Bowfinger (1999) and Big Fat Liar (2002) were the inspiration for the immensely successful Malayalam film Udayananu Tharam (2005) starring Mohanlal and Srinivasan. The Malayalam film in turn was remade in Tamil as Vellithirai (2008) starring Prithviraj and Prakash Raj. While having its moments, the Tamil version doesn't really succeed but Short Kut - The Con is On is an absolutely pathetic unfunny remake of the Malayalam film. Or were they re-making the Tamil film? Either way, who cares? Not only is the film awful, but it even has the gall to not only not acknowledge its source material but also to copy its tagline The Con is On from Bowfinger!

The story and screenplay credited to Anees Bazmee is a woeful piece of writing totally bereft of ideas. The film takes the basic story and elements of the Malayalam (I'd like to think it was the Malayalam film which was re-made since originally Anil Kapoor wanted the director of Udayananu Tharam, Rosshan Andrews before settling on Neeraj Vora. Big mistake!) and makes a total mess of it in adapting it for Hindi audiences. Unlike the Malayalam and Tamil versions, this is louder, more dumbed down and what's more all the plot changes from the original material are not for the better. And making matters worse, the film shows a total lack of any directorial control whatsoever and practically all the gags fall flat on their face. Neither do any of the emotional or romantic moments work and these are in fact among the weakest portions of the film.

For all their problems, the Malayalam and Tamil versions at least understood the working of their film industries and have an insight and attitude towards the same in their approach and the issues they tackle but Short Kut is full of stereotypes and clichés of the worst kind as it follws the beaten path of lampooning the Hindi film industry in as unimaginative manner as possible. In fact, probably the only moment of truth it captures is when one of the characters questions the state of affairs of the Hindi film industry saying when are good films ever made here? 

The regional films boasted of fine performances by Mohanlal and Srinivasan in the Malayalam version and Prithviraj in the Tamil version but here, not one performance is effective, Akshaye Khanna included. Arshad Warsi is way over the top and his comic timing is totally off resulting in reducing his role to a sad caricature while Amrita Rao busied herself so much in her sexy makeover (which doesn't work by the way), she forgot she had to act as well.  Chunky Pandey hams, Ali Asgar is embarrassing while the supporting cast playing residents of the Hansraj Wadi chawl fail to add anything to the film. Neither do the appearances by Anil Kapoor and Sunjay Dutt. Ironically, the film does look at a non-actor who becomes a superstar...

Technically, there is really nothing to write about even though the credits mention Ashok Mehta as the DOP and Shankar - Ehsan - Loy as music directors. Sound Design also gets no scope and the film could have done with some drastic trimming.

Avoidable, avoidable and yes, avoidable.