Review: Shortkut Movie Review

Shortkut – The Con is on, stars Akshaye Khanna as a struggling writer, Arshad Warsi as King Kumar and Amrita Rao in a glamorous new avatar. Can the movie produced by Anil Kapoor, written by Anees Bazmee and directed by Neeraj Vohra (Phir Hera Pheri), appeal to the masses?

Shortkut is a touching comedy about two men and the wacky situations they face in the pursuit of their tinsel-town dreams. Shekhar (Akshaye Khanna), a struggling assistant director cum script writer and Raju (Arshad Warsi), a non-actor but a wannabe superstar. Both get together while struggling to make it in the film industry. While Shekhar is dedicated and hard-working, Raju only believes in Shortkuts!

One day, Raju manages to steal Shekhar’s blockbuster script and is signed on by a Bollywood producer as the lead star. Soon Raju, is the Hrithik Roshan of the film industry, an overnight superstar! Following this incident, Shekhar gets dejected with his life and this forces his wife Mansi (Amrita Rao), a female superstar herself, to part ways with him. Shattered, Shekhar is now looking for that golden chance to make things even with Raju. Just then an opportunity knocks his door. Shekhar gets to cast Raju (now King Kumar) for his directorial debut. What next? Watch the film to find out.

Shortkut Movie Review

Shortkut is a remake of the 2005 Malayalam blockbuster Udayananu Tharam starring Mohanlal. What’s quite funny is, for a movie on plagiarism, the script of the Malayalam film itself was heavily inspired by Hollywood movies like Big Fat Liar (2002) and Bowfinger (1999).

Neeraj Vora’s Phir Hera Pheri might have worked at the box-office but that was more due to the characters, and the hype being a sequel to the most endearing cult comedy of our times. Shortkut’s script had potential, but goes wasted. The first half starts off well, but with the song picturized on Amirta and Akshaye, it begins to fall apart. You desperately hope it picks up, but it doesn’t. The direction and writing in the second half of the film, completely ruins what looked like a decent comedy from the trailers. If you indeed decide to watch this, make sure you walk out an hour into the second half, as the climax is terrible.

The sole reason for Amrita’s presence is to add a touch of glamour, and rightly so as the makers have to cater to a large section of audience. But frankly, the romantic angle wasn’t required, infact Shorkut would have been a better watch without Amrita’s character.

The songs were decent, well picturized, but add zero value to the movie. Some dialogues were funny while most weren’t. Cinematography was good.

Akshaye Khanna, the most under-rated actor in Bollywood, comes up with a fabulous performance once again, he’s the sole reason you could sit through this. Amrita Rao’s wasted, absolutely nothing to do, except dance and look good. Arshad Warsi isn’t consistent and for a change, he should think of doing something different. Haider Ali (writer of Jodha Akbar) is good. Chunkey Pandey too does well.

Overall, this is yet another mindless entertainer, just that it seriously lacks star-power. Arshad could be King Kumar in the second half of Shortkut, but sadly only few are capable of turning FLOP scripts into HIT films and Arshad certainly isn’t one. Only Akshay himself could have saved this and that’s probably the only ‘Shortkut’ director Neeraj Vohra could have taken!

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Advertisements

5 Comments

  • i had a feeling this could b a good one nywayz a Hat-trick of success is looking very difficult for the industry
    this probably is the diff betn a lavish film and a normal one…plp always want somthing new wen it comes to entertainment.
    i had posted in my comments for KI that its hollywood angle will turn out to b its trump card and i c its heading for a 35-36 Cr
    first week business.
    i dont hav a good feeling for Luck lets c..

  • Sachin Rocki, This topic has nothing to do with Kambakht Ishq, do not post any articles or comments related to any film except Shorkut. Comment deleted.

  • Has there been a worse movie than this..niether comedy nor tragedy..Do’t even try watching a night show, will end up sleeping..Worst ever direction. Was trying to search for some comedy in the movie..made my Friday horrible :-(

  • @gogo
    r u kidding
    i think it will be worst movie of the year and i just shocked when i read that someone has given 5 stars to this film
    sorry but very bad choice

Leave a Comment