Review: 'Short Kut — The Con Is On' is a con job by its makers

Short Kut — The Con Is On
Director: Neeraj Vora
Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Arshad Warsi, Amrita Rao
Rating: U/A
Critic's rating: *

The makers of Short Kut — The Con Is On have done full justice to the title. They have adopted every short-cut a filmmaker can to dish out the most mediocre fare possible, and will probably con all those who shell out money for this one.

Everything the characters do in the film — set in the film industry, by the way — is practised by the makers of Short Kut (producer Anil Kapoor, director Vora), too.

The theme of the film, for starters, is about plagiarism in the industry. Struggling 'non'-actor Rajesh Kumar (Arshad Warsi) steals a script from debutant writer-director Shekhar (Akshaye Khanna) that was meant to be the material for his first film.

Short Kut, which is a remake of the Malayalam film Udayananu Tharam, has apparently infuriated the original's writer-director Rosshan Andrews, not because the remake rights were not bought, but because Anees Bazmee gets credit for the story instead of him. Taking the 'inspiration' further, the addition to the title, ‘The Con Is On’, is a straight lift from the Steve Martin-Eddie Murphy film Bowfinger, which had a similar storyline as well.

Other things the film touches upon include shooting films in a hurried manner, an actor signing films without any sense of the script, and producers backing films only on the basis of having a big actor ready to work for them. Most of these are true about Short Kut as well. The film seems to have been made without any thought, the script was probably chucked out of the window, and the actors seem to have no clue what they are doing.

To expect to know the story is like wanting to realise god. Rajesh Kumar becomes a superstar, Shekhar is left fuming and frustrated, ending the relationship with his wife, superstar Mansi (Amrita Rao). Everything else in the film falls flat, including a host of the most irritating supporting artistes, all of whom seem to be mentally or physically challenged. The music is barely passable. In fact, the lyrics of one songs, Kal Nau Baje, are downright funny. The song, translated, goes: 'I'll look at the moon at 9 tomorrow, you look at it too, and we will see each other by looking at the moon.'

Akshaye Khanna gets nothing much to do while Amrita Rao hardly looks 'hot' (she is meant to be that in the film). When Chunky Pandey is cast in the role of an 'acting guru', you know something is wrong.

Arshad Warsi tries to infuse some life in the proceedings but goes overboard most of the times. His portrayal of 'King' Kumar, however, could not have come at a better time. Last week's Kambakkht Ishq was a perfect example of how 'star power' hardly helps to take a film anywhere, if there is no script to back it. Here, Warsi takes potshots at the original 'Kinng', Akshay Kumar.

Sadly, however, Short Kut falls prey to a similar problem and hardly helps to heal the wounds inflicted by the Kambakkht last week.