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IMDbPro

Shortkut - The Con Is On

  • 2009
  • 2h 22m
IMDb RATING
3.5/10
999
YOUR RATING
Arshad Warsi, Akshaye Khanna, and Amrita Rao in Shortkut - The Con Is On (2009)
ComedyDrama

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

  • Director
    • Neeraj Vora
  • Writers
    • Rosshan Andrrews
    • Anees Bazmee
    • Sreenivasan
  • Stars
    • Akshaye Khanna
    • Arshad Warsi
    • Amrita Rao
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    3.5/10
    999
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Neeraj Vora
    • Writers
      • Rosshan Andrrews
      • Anees Bazmee
      • Sreenivasan
    • Stars
      • Akshaye Khanna
      • Arshad Warsi
      • Amrita Rao
    • 9User reviews
    • 3Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos21

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    Top cast25

    Edit
    Akshaye Khanna
    Akshaye Khanna
    • Shekhar Giriraj
    Arshad Warsi
    Arshad Warsi
    • Rajesh 'Raju' 'King Kumar' Kumar
    Amrita Rao
    Amrita Rao
    • Mansi
    Chunky Pandey
    Chunky Pandey
    • Guru Kapoor
    Tiku Talsania
    Tiku Talsania
    • Tolani
    Siddharth Randeria
    Siddharth Randeria
    • Kantibhai
    Ali Asgar
    Ali Asgar
    • Vikram
    • (as Ali Asghar)
    Anil Kapoor
    Anil Kapoor
    • Self
    Sanjay Dutt
    Sanjay Dutt
    • Self
    Haidar Ali
    Haidar Ali
    • Film Director
    Leigh Barwell
    Leigh Barwell
    • Dancer
    Kishore Bhanushali
    Kishore Bhanushali
      Paresh Bramhbhatt
      • Tea Vendor
      Hussain A. Burmawala
      • Self
      Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla
      Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla
      • Self
      Mastan Alibhai Burmawalla
      Mastan Alibhai Burmawalla
      • Self
      Simi Garewal
      Simi Garewal
      Creighton Mark Johnson
      • Arresting Officer
      • Director
        • Neeraj Vora
      • Writers
        • Rosshan Andrrews
        • Anees Bazmee
        • Sreenivasan
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

      User reviews9

      3.5999
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      10

      Featured reviews

      1silvan-desouza

      Not Again!!!!!!

      Neeraj Vohra after the pathetic PHP comes back with another crap comedy The film is pathetic and doesn't make you laugh mostly barring some few lines which look better in the promo

      The film does have a plot but it's handled so badly it makes you cringe Akshaye Khanna needs to get off such messy films and Arshad too needs to try something else Direction is poor Music is bad

      Amongst actors Akshaye Khanna is loud at times and good at times, another pathetic role with a bad wig Arshad Warsi overacts badly Amrita Rao tries hard to pass off as a hot babe and fails the rest are nothing great
      4raghavramaiah-1

      Avoid this Shortkut !!

      Yet another movie to go absolutely impact less at the box office this week. Directed by Neeraj Vora, Shorkut is boring and is as predictable as it can get. No wonders were really expected from Neeraj Vora having seen his previous stint as a director. Shorkut disappoints you even more because the promos looked a lot good if not really impressive. Having actors with a such impeccable comic timing, the director fails to capitalize and relies on the writing skills of Anees Bazmee to do the job rather than the actors. Shorkut portrays itself to be a movie filled with humor, which sadly isn't. The scenes that are close to funny are already unveiled in the promos and there's no real surprise element in the complete package.

      Shorkut - The Con is On's two male protagonists, Shekhar(Akshay Khanna) and Raju(Arshad Warsi) an struggling asst director and a wanna-be actor respectively each of whom believe in different values to make it big. Shekhar, a hardworking-determined-conventional lad who believes in efforts rather than luck to find himself achieve things that he dreams of, which is writing and directing a movie someday. Raju on the other hand is careless-unrealistic- easy-way-out-kinda lad who believes in shortcuts to becoming an actor rather than skills and hard work. Shekhar is seen desperately working on scripts to realize his directorial dreams, so as to confess the secret love with already established actress Mansi(Amrita Rao) to the world. Shekhar's dreams are then shattered when Raju steals his script to trigger a acting career out of the stolen script. The race to career glory of both Shekhar and Raju is for you to watch it yourself.

      Shorkut fails to engage you even for a petty continuous stretch of ten minutes forget the complete running time of the movie. The transition of the movie from the humor zone to the serious-emotions zone is something that is hard to digest provided scenes involving Arshad Warsi. The actors are seen on characters that so poorly written that actually makes you wonder did Arshad Warsi actually play a Cirkit. Shorkut, a movie that could have helped Arshad Warsi and Amrita Rao to revitalize their wavered career is indeed not going to. Akshaye Khanna looks decent as always and looks to contribute filling in the patches. Chunkey Pandey is seen on a role that looks dumb and definitely not funny.

      The music bu Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is average except for "Patli Gali", which seems to received really well among the audience.

      I will go with 4 out of 10 for Neeraj Vora's Shortkut - The Con is On. Please avoid this flick!

      If anyone can get this across to Anil Kapoor, i want to know what was Anees Bazmee doing as a writer of this movie?

      (Orginally posted at "Your Movie Critic" - www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com)
      8Pratik112

      There Are No Shortkuts If You Want To Achieve Success.

      I had not seen much promos of this and had just heard one or two songs from this and was therefore quite surprised with its contents. Yes! Its true that there are not shortcuts in life and this is exactly what this showed with some humour added to it. A Assistant Director, quits his job and wants to be a full time director. But he has two problems. The first being that he is in love with an established actress and therefore doesn't want people to think that its because of her he has become a director. The second problem is that a struggling actor, who is also a friend of his believes that there are short cuts to everything and also steals his script and will stoop to any level to gain what he wants.

      Starring Akshaye Khanna, Amrita Rao and Arshad Warsi and Chunkey Pandey,. Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt make a special appearance. Directed by Neeralj Vora, the movie is produced by Anil Kapoor, while Javed Akhtar has penned the lyrics.

      Amrita Rao, has really changed in her looks and looks better as she works in each film. Playing the role of an established actress has suited her well and again, she has proved her talent, once again. Akshaye Khanna, is as usual at his best and has also proved that he is able to do both comedy and serious roles at the same time. Arshad Warsi is the same – at his best, while Chunkey Pandey, is also good in a comic role and plays a convincing role of a partner to Arshad Warsi.

      Javed Akhtar has penned a couple of very good and memorable songs, while the Director, Neeraj Vora has superbly balanced the story equally between comedy and serious drama and has maintained the meaning that "there's no short cut" in anything.

      The movie, with humour, portrays the meaning that if one wants succeeds, then they have to work for it and in order to achieve that, there's no short cut.

      This is definitely one of the better movies this year and is worth watching.
      4sumanbarthakursmailbox

      This is a boring movie

      Shortkut starring Akshaye Khanna, Arshad Warsi and Amrita Rao is not what I'd call a bad film. But it is, most certainly a pointless one. It's got a standard storyline and no surprises in its telling. Akshaye Khanna plays an assistant director in the Mumbai film industry who's just finished writing a script he wants to direct himself. His struggling actor roommate, Arshad Warsi steals the script and hands it over to a producer who promptly agrees to make the film and to cast Arshad in the lead. So while Akshaye's dreams of becoming a successful filmmaker are shattered, Arshad turns into an overnight superstar. Over the course of two hours and fifteen minutes, director Neeraj Vora drives home the point that there are no shortcuts in life, only sincerity and hard work ultimately pays. Problem is, the film's so lifeless and boring, you find yourself searching for a shortcut in the cinema that could instantly take you back to the comfort of your home. Remember, this is Neeraj Vora, the dialogue-writer of so many Priyadarshan remakes including Hera Pheri, and yet the comedy in Shortkut is so juvenile, you struggle for a half-decent belly laugh. Before you know it though, this film turns into emotional rona dhona, when domestic differences plague Akshaye and his movie-star wife, played by Amrita Rao. Unable to find its groove in either comedy or drama, this film lumbers along unsteadily with a screenplay that lacks direction. And saddled with such uninspiring material, neither of the actors can muster up anything that even remotely resembles a performance. Shortkut isn't the kind of film that makes you angry. It just leaves you very bored.Director Neeraj Vora's Shortkut is a long, tiresome journey to nowhere.
      3modistreet

      A Flop in every aspect

      Another flop copy of a very good Malyalam movie. Director Priyadarshan started this trend. The reason he succeeds most of the time because he is also the Director for the Malyalam movie. So he knows the emotions for each scene so keeping the Bollywood audience in mind he makes some changes but cuts it pretty close to the original movie. Mr. Neeraj Vora has gained success in the past with Hera Pheri, Bhool Bulaiya etc., all Malyalam movies but there was no evidence of that quality here. Firstly the characters were absolutely wrong. Besides Munnabhai, Arshad Warsi hasn't been able to make any in roads in any other movie. Secondly Akshay Khanna is an actor with limited acting skills. The character in this film required a higher level if not superior skills. Mr. Mohanlal the superstar of Malyalam movie and Srinivasan were superb together. Both the movies were also inspired by the king of comedy Eddie Murphy's "Bowfinger". The dialog writer must take equal blame for this debacle. The dialogs lacked creativity and were bland at best. The characters just sleep walked through all the scenes like zombies. Arshad Warsi tried his best to lift the movie through his now stale comedic style but that just didn't cut the cheese. Songs was nothing much to write home about. My advise, save your money buy yourself a good lunch instead.

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      Related interests

      Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
      Comedy
      Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
      Drama

      Storyline

      Edit

      Did you know

      Edit
      • Trivia
        There is shelved movie titled Short Cut. Starring Saahil Khan,Nigar Khan,Rajat Bedi, Monalisa, Pankaj Dheer, Mushtaq Khan,Mukesh Tiwari,Dimple Asrani.Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Produced by Zeba Shaikh,Dilshad Shama, Directed by Kumar Jay. This was in 2006.
      • Connections
        Remake of Udayananu Tharam (2005)
      • Soundtracks
        Marize Mohabbat Kadama Hua
        Written by Javed Akhtar

        Composed by Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa

        Performed by Nikita Nigam, Keerthi Sagathia, Rishikesh Kamekar and Shankar Mahadevan

        Courtesy of Tips Cassettes & Records Co.

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      FAQ1

      • Why do people hate this film?

      Details

      Edit
      • Release date
        • July 10, 2009 (India)
      • Country of origin
        • India
      • Language
        • Hindi
      • Also known as
        • Путь к успеху
      • Filming locations
        • Phuket, Thailand
      • Production company
        • Indian Films
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Box office

      Edit
      • Gross US & Canada
        • $100,304
      • Opening weekend US & Canada
        • $58,560
        • Jul 12, 2009
      • Gross worldwide
        • $389,832
      See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

      Tech specs

      Edit
      • Runtime
        • 2h 22m(142 min)
      • Color
        • Color
      • Sound mix
        • Dolby Digital

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