Shortkut - The Con Is On

Shortkut starring Akshaye Khanna, Arshad Warsi and Amrita Rao is not what I'd call a bad film. But it is, most certainly a pointless one. It's got a standard storyline and no surprises in its telling. Akshaye Khanna plays an assistant director in the Mumbai film industry who's just finished writing a script he wants to direct himself. His struggling actor roommate, Arshad Warsi steals the script and hands it over to a producer who promptly agrees to make the film and to cast Arshad in the lead. So while Akshaye's dreams of becoming a successful filmmaker are shattered, Arshad turns into an overnight superstar. Over the course of two hours and fifteen minutes, director Neeraj Vora drives home the point that there are no shortcuts in life, only sincerity and hard work ultimately pays. Problem is, the film's so lifeless and boring, you find yourself searching for a shortcut in the cinema that could instantly take you back to the comfort of your home. Remember, this is Neeraj Vora, the dialogue-writer of so many Priyadarshan remakes including Hera Pheri, and yet the comedy in Shortkut is so juvenile, you struggle for a half-decent belly laugh. Before you know it though, this film turns into emotional rona dhona, when domestic differences plague Akshaye and his movie-star wife, played by Amrita Rao. Unable to find its groove in either comedy or drama, this film lumbers along unsteadily with a screenplay that lacks direction. And saddled with such uninspiring material, neither of the actors can muster up anything that even remotely resembles a performance. Shortkut isn't the kind of film that makes you angry. It just leaves you very bored.Director Neeraj Vora's Shortkut is a long, tiresome journey to nowhere.

Seems like Anil Kapoor's attempt in production backfires every time. First it was under-rated "Gandhi My Father" and now "over-rated" Shortkut. Heavily borrowing from Hollywood and Malayalam, Neeraj & Anees Bazmee forgot to give a shoe-shine to the product. Should have learnt an important lesson from their master, Priyadarshan.

For a comedy to succeed, one doesn't need good comic actors. It eventually boils down to the content and timing. Sadly the actors have pushed their limit to the get only the latter right. The screenplay is slow and dialogues painfully stale resulting in a yawn.

Love-track between Akshaye & Amrita starts off on a "Notting Hill" note and ends up "Akele Hum Akele Tum" even before you have settled in. Circuit seems have gone over Arshad Warsi's head and it shows. Chunky Pande was wasted.

It was unwarranted for the plot to move on foreign locales and a tail of producers to go with. And one of the producer was a bad hybrid of Paresh Rawal & Rajpal Yadav. Good Samaritan's were thrown in plenty in addition to coincidences in the plot - cinematic liberties might be an apt word perhaps. Amrita Rao's parents were a straight dig at Ameesha Patel, eh?

Verdict: Poor show... bad conning.

I will never forgive my mother for making me see this.

The script is stupid. There are glaring loopholes in it. Well, I don't really mind there being loopholes in the film if they director can deflect our attention from it but this movie fails entirely in that.

The ending is ridiculous and makes no sense at all. The filmmakers tried to make a satire-comedy with a message that shortcuts don't work, but failed on all three counts.

The comedy can be best described as a totally unfunny concoction of intentional stupidity, un-subtle and in-your-face, wanna-be witty one- liners that are not witty at all with ridiculous exaggeration.

The satire is too exaggerated to carry any real weight.

Such is the script that performances lose all weight. Akshay Khanna's serious role is weak and made more so by the silly feel the movie has. Arshad Warsi to be fair does what the script tells him too, which might excuse his performance but not the fact that he agreed to do this movie in the first place.

Must-not-watch

Neeraj Vohra after the pathetic PHP comes back with another crap comedy The film is pathetic and doesn't make you laugh mostly barring some few lines which look better in the promo

The film does have a plot but it's handled so badly it makes you cringe Akshaye Khanna needs to get off such messy films and Arshad too needs to try something else Direction is poor Music is bad

Amongst actors Akshaye Khanna is loud at times and good at times, another pathetic role with a bad wig Arshad Warsi overacts badly Amrita Rao tries hard to pass off as a hot babe and fails the rest are nothing great

I had not seen much promos of this and had just heard one or two songs from this and was therefore quite surprised with its contents. Yes! Its true that there are not shortcuts in life and this is exactly what this showed with some humour added to it. A Assistant Director, quits his job and wants to be a full time director. But he has two problems. The first being that he is in love with an established actress and therefore doesn't want people to think that its because of her he has become a director. The second problem is that a struggling actor, who is also a friend of his believes that there are short cuts to everything and also steals his script and will stoop to any level to gain what he wants.

Starring Akshaye Khanna, Amrita Rao and Arshad Warsi and Chunkey Pandey,. Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt make a special appearance. Directed by Neeralj Vora, the movie is produced by Anil Kapoor, while Javed Akhtar has penned the lyrics.

Amrita Rao, has really changed in her looks and looks better as she works in each film. Playing the role of an established actress has suited her well and again, she has proved her talent, once again. Akshaye Khanna, is as usual at his best and has also proved that he is able to do both comedy and serious roles at the same time. Arshad Warsi is the same – at his best, while Chunkey Pandey, is also good in a comic role and plays a convincing role of a partner to Arshad Warsi.

Javed Akhtar has penned a couple of very good and memorable songs, while the Director, Neeraj Vora has superbly balanced the story equally between comedy and serious drama and has maintained the meaning that "there's no short cut" in anything.

The movie, with humour, portrays the meaning that if one wants succeeds, then they have to work for it and in order to achieve that, there's no short cut.

This is definitely one of the better movies this year and is worth watching.