New releases

‘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. Akshaye inhabits the same grid as he always has. Love interest Amrita Rao matches him,her unlimited cleavage not making up for limited range. And Arshad is the biggest disappointment,the highlight of his act being a crotch joke,when a champagne cork hits him in the nuts.

He’s been doing a string of low-budget horrors in which he’s been the best thing. Here he has no excuse—this is a big-budget,big banner film,with a fully-fleshed out role. Arshad Warsi,fine actor,RIP?

Movie Name: Morning Walk
Cast: Anupam Kher,Sharmila Tagore,Rajit Kapoor,Divya Datta,Avika Gor,Nargis,Shayan Munshi
Director: Arup Dutta
Showing at: INOX,E-Square,City Pride,BIG Cinemas,Mangala Multiplex.

How does an actor who delivers a cracking performance in one film switch to become a totally different person in another,both out the same day? Anupam Kher rocks it in ‘Sankat City’,but settles heavily like a rock in ‘Morning Walk’-there’s no lift,or zest to the way he plays his character.

Not that it would have helped the film any. It’s about a bad daughter-in-law (Diyva) who promises to love her husband’s (Rajit) father as long as he offers to invest in a new house. But it’s all gone as soon as Professor Joymohan (Anupam) discovers a long-lost love (Sharmila),and a connection he never knew he had. The daughter-in-law turns into a shrew,the son withdraws into silence,and the chess-playing grand-daughter (Avika,the child bride in TV series ‘Balika Vadhu’),is reduced to a pile of tears.

By rights,this should have been a touching family film. But it struggles to extricate itself from cliché and predictability,and fails.

Movie Name: The Proposal
Cast: Sandra Bullock,Ryan Reynolds
Director: Anne Fletcher
Showing at: E-Squrare,INOX,CITY PRIDE,BIG Cinemas

Taming the Savage Boss Blame the heels. In her new movie,The Proposal,Sandra Bullock,playing a Type A (rhymes with) witch,totters around in a pair of exquisite high heels,the kind that elongate the legs and give a woman’s derrière the gentle backward thrust familiar from fertility figurines. The character,a no-nonsense,no-smiling publishing executive,otherwise favors an aerodynamic look (pencil skirts and ponytails),but the heels betray her. They throw a curve into her straight line and force her to tilt,sway and wobble. She might be the mistress of her universe,but she’s clearly been prepped for a fall.

Like most Hollywood romantic comedies these days,The Proposal is all about bringing a woman to her knees,quite literally in this case.

Margaret Tate (Bullock),a Canadian who’s let her visa expire,suddenly finds herself scrambling for a way to stay in the United States and the big New York office where she rules with an iron fist clutching a designer bag. She finds the means to her salvation,yes,in more ways than one,in the pleasant form of her assistant,Andrew (Ryan Reynolds),a beleaguered Guy Friday.

Overlong story short: Margaret blackmails Andrew into a sham marriage proposal in exchange for a promotion. He agrees,though only after making her kneel on the sidewalk. They fly to a cute little town in Alaska,where she discovers his family lives on its own island in a mansion picturesquely surrounded by mountains. After nestling in the bountiful bosom of family and some unexpected naked slapstick with Andrew,Margaret melts.

The director marshaling all these clichés and stereotypes is Anne Fletcher. Working from a script by Peter Chiarelli, Fletcher betrays no originality from behind the camera and not a hint of visual facility.

The opening scenes,including shots of Andrew rushing through the streets while balancing coffee cups,are right out of The Devil Wears Prada,minus the snap. The rest of the movie looks like many industrial entertainments of this type.

Movie Name: TRANSFORMERS: Revenge of the fallen
Cast: Shia LaBeouf,Megan Fox,Josh Duhamel,Tyrese Gibson
Director: Michael Bay
Showing at: Fame,E-Square,INOX,BIG Cinemas,Victory,Mangala Multiplex,Apollo,Vijay,Alaka.