Short Kut

Shortkut is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by Neeraj Vora and produced by Anil Kapoor under Anil Kapoor Films Company. The film stars Akshaye Khanna, Arshad Warsi, and Amrita Rao in lead roles. It was released on 10 July 2009 worldwide to mostly negative reviews from critics.
The film was an uncredited remake of the Malayalam-language film Udayananu Tharam.

Plot

The story focuses on Shekhar, who is currently an assistant director, hoping to write and direct his own movies soon. His friend Raju is a struggling actor who has been waiting on Shekhar to write a film script so he can star in his movie. However, when Shekhar rejects him as the film's leading role, Raju decides to steal Shekhar's film script, star in the movie himself and release it without crediting Shekhar. The film is released and it turns out to be a blockbuster, propelling Raju to overnight stardom. Heartbroken Shekhar, now experiences a break-up with his girlfriend Mansi. Nonetheless, Shekhar writes a new and better film script and wants to star Raju in it, however when Raju rejects the script, Shekhar decides to film the movie without Raju ever knowing that he is in it. Shekhar and his low-budget film crew follow Raju around everywhere to complete their movie covertly. Eventually, when the movie is released, Raju's role in the film attracts embarrassment and humiliation but the film itself succeeds and Shekhar finally enjoys a taste of success in the film industry. In the end, an unfazed Raju decides not to change his ways but to again steal someone else's script.

Cast

Arshad Warsi as Rajesh "Raju"
Akshaye Khanna as Shekhar Giriraj
Amrita Rao as Mansi
Chunky Pandey as Guru Kapoor
Tiku Talsania as Tolani
Siddharth Randeria as Kantibhai
Ali Asghar as Vikram “Vicky”, Mansi's brother
Anil Kapoor as himself
Sanjay Dutt as himself

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack is composed by Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa, with lyrics penned by Javed Akhtar. The song, "Patli Galli" was split into two versions in the film, even though only one version was included in the soundtrack.

Track list

The soundtrack contains four original songs and three remixes.

Reception

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film one out of five, writing, "On the whole, SHORT KUT - THE CON IS ON is a poor show all the way. A major disappointment." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express wrote, "Shortkut suffers from director Neeraj Vora's customary inability to infuse any newness or subtlety into a plot that could easily have gone the other way. It covers roughly the same ground as Zoya Akhtar's Luck By Chance,minus its craft and skill. Everything is loud and plastic, and the actors all chant their lines at the top of their voices." Gaurav Malani of The Economic Times gave the film 1 out of 5, writing, "The derived screenplay is patchy and its shows as writer Neeraj Vora struggles to script weak characters and weaker conflicts."