Shortkut - The Con Is On (2009)

After his script is plagiarized, and he is forced to marry, an unemployed movie writer self-destructs.

Director:

Neeraj Vora

Writers:

Anees Bazmee (story), Neeraj Vora (dialogue)

Stars:

Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Amrita Rao

Cast

Credited cast:
Anil Kapoor	...	Himself
Sanjay Dutt	...	Himself
Amrita Rao	...	Mansi
Arshad Warsi	...	Rajesh 'Raju' 'King Kumar' Kumar
Akshaye Khanna	...	Shekhar Giriraj
Chunky Pandey	...	Guru Kapoor
Simi Garewal
Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla	...	Himself
Neeraj Vora	...	Himself
Tiku Talsania	...	Tolani
Mushtaq Khan	...	Gayetri's dad
Amita Nangia	...	Gayetri's mom
Mastan Alibhai Burmawalla	...	Himself
Haidar Ali	...	Film Director
Ali Asghar	...	Vikram

Storyline

Bollywood's assistant director and aspiring writer, Shekhar Giriraj, permits a friend, Rajesh Kumar, to move in with him in his Chawl room, after the later is fired by Film Director, Ghosh. Shortly thereafter Shekhar quits his job, writes a movie script, and accepts an advance from V.C. Chhadha. He starts recruiting staff for this project, but finds his life shattered when his work is plagiarized by Rajesh; his sweetheart, Mansi, a reigning Bollywood actress, leaves her abusive and demanding family, and publicly declares that she will be moving in with him. Unemployed, forced to marry Mansi, he becomes neglectful, alcoholic, and goes on a road of self-destruction, compelling Mansi to leave him.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

10 July 2009 (India)

Also Known As:

Short Kut: The Con Is On

Filming Locations:

Phuket, Thailand

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£80,488 (UK) (10 July 2009)

Gross:

£143,926 (UK) (17 July 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Indian Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

142 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Pal Pal Koi Paagalpan"
Written by Javed Akhtar
Composed by Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa
Performed by Javed Ali and Shreya Ghoshal
Courtesy of Tips Cassettes & Records Co.

User Reviews

Anil Kapoor conned yet again

Seems like Anil Kapoor's attempt in production backfires every time. First it was under-rated "Gandhi My Father" and now "over-rated" Shortkut. Heavily borrowing from Hollywood and Malayalam, Neeraj & Anees Bazmee forgot to give a shoe-shine to the product. Should have learnt an important lesson from their master, Priyadarshan.

For a comedy to succeed, one doesn't need good comic actors. It eventually boils down to the content and timing. Sadly the actors have pushed their limit to the get only the latter right. The screenplay is slow and dialogues painfully stale resulting in a yawn.

Love-track between Akshaye & Amrita starts off on a "Notting Hill" note and ends up "Akele Hum Akele Tum" even before you have settled in. Circuit seems have gone over Arshad Warsi's head and it shows. Chunky Pande was wasted.

It was unwarranted for the plot to move on foreign locales and a tail of producers to go with. And one of the producer was a bad hybrid of Paresh Rawal & Rajpal Yadav. Good Samaritan's were thrown in plenty in addition to coincidences in the plot - cinematic liberties might be an apt word perhaps. Amrita Rao's parents were a straight dig at Ameesha Patel, eh?

Verdict: Poor show... bad conning.