With comedy films striking it rich at the box-office, today’s producers are pitching even their non-comedies as comedies. This is definitely case with Shortkut. The film features Shekhar (Akshaye), a budding filmmaker. He has a dream project but a struggling opportunitst actor, Raju (Arshad Warsi) steals his script and gives it to a producer, Tolani (Tiku) and has himself cast in the role of the hero.

The script turns out to be  good and the film is a rocking hit and establishes Raju as a superstar. Shekhar is disillusioned by the world of cinema and wants to quit but destiny drags him back and soon he debuts as a director and Raju (who wants to finish Shekhar off by not completing his film) plays the lead.

The biggest flaw of the film is its plot, which is implausible. It’s plausible in Hollywood; Kate Winslet marries a  Sam Mendes (then an assistant director), but not in Bollywood. No heroine - forget a top heroine - will ever give a an assistant director a second glance; unless of course, he is making a big film! Forget romance.

Moreover, in today’s times any person will first cater to his/her interests first; if Shekhar is really a genius, as he is projected to be, he could have asked Tolani to give him credit as the writer of the film at least and pulled the mask off Raju, thereby settling his score with Raju and getting the credit; but then the film would have dragged on – yawn.

One feels no sympathy for the lead character of Shekhar, in fact you despise him.

What rocks the movie
Arshad Warsi’s spontaneous performance.

What chucks the movie
Everything.

Verdict
You’d be better of watching Sankat City, a well-made and extremely well-executed, small-budget film.