictures it admires and the work of Danny Boyle, Guy Ritchie and Mathew Vaughn are key reference points although Shahnawaz is far more serious-minded in his approach creating a far graver picture of drug trafficking and its consequences. With a relatively low budget and a small cast, Bluff struggles to suggest the scale of the operation Danny is investigating or the wider social impacts it wants to comment on.

Shahnawaz’s major point is that the drug trade is hardest on the addicts whose lives it claims told through the story of Danny’s new best friend Cooks whose homelessness and dependency on heroin drives much of the personal narrative that shapes Danny’s reactions. But the gritty reality of addiction never properly comes alive in Jason Adam’s performance as Cooks who performs well but physically looks clean and healthy despite supposedly being homeless for years and although the relationship between Danny and Cooks is compelling, the reality of addiction is lacking.

Gurj Gill as Danny is moody figure throughout, ensuring the viewer is never quite sure whose side he is on. But there is a strong sense of loyalty that runs through Gill’s performance to justice and his friend if not necessarily to his real employer. Nisaro Karim is a strong presence as Imran, a smooth operator whose surface calm belies a savage streak that creates a reasonable sense of menace.

Bluff could make a little more of the ambiguous police officers surrounding the central character, why his immediate boss is undertaking an unofficial covert investigation with no backup and there is more potential in the legitimate intentions of this character. But while the road to the ultimate supplier rather fades out, Bluff has a social message that puts a spin on the gangster format.

Bluff is released on Amazon Prime on the 28 April.