Pop Con

Cast: Akshaye Khanna,Amrita Rao

Rating: **

Running at: New Empire,Inox (Forum,City Centre,Swabhumi)

Even if we ignore Akshaye Khanna’s cultured hair and a pan-caked,dyed Sanjay Dutt as an item boy,Short Kut leaves us with some equally disturbing questions to answer. Like why would a ‘genius’ write stories that are K-serial wonders – boy meets girl,impregnates her,waits till she jumps off a bridge and then goes mad. Or why are all Mumbai chawl people ridiculous caricatures straight out of some Chacha Chaudhury story? And director Neeraj Vora seems to have blown the answers in the wind… Catch them if you can!

Shekhar (Akshaye Khanna) is a genius waiting to happen. They say he writes like a dream. If you spotted him writing,you could mistake him for a James Bond in a ganjee,trying to save the world from a nuclear disaster – such is his integrity,his squinted eyes,his clenched jaws. So,when his story is finally done,it’s nothing short of a bomb waiting to explode. Enter Arshad Warsi – wily friend cum aspiring actor. He steals Shekhar’s million dollar script,runs to a bankrupt producer,gets a film and is a superstar overnight. Genius rages,fumes,screams but is a gelato at heart – so he let’s poor producer be and sets to writing new film. In between,sexy,size zero wife comes,sobs and leaves. He gets to make a film again with the same bad hero who stole his script. This is nearly half the film,and a lot similarly mundane things follow.

This,however,doesn’t mean the film doesn’t have its moments. The bits where the crew resorts to preposterous methods to make Warsi dance,act etc draws laughs. But because Vora tries steamrolling a tear-jerker and a comedy together,Short Kut doesn’t cut ice with the audience.

Akshay Khanna is not a bad actor. It’s just that he has been repeating himself a bit too much. Amrita Rao doesn’t do much. Arshad Warsi,however,could still be reason enough for you to go and catch the movie!