Bluff

An angry, gritty grenade of a film, that questions the ends, the means, and everything in between of UK drug laws.

An inspiring debut by Sheikh Shahnawaz - one of the best Midlands' directors since Shane Meadows.

Nolan-esque in all the right ways, and with a third act that'll hit you much harder than 'The Departed'.

Phenomenal score by Savfk.

The film's genius is the tangled ties between Gurj Gill's ambitious cop and Jason Adam's abandoned junkie.

A well written, involving, even gripping crime thriller. The whole piece is so well done and believable. I don't know if it's based on a true story. But if it's not, it certainly feels like it was. All so vivid and real. The characters are all interesting, the dialogue is great. And every performance in the film was spot on. Just excellent.

Director: Sheikh Shahnawaz

Writer: Sheikh Shahnawaz (Screenplay)

Starring: Gurj Gill, Jason Adam, Nisaro Karim, James Jaysen Bryhan (Shadow and Bone) Joe Egan (Sherlock Holmes) .

Bluff starts when a London Police officer Danny Miller (Gill) accepts an offer to go undercover from his superior, Detective Collins (Bryhan) in the heroin world in a small town, making friends with addict Cooks (Adam), to learn about the other connections within the area.

The line between his job and being a criminal becomes hazy, as his investigation becomes dangerous the closer he gets to finding out the source of the drug trafficker.

The performances from Gill, Adam Karim and Bryhan (though we don't really see much of his character, we see an amazing amount of emotions from being Gill's superior to being a father figure and I personally would've liked to see more of the relationship between Gill and Bryhan) are fantastic.

What's wonderful about this film, aside from telling a story of a cop going undercover(which we've all seen) is that the story resonates around Cooks (Adam) addiction and how he deals with it. That was quite refreshing and i was invested in his character.

I hope that there is a sequel and though I won't give away the ending, I'd like to see what happens next between Collins(Bryhan) and Miller(Gill).

Overall, a 9 out of 10 for me as i believe the appearances of Egan and Bryhan as established known actors sell the film with a virtually unknown cast.

I was a little sceptical at first, having read that the budget was only $2,000, I needn't have worried. What Sheikh has produced here is nothing short of a miracle.

There were a couple of times I felt a tad confused as to where we were in the timeline, but that was probably more to my being distracted during the viewing than anything else.

My honest opinion about the incidental music is that at times it seemed a little too obtrusive.

Also, I'd have liked a few more heavy action scenes but hey, for the money spent, it was/is an unbelievably good effort.

Sheikh put so much work into making this; Filming, Writing, Editing, Producing, etc. Coupled with some very good acting and some neat dialogue it made for a very entertaining, not to mention, enlightening (especially with regard to the information about the drug trade. Got some good tips there Bro, thanks).

All in all, an amazing piece of work, just imagine what Sheikh could do with a bigger budget at his disposal?

Thank goodness indie filmmakers are still making good crime thrillers because we don't see enough of these. I believe a movie needs 4 things to be good, good story, good performances, look good and sound good. Bluff naiks all 4. Congratulations on a good film. I won't get into the depths of the story as I don't want to ruin anything for the audience. Basically if you like crime thrillers there's a good chance you'll like this one!