Short Kut - External Reviews

Thumbs down by Neeraj Vora, BBC ...the film does not deliver what it preaches as seen in trailer screenings prior to the movie’s release.... full review

Thumbs down by Baradwaj Rangan, Blogical Conclusion, The New Sunday Express ...For a film industry that congratulates itself on making “musicals,” how have we gotten to a point where song sequences are so excruciating to endure?... full review

Thumbs down by Roshni Mulchandani, Bolly Spice ...Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! If Bollywood continues to jut out more films which are just plain ridiculous, they are seriously going to land up losing a big chunk of their loyal audience.... full review

Thumbs down by Taran Adarsh, Bollywood Hungama ...What kind of cinema is this?... full review

Thumbs down by Daliya Ghose, Bollywood Mantra ... shortkut‘Gandhi My Father’ by Anil Kapoor was critically acclaimed but his second production ‘Shortkut-The con is on’ falls flat. The film failed to impress the audience. Anil has signed Neeraj Vohra for direction and Aneez Bazmee for scriptwriting but none of the them could show their expertise. The story idea was not bad but failed to include the necessary elements of intensity and interest. Shortkut is inspired from Hollywood films, Big Fat Liar (2002) and Bowfinger (1999) and Malayalam film blockbuster Udayananu Tharam starring Mohanlal. The script was a readymade one and the actors were also quite experienced but the makers failed to make good use of any of them. The result is that it turns out to be a big disaster. The story speaks about two man and both are strugglers. One is a struggling scriptwriter Shekhar (Akshaye Khanna) and the other is a struggling actor Raju (Arshad Warsi). Shekhar lives in a chawl in Mumbai and in love with Mansi (Amrita Rao) who is an actress. Shekhar’s personal and professional life turns hell when Raju comes to his life. If Shekhar believes in hard work to reach to the top then Raju is just the opposite, he always use short cuts to achieve his goal. When two different set of minds live under the same shelter then chaos is bound to occur. Similar is the case of Shekhar and Raju. Since Raju is also a struggler and searching for shelter in Mumbai, Shekhar helped him out and allowed him to share his roof. As Shekhar doesn’t know that Raju is not at all trustworthy, he landed his full support to him but dishonest Raju backstabbed Shekhar, stolen his script and sold it to his producer Tolani (Tiku Talsania) who promised him a good film instead of a good script. It was a big blow for Shekhar when he came to know that the man whom he gave shelter has done the calamity for him. He vomited all his frustration on his wife Mansi whom Shekhar married against the wish of their parents. Shekhar makes Mansi’s life nothing more than a hell and irritated Mansi leaves Shekhar. Opportunity knocked Shekhar’s door to take revenge on Raju whose film turned out to be a big blockbuster and he became a star overnight. Shekhar signed the same director and asked him to cast Raju again. When the film released Raju was shocked to see that instead of him some other extra grabbed the limelight. In this way Shekhar not only took revenge on Raju but also gets back Mansi. Speaking about performances, Amrita performed well and gets a chance for skin show and also to get into glamorous outfits. Arshad Warsi as we all know is fine in humor but this time he slightly disappointed his audience. Akshaye Khanna’s loud dialogue delivery sometimes irritates the audience. Director Neeraj Vohra who directed Phir Hera Pheri had poorly handled the script this time and scriptwriter Aneez Bazmee also left enough loopholes in the script. On the whole, Anil Kapoor’s Shortkut did not fare well. Audience won’t get satisfaction on watching the film as it has no life and feel. It’s a pale script with no thrill. Even Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt’s cameo could not save Shortkut from drowning. We can say a major disappointment from Anil Kapoor’s home production. ... full review

Thumbs down by Anand Vaishnav, Buzz18 ...The tone keeps switching between the Rajkumar Hirani style of feel good humour and David Dhawan's slapstick formula.... full review

Thumbs down desi hits ...tried too hard to make viewers laugh and all of the jokes seem to fall flat... full review

Thumbs down by Aniruddha Guha, DNA ...To expect to know the story is like wanting to realise god.... full review

So-So by Deepa Giramella, fullhyd.com ...It is a pretty grim tale for most of the time, with some truly brilliant moments coming in towards the end, and some mundane moments made brilliant by Akshaye Khanna.... full review

Thumbs down by Rajeev Masand, IBN Live ...the comedy in Shortkut is so juvenile, you struggle for a half-decent belly laugh... full review

Thumbs down by Gaurav Malani, indiatimes ... If funding his film was that easy, one wonders why he had to struggle for a producer since start.... full review

Thumbs down Indicine ...Akshaye Khanna, the most under-rated actor in Bollywood, comes up with a fabulous performance once again... full review

Thumbs down by Kalos, merinews ...Atrocious costumes, jaded look, shitty acting and humourless humour send this movie packing on the first day itself.... full review

Thumbs down Movie Talkies ...he blame should be squarely laid on the writer as he is known for churning out fairly decent comedies... full review

Thumbs down by Mr. Inketi, Mr. Inketis Weblog ...as the second half rolls you are in disbeielf as to how pathetic the story is.... full review

Thumbs down by Minty Tejpal, Mumbai Mirror ...Just to remind us that Anil Kapoor is the producer of the film, he and Sanjay Dutt appear in a song sequence, Mareez-e-mohabbat, which is supremely dull.... full review

Thumbs down by Mayank Shekhar, NDTV ...The actors believe they should ham it all up. You watch ten of them going over-the-top in one go... full review

Thumbs down by Ashok Nayak, Now Running.com ...the only character that leaves a smile on your face while bearing a striking similarity to Paresh Rawal's Baburao Ganpatrao Apte, is that of Haider Ali.... full review

Thumbs down by Subhash K Jha, Now Running.com ...Where are the satirical jibes at the workings of the Indian film industry that would have elevated the comedy into more than what it finally is?... full review

Thumbs down by Gohar Iqbal Punn, Radio Sargam ...First half of the movie is nevertheless appealing and gets you glued to the screen but the post interval portion is what makes you simply bored.... full review

Thumbs down real bollywoood ...Akshaye Khanna is a good actor but watching him yell almost every time while speaking his dialogues is not a great experience... full review

So-So by Raja Sen, Rediff ...Khanna, in fact, is the finest thing in this film by a long shot as he plays a wannabe writer-director.... full review

Thumbs down by Janhvi Patel, StarBoxOffice ...Arshad is called King Kumar. Who are they making a dig at?... full review

Thumbs down by The ThirdMan, Upper Stall ...The regional films boasted of fine performances by Mohanlal and Srinivasan in the Malayalam version and Prithviraj in the Tamil version but here, not one performance is effective, Akshaye Khanna included. ... full review