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!