SHORT KUT - THE CON IS ON
SAn Ironic Waste of a Borrowed Bowl
by Vishal Verma

An Anil Kapoor Films Company Presentation in association with Studio 18 an Indian Films Release.

Producer : Anil Kapoor
Director : Neeraj Vora
Story / Screenplay : Anees Bazmee
Genre : Marketed as a Con Comedy buts swings from emotional drama to a comedy
Target Audience : General


Starring

Akshaye Khanna...... Shekhar
Arshad Warsi...... Raju
Amrita Rao...... Mansi
Sanjay Dutt...... special appearance
Anil Kapoor...... special appearance
Chunky Pandey...... Guru Kapoor
Ali Asgar
Haider Ali
Siddharth Randeria...... Kantibhai

Technical Analysis

The biggest irony in Neeraj Vora helmed ‘Short Kut – The Con Is On’ is that in spite of having a successful helmer like Anees Bazmee’s name in the writers credit & the experience of Neeraj Vora as a writer in the directors credit, the movie gets inspired by Malayalam helmer Rosshan Andrrews who made “Udayananu Tharam” starring    Mohanlal & Sreenivasan which actually was inspired by the hilarious hollywood flick ‘ Bowfinger (1999)’ staring Steve Martin & Eddie Murphy.

The result from a borrowed golden bowl is an outdated cliché which struggles to fit in any genre as it swings from emotional drama to a comedy & makes the audience follow a looooong route of stale jokes & gags with an unwanted ego clash of a pati who can,t stand the status of his successful wife thrown in for reasons better known to Anees & Vora.

The Malayalam version worked mainly because of its screenplay. It showed how irresponsible the actors are and how little role they play in the success of a film, it made us realize that the writer/director is the real star of the movie by showing the amount of tantrums and tortures they face in this star driven industry before facing success.

On the other hand Vora’s version is a mockery of a star who behaves like a street smart majanu or circuit from Munnabhai. Can,t blame anyone in particular cause the script didn,t allowed any innovations & poor Arshad doesn,t have the range so he looks typecast though not miscast. This sinusoidal wave of two extreme emotions required in such conflicting characters is entirely missing in this flick. Though all the actors have done their part well, Akshay tries to save the film with equal support from Amrita but the lack of novelty or interest by the prolific helmers & writers in their own right make matter worse for Anil Kapoor’s Production house, Studio 18 & Indian films.

A movie which could have easily established the fact that a writer/director is the real star & the heroes, unfortunately in SHORT KUT - THE CON IS ON, it makes them the biggest villain.   

The movie gets 1 out of 5.
The only star for the efforts of Akshay, Amrita & Arshad
The flick losses in all the other major departments
Screenplay, narration, characterization, setting, etc. etc.
Though production values are first rate.

The Story

SHORT KUT - THE CON IS ON tells the story of two strugglers, one who makes it big as a superstar (Raju - Arshad Warsi) after stealing a script and the other whose struggle as a director (Shekhar - Akshaye Khanna) continues after his script gets stolen.

There's a twist in the tale when reigning actress Mansi's (Amrita Rao) romantic involvement with Shekhar gets culminated into marriage. To add to the chaos, destiny again brings Raju and Shekhar face to face, when Shekhar is set to direct his first film with Raju. What follows now is a clash of egos.  
      
Promotion

The tagline ‘The Con Is On’ printed on the posters of ‘Bowfinger’ gets promoted as the extended name of this movie ‘Short Kut – The Con is On’ but it fails to strike the desired chord. What’s in the mind of the Nanda’s?. The outdoor & indoor publicity has been strictly okay. Media promotions by Spice have been reasonable. Musically it has failed to generate any buzz due to any catchy or hit number.

Business Analysis

With two other modest budget releases, SHORT KUT - THE CON IS ON’ is the most publicized & pricey (around 12 crores), & total 500 prints including print and digital, the average comes to around 65, 000. It means the movie needs an opening of around 50 – 60 % & maintain it to be on average at least. Unfortunately, it has opened to around 20-25%. Lack of content, not very popular actors, no hit number, cliché content, routine promotion & presence of a Hollywood popular scifi action series as a competitor. Short Kut faces the danger of taking a short cut from theatres. Careers of everybody associated with this movie doesn,t gives them any benefit or relief from their previous failures.

Other Credits
Executive Producer / Co-Producer: Rajat Rawail, Shahid Malik & Kanwal Inder Singh. Cassettes and CD's on T-Series. Lyricist: Javed Akhtar. Music Director: Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani & Loy Mendonca. Background Music: Salim Merchant & Sulaiman Merchant. Cinematography: Ashok Mehta, Johny Lall & Arvind Soni. Choreography: Bosco Martis & Caesar Gonsalves. Action: Abbas Ali Moghul. Art: Jayant Deshmukh. Editor: Rajiv Gupta. Sound: Rakesh Ranjan & Kuldeep Sood. Dialogue: Neeraj Vora. Costume: Aki Narula, Ameira Punvan, Sambo, Uma Biju, Manish Malhotra, Kunal Rawal, Mini Vakil & Shefalie Dave. Media Consultants: Spice. Promos: Binni Padda & Ravi Padda. Publicity Designs: Rahul Nanda & Himanshu Nanda. Reviewed at Famous Studios on July, 09, 2009. Running time 2 hrs 10 minutes.

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