Shortkut - The Con Is On (2009)

User Rating:

3.1/10   

Director:

Neeraj Vora

Release Date:

10 July 2009 (India)

Cast

Sanjay Dutt	...	Special Appearance
Amrita Rao	...	Mansi
Akshaye Khanna	...	Sekhar
Arshad Warsi	...	Raju
Simi Garewal
Haidar Ali	...	Film Director

Also Known As:

Short Kut: The Con Is On (Canada: English title)

Runtime:

142 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Colour:

Colour

Certification:

India:Not Rated | Ireland:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Phuket, Thailand

Company:

Anil Kapoor Film Company

A poor comedy which discloses its humor plot after two hours.

Anil Kapoor Production comes up with a poorly executed, so called comedy, which doesn't even a single comic sequence to talk about. In fact it simply should not be called a comedy at all, since the main plot with the actual fun element unbelievably comes after 2 long hours in the film. And before that you are enforced to see all the boring, predictable and badly written scenes which completely fail to generate any kind of interest in the viewers.

The first half talks about friends betraying each other and a stolen script which makes the career of Arshad Warsi and ruins the future of Akshay Khanna. Along with this, the love angle has Amrita Rao playing a well known actress and Chunky Pandey playing the acting guru, managing Arshad Warsi's filmi career. In spite of having a bollywood based concept, the movie doesn't excite you at all and even makes you feel uneasy watching the dull and unentertaining portrayal of the movie world. Moreover it is also quite weird to see Amrita Rao dancing with veterans, Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt in a routine item song. Amrita just looks like a tiny young girl caught between two huge grown up giants on the dancing floor.

Director Neeraj Vora, who is known for some worth mentioning associations in his career, delivers a very childish kind of product having nothing to offer in the name of comedy. Aneez Bazmee, the writer, seems to have written the project in his extra time without any special efforts put in for entertainment. And due to this lack of spirit in the project, all the actors fail to deliver any noticeable performance in the movie, acting simply as their routine job.

Arshad Warsi, tends to go overboard this time and is not able to entertain. Akshay Khanna is again loud as seen in some of his earlier performances. Chunky Pandey opts for more hamming in his scenes and that too without any comedy. Amrita Rao, finally decides to shed a few clothes and agrees to become the glamour element in the movie (though she signs only few good projects..?). The rest of the cast is just there as needed with only one sweet performance by Tiku Talsania, who plays the soft hearted movie producer helping Akshay. Cinematography and Music department has got nothing new to offer other than the usual stuff. Hence, a good catchy song needed to push a big project now a days, was surely missing.

Story wise, the plot did have the required punch for a comedy, but it was not incorporated properly as expected from the director Neeraj Vora. The movie keeps on swinging between various genres as a pendulum. And in the first half it more looks like an emotional drama than a comedy. Actually, the main comic part of the movie starts just before the climax when Akshay decides to complete his movie in an unusual style. But till then it becomes too late to cover up the mess.

However, may be this main comedy plot in the story, was pushed deliberately towards the end, since it is highly inspired from the movie "Bowfinger" released in 1999. Even the tag line "The Con is on" is also borrowed as it is from the English Comedy featuring Steve Martin & Eddie Murphy.

With "Global Awareness" regarding Indian Movies, growing stronger than ever before, the producers may have decided to use less of the inspired plot, adding more new angles into the storyline. In any case, the main point is that the most entertaining part of the story, which could have resulted in a good comedy, has been strangely used only towards the climax. And due to that, the movie cannot be tagged merely as a Bollywood Comedy from any angle.

Officially "Shortkut" is said to be the remake of a Malayalam movie "Udayananu Tharam". But that too was released in 2005, much later than "Bowfinger" which came in 1999. So here's another movie from a big production house with a stamp of "Inspired One". If asked for a recommendation, I would simply request to opt something else for an entertaining weekend this time.