Movie Review: Short Kut

The Story:

'Short Kut – The Con Is On' is a wise-cracking comedy about two strugglers – Raju (Arshad Warsi), a bad actor, and Shekhar (Akshaye Khanna), a wannabe film maker.
In their chase for success, Raju and Shekhar face a series of wacky situations which put them at the onset of scam, deceit, super stardom and the subsequent fall. Once they discover each others’ ambitious streak, Raju takes a shortcut: he steals Shekhar’s prized script and is shot to fame overnight. Shekhar plunges into depression and tries to save himself from shame by splitting with his wife, reigning actress Mansi (Amrita Rao), who goes on to share the sets with her new hero Raju. To add to his misery, Shekhar must also return the advance he received for his script before it was stolen. Now, Shekhar is left with only one motive in life – to get even with Raju.
While Raju runs the high hurdles with the help of his acting coach Guru Kapoor (Chunkey Pandey), Shekhar plots against him when they are reunited on the sets of Shekhar’s directorial debut, which stars Raju. At first, Shekhar refuses to cast Raju in the lead, but when the producer gives Shekhar a chance to direct, Shekhar takes advantage of his only opportunity to sideline Raju. As the film progresses, comical act of con, trickery and clashing egos reveal the ultimate plight of Raju and Shekhar.

The Cast:

Akshaye Khanna as Shekhar – sincere and hardworking, Shekhar is an aspiring assistant director who believes there are no short cuts to success. He is extremely gifted and confident, but his naïve character only makes him a victim in the cut-throat filmy world.
Arshad Warsi as Raju – a struggling actor who thinks he is Bollywood’s most prized possession and is willing to take all shortcuts to stardom. He betrays his friend Shekhar by stealing his script and becomes an overnight sensation. What he really is, is an over-confident, good for nothing actor.
Amrita Rao as Mansi – a highly successful actress with lots of sex appeal who has a heart of steel and will do everything it takes to stay on top. She marries Shekhar but later leaves him when his depression kicks in.
Chunky Pandey as Guru Kapoor – he partners up with Raju as his acting coach and cringes at Raju’s poor acting skills, but never discourages him.
Siddharth Randeria as Kantibhai – he is the landlord who backs Shekhar in all of his dreams.

The Crew:

Director: Neeraj Vora, Roshan AndrewsProducer: Anil KapoorProduction House: Anil Kapoor Films CompanyDistributor: Studio 18 Music Label: T-SeriesScreenplay: Anees BazmeeStory: Anees BazmeeCinematography: Ashok Mehta, Johny Lall, Arvind SoniChoreography: Bosco-CaesarMusic Director: Shankar-Ehsaan-LoyLyricist: Javed AkhtarCast: Akshaye Khanna, Arshad Warsi, Amrita Rao, Simi Garewal, Chunkey PandeySpecial Appearance by: Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt

The Soundtrack:

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy produce an upbeat soundtrack with strong audio value. There’s a variety of foot-tapping numbers including the very filmy spoof ‘Pal Pal’ (‘Kyun Hota Hai Dil Deewana’), which is shot on the beach with a qawwali twist, the hot item number ‘Mareeze Mohabbat’ and the romantic song ‘Kal Nau Baje.’ The title track ‘Patli Galli’ is catchy with strong Indian flavour yet contemporary orchestrisation.