Short Kut – The Con is On Movie Review

Cast: Arshad Warsi, Akshaye Khanna, Amrita Rao, Chunky Panday

Director: Neeraj Vora

Producer: Anil Kapoor

Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Rating: **                   

Without a doubt Anees Bazmee is a busy man. He has loads of films happening. He writes his scripts and he directs them. And most of his recent movies have done great business. That made me wonder why he let someone else become the captain of the ship when the story was his. However, after watching Short Kut - The Con is On I arrived at an assumption; he probably knew he wouldn’t be able to con the audiences with this one and run away with a hit.

Okay, I took a shortcut and reached this assumption but it certainly makes sense to me. Though Short Kut has comedy, drama, romance and some great songs, it simply does not reach anywhere near the ‘satisfactory’ level. It actually bores you due to its extremely predictable screenplay. I got first hand experience of this boredom as I saw the first show which was also attended by some college kids looking for some fun. By intermission the students just could not stop cursing the ones who suggested the movie to them. ‘Boring’ was the verdict. And the verdict didn’t change when the film ended.

The problem with Short Kut is not just a predictable storyline. It, in fact, brings a little amount of excitement towards the end. But that too is not handled well. The real problem is that the story keeps getting boring when the main protagonist Shekhar (Akshaye) is around. This hard working, ethical and wronged character is quite a bore. However, the film lights up and delights whenever Raju (Arshad) is around. At the start of the film, since Raju is seen in almost every scene, it makes you laugh. But somewhere mid way he disappears leaving a depressed Shekhar to entertain you. Raju gets back only in the second half but by then things have taken the wrong turn. And the end does not delight you as much as it was designed for.

Arshad gets a brilliant character to portray and he does it brilliantly. He is hilarious. He has great lines which help. Akshaye does well too. Together with Arshad he tries to pull the film as far as possible. But then, there are no shortcuts to entertainment and these two just didn’t have enough fuel, read a good enough script, to make it. Amrita Rao looks hot and is good.

Short Kut ends up being a very average flick. It has good cinematography and is edited well. A highlight is some good music and the way songs are shot which make them very entertaining. But these you can watch on television. You don’t really need to go to the theatres to get entertained by the film. Take a shortcut… just watch the promos!