The Bluff

Posted on March 26, 2026 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl: Are we reviewing the first Priyanka Chopra starrer here?

Vampire Bat: Well, she was part of Matrix: Resurrections, but not her movie.

Vampire Owl: I remember that we had watched many of her movies before this site started.

Vampire Bat: Well, she was around since 2002; and it is quite natural.

Vampire Owl: We had come so close to reviewing a few.

Vampire Bat: Well, there were many movies of her that we liked then.

Vampire Owl: Compared to some other Bollywood actresses, she was surely the queen.

Vampire Bat: Yes, Bollywood is now left with the huge quantity of nepotism that leads to epic nonsense. There is no escape from them.

Vampire Owl: But we rarely watch the nepo-kid movies.

Vampire Bat: Nothing matches the terror of Param Sundari and its dumb nonsense towards infinity. It is like oblivion.

[Gets a paneer paratha and three cups of Vagamon tea].

What is the movie about? :: A former pirate Ercell Bodden (Priyanka Chopra) is living in a British overseas territory further away from the people she knew with her disabled son Isaac Bodden (Vedanten Naidoo) and sister-in-law Elizabeth Bodden (Safia Oakley-Green). They do not about her past, and the people of the peaceful island are also not aware of her origins. The only person who knows about her bloody past is Pastor Bradley (David Field) who also had similar life, but had left it to become a pastor at the only church which serves at the centre of the island. Theodor H Bodden (Ismael Cruz Córdova), her husband who had gone on a ship as captain, continuing his life as a sailor while Ercell had stayed behind to take care of their disabled son while hoping not to be recognized by any sailor from her past, as she is known to have done terrible things while being with the notorious pirate Francisco Connor (Karl Urban), who had made her his partner after rescuing her from slave trade as she was separated from her family long ago.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: One day, Ercell finds two people in her house, and after attacking her, ties her up, and gets ready to hang her to death. The overseer of the island, Custode Drayton (Gary Beadle) finds a strange man on the docks, and as he asks about his rank and nationality, gets shot, and despite the islanders try to attack the upcoming swarm of pirate boats with cannons, almost all of them manage to reach the island and finish off anyone who took up arms against them. Ercell, who is brutally beaten, manages to break out of her bondage as her captives tried to catch her son, and she also decides to kill them. Meanwhile, Elizabeth who had gone outside to elope with her lover, finds the man dead, and also witnesses and injured overseer being executed by the leader of the group of pirates, who turns out to be the most terrifying pirate of the area, Francisco himself, who chooses executions with cannons over anything else, and enjoy the view of body parts scattering all over the sands.

And what more could happen here as the pirates take over to unleash chaos and destruction in an unsuspecting island far away from mainland? :: Ercell moves out with her son, and finds Bradley outside, and they decide the move through the forest area, but she decides to look out for Elizabeth. The find each other in the fields and realize that they are in big trouble. As the group led by Quartermaster Lee (Temuera Morrison) who serves as the second-in-command keeps Theodor as a captive, their aim seems to be Ercell as much as the gold which she had stolen from their crew. Francisco gets right on their trail, as they manage to get to the other side of crocodile-infested river with the only available boat. But this would not be the end for them, as the most terrifying pirate of their times got other plans, and with Theodor held captive under them, there is no way the family can move themselves away from the man who will keep hunting for them. Can the family find a way to live peacefully in between the terror which has been unleashed?

The defence of The Bluff :: It is nice to see that Priyanka Chopra has transformed herself into an action star, and that has surely been managed so well, as she never falters in that field, which is surely above her rest of the work here. Karl Urban whom most of us love the best for his classic Dredd which matched the original, has remained a fine villain throughout the movie. Safia Oakley-Green remains notable with her full presence, Temuera Morrison also leaves a mark. The visuals are really good, and we get the island feeling with the beauty of the world right there. The movie comes up with some brutal combat and survival sequences which works here as we see the pirates as the evil which they had been. Along with being a pirate adventure on survival mode, there is also the home invasion mode. A mother trying to save her child works emotionally well when the past comes to haunt her, but not throughout the movie. There is some old-style sword-fight that goes on well, and there is a lot of action to look out for, with no shortage of blood and gore. The final fight at the top of the cliff works nicely.

The claws of flaw :: There seems to be very less that the characters of this movie gets other than action, and even Priyanka Chopra gets too less of the other sides to explore. The villain’s past adventures could have been shown in a more terrifying manner. The dialogues feel as cliched as some of the scenes around here, as innovation does not seem like a skill. There is no attempt at originality and ideas often feel like falling short. The movie remains rather too predictable, and most of the things that happen in the movie goes in a path which is common. The preference of style over substance is not something that can be appreciated as we keep seeing only one side of the movie. The mother-child bonding and sisterhood power do not show that power at all times, as the relationships struggle, with the romantic past and husband-wife live not becoming something of interest either. The emotional side should have been stronger and the deaths could have mattered much more, as we look around here. There seems to be a certain amount of confusion for the movie about what all it should have, with the tendency to move through different genres.

How it finishes :: This goes on to become an enjoyable pirate action thriller that reminds us of other movies while also keeping some nostalgia right there. But it seems to be not sure about what exactly it is going to achieve. When we think about it, there were so many ideas that this movie could have taken related to pirates and surviving on an island, as many computer games have also come up with similar situations. The action remains raw, sometimes brutal and pretty much grounded enough to keep the audience engaged throughout its run. The viewers will still have to adjust with a situation which is not new, and without innovations, but entertaining throughout its run. After all, pirates and running away from the crew in an island which has hidden caves will keep everyone interested. I have the feeling that the movie with Priyanka Chopra as a pirate would have done pretty good at the box-office too, for she is many times better than the nepotic actresses and overrated advertisement celebrities of these times – just imagine some of these people in this particular role, and you would not see much of a choice to fit in there instead of her. Then we have the real name of the main character shown written in Malayalam twice – Mariyam; keeping us wonder about the Kerala connection there.

Release date: 25th February 2026 (Amazon Prime Video)
Running time: 103 minutes
Directed by: Frank E Flowers
Starring: Priyanka Chopra, Karl Urban, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Safia Oakley-Green, Temuera Morrison, Gary Beadle, Zack Morris, Gideon Mzembe, Pacharo Mzembe, Greg Hatton, David Field

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✠ The Vampire Bat.

Shootout at Wadala

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Tennyson

There is always something about John Abraham, whether with his debut movie that is Jism, the special ones which were Kabul Express and No Smoking, my favourite performances of him which are Zinda and Taxi 9211 or even his most stylish performance ever, that is Force – as long as the fans of Dhoom won’t disagree. To add to it, however you look at it and whatever some of the critics say about it with an artificially created anguish which has created a fake reflection of imperfection which is more applicable to Chak De India, Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal was also something special. Dostana didn’t fail to impress me and Garam Masala is of lesser importance only because of its Malayalam original eclipsing it. He has always been underrated, as all the fans stood by the actors who have a famous family background, and our man is more of what I would feel to be a self-made man, something which I consider to be of great importance in a world of pride, prejudice and reservations. As the Vampire Bat thinks a lot about where he is from, it is something which always catches the legendary bat attention. Well, once you catch the attention of the Vampire Bat, there is no lack of the paranormal analysis which would be based on a few cups of tea and the absolute truth which can be obtained only by seeking in the sea of lies which is shown to the common movie watchers through some reviews.

Consider Django Unchained for a change – what was in it? Nothing other than racism supported by gore. It leaves the intellectual ones with more wrong questions than anything else. If the performance of those actors alone would make that movie superior, our own shootout would be far ahead with an all-round performance. Well, this movie does take them all aside, and happens to be John Abraham’s best performance ever – from now on. No, it is still not going to mesmerize you, as that step is still far away. The movie is the sequel to the 2007 film Shootout at Lokhandwala, and is based on the book Hussain Zaidi’s Dongri to Dubai – but as I haven’t ventured into these two initiatives and my knowledge is limited, I shall not comment on them. Its dramatization of the first-ever registered encounter by Mumbai police is also something I know nothing about – by nothing I mean a perfect void which would justify all the absence, and I shall not talk about something which happened before I had fallen into this world of misery in an official way. For now, I would know that there is a location called Wadala and there was an encounter there, and the rest shall be my immediate conception of fiction through a movie which has already been praised enough by the critics – for this praise is the absolute truth and nothing else.

Well, as I don’t fall prey the type of nonsense which says like “Sholay is the greatest Indian cinema” kind of stuff, and the stereotypes like “men with muscles can’t act”. The presence of pride and prejudice is so much, and the absence of sense and sensiblity is evident even in this age; may be Jane Austen knew this when she named her novels. As the second axiom shall be easily proved when one watches the movie, I knew all the time that Sholay was so overrated that even the word would be ashamed of it. Even from a long time ago, I knew that it made no sense. It would always remain an unsuccessful imitation of the West in the most ridiculous manner. It had absolutely nothing to generate any feeling, and none of the events were of significance. The presence of only the DD National channel at home would still force people to watch it more than once, and it is surely this nostalgia that has helped in making it attractive even at this age. But, I will not compare this movie to that pseudo-classic, as this belongs to the new world. They would still make them worse with remakes, as there was Aag, as well as movies like Agneepath which might be the worse of them all. Coming back to this movie, it is beyond all those over-hyped movies. It is also not your typical masala entertainer even if the elements are there.

Well, by the time I finish deconstructing these pseudo-classics, the fake movie lovers will come up with more lies. There is this unreal world created by these people which doesn’t need to be turned upside down, but there is the need for the existence of the real world, the world of truth. But I am not going to publish them in detail as a movement against the majority who are brainwashed to believing that the name of the best movie is “blah blah” and “mr. blah blah” is the best actor. I am beyond these lies though, as now I know that the medium is the message. I would never watch a movie according to what the critics say, and I believe the same would be the case of anyone who has some individuality left within them. The media manufatures consent and makes you believe, and now the critical reviews seem to keep people from watching movies or preventing them from doing the same. In this movie’s case, there are a good number of positive reviews, which is a good thing to see, but for all the negatives, there is something we don’t know. It can still be subjectivity and the powerful assertion of oneself, but then, why would a common man read those reviews looking for objectivity? We can only hope that they are just personal opinions, in that case, I really wish they were all blogs like mine which is not really read by people before going for a movie.

With some apologies for thinking and being different, lets focus on our movie of the moment. John Abraham has done a fantastic job as the protagonist/antagonist, with a powerful transformation from the college student who aims at the ceiling to the merciless gang leader who aims at the clouds. From the man of fear to the man who creates fear, he has done a great job, and the latter works perfectly for him. This is quite different from all the roles he has done so far, as it is the main role and it requires so much effort, and he hasn’t lagged behind. He is the one who carries the movie forward on his shoulders, even as Anil Kapoor as the valiant police officer also comes up with a strong performance and the presence of Jackie Shroff as another police officer never ceases to bring some old memories back; but a cameo it is for Jackie. Kangna Ranaut is good in the limited screen presence required for an action movie. Tusshar Kapoor, Manoj Bajpai and Sonu Sood actually seem to come up with something better every scene. The first one surely requires a special mention for the moments he creates.

There is clearly the battle between two sides, plus another extra side, if you could find it. Between all these, there are three item songs, by Sunny Leone, Priyanka Chopra and Sophie Choudry, and the first one even if the most revealing is closer to the story than the others. The other two would seem to add more colour to the whole movie which is full of action, blood and gore – not as gory as your favourite Hollywood slasher movie, but by Bollywood standards. The second item song by Priyanka Chopra could actually be avoided as not belonging to its genre, and the third one by Sophie Choudry might be the most surprising and the more appropriate to what has been happening in the action scene. As the second one pales in comparison, and there is one other song, the whole world of Manya Surve gets so much longer than the average viewer would like. There is also a bit of slow-motion action to add to it, but the Keralite viewers has seen the biggest use of it, and it might not be even big enough to not notice. The power of the movie lies in the fact that it was executed so well, even as there is nothing extraordinary in there, neither in the script nor the adventure which moves a little towards predictability in the end.

Another thing is that this movie came so close to ending the legacy of the non-Indian named movies in my movies list, but with the words “shootout at”, the statistics remain that I have never ventured into reviewing a movie with a non-Germanic-Romance language name – it could be said non-English, but one has to think twice about the words like “Amen”. So this is a legacy which this movie too shall not break, and instead would choose to continue, with a place name which is out of it, but in totality an integral part of the legacy. As all those Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi movies which I found interesting to review had those type of names, it is interesting that most of the movies with local names have failed, especially in Malayalam; starting from Annayum Rasoolum, going through Lokpal to Natholi Oru Cheriya Meenalla. Well, this movie makes sure that the non-native titled movies keep their status above average. The two or three Malayalam movies in the theatres also continues this legacy, and so does a number of upcoming movies; therefore lets see if I can get to bless the reviews list with a movie of native title; Akam had come so close, but just missed out – that should make the masala entertainer/superstar flick fans who try to impose their lies in a violent and baseless manner incredibly happy.

Release date: 3rd May 2013
Running time: 155 minutes
Directed by: Sanjay Gupta
Starring: John Abraham, Kangna Ranaut, Anil Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, Manoj Bajpai, Sonu Sood, Jackie Shroff (cameo), Sunny Leone (cameo), Priyanka Chopra (cameo), Sophie Choudry (cameo)