Kutting the krap aside and koming straight to the point, ‘Short Kut’ is a film with laughable gags few and far between.
You know what’s the funniest thing about ‘Short Kut - The Con is On’? While it harps out the message that there’s no shortcut to success through the story of a talent-less man who steals a script to become a superstar but ends up getting what he deserves, the movie itself borrows the theme from a successful Malayalam film ‘Udaynanu Tharam’ which in turn was a rehash of the Hollywood film ‘Bowfinger’. Talk about irony!
So here we have Akshaye Khanna , pursed lips and lofty brow again, playing a struggling writer-director Shekhar whose script is stolen by a cunning struggler, Raju ( Arshad Warsi ). Now Raju, who hams more than a dozen non-actors cloned together, hits the limelight and becomes a superstar, but poor Shekhar is still left struggling with his writer’s block while residing in a chawl in the neighbourhood of friendly well-wishers.
Shekhar’s mountain of misfortunes appears to thaw when his romance with a reigning actress Mansi ( Amrita Rao , trying too hard to look hot) ends up in marriage. But troubles don’t end there. There’re chinks in marital life. The producer of his directorial debut dies before the movie is made. And when he eventually finds a way to fund his film, he has to contend with directing Raju, the super-hamming King Kumar.
To be fair, ‘Short Kut’ is not like the mind-numbing no-brainers in which story is woven around assorted gags rather than the other way round. Here, writer Anees Bazmee surprisingly ensures a plot, however flimsy and implausible it may be, and then weaves in the humour. That’s what makes the comedy in ‘Short Kut’ a tad more situational, particularly in the second half when humour flows out of the ego tussle between the two leading characters. However, director Neeraj Vora, who’s also ‘embellished’ the script, doesn’t seem to outgrow his brand of pedestrian humour that’s become as dead as a dodo by now.
Akshaye Khanna puts in a sincere performance and though he doesn’t get as many punchy dialogues as Arshad does, he makes his character of an honest struggler loveable. Playing the villain, Arshad Warsi appears too desperate to make you laugh, just as Amrita Rao tries to look hot in a role that’s meaty only in her character’s appearance.
So should you watch ‘Short Kut – The Con Is On’? Well, in the times when films like ‘Kambakkht Ishq’ are drawing crowds, this film might end up making its own kut at the marquee. If juvenile comedies are your taste, do give it a shot. Else you’ll be left looking for a shortcut to the exit door half-way through this film.
Movie Review : Skip this Short Kut (3/10) Kutting the krap aside and koming straight to the point, ‘Short Kut’ is a film with laughable gags few and far between.
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