Weird films like this raise many big questions in your mind regarding their making and all the people involved in the creative team, behind the screen. To begin with, its really shocking to know that this is a re-make of director Susi Ganesh's own successful Tamil film THIRUTTU PAYALE (2006) since the present Hindi version has simply nothing worth praising or even talking about. Moreover, it has such childish sequences in its questionable storyline that it truly makes you wonder that what forced the makers to choose such a film to remake for the Hindi viewers and what was in it that turned its original a hit quite strangely.
Interestingly though a remake, the film's basic plot does reminds you of a 1982 Reena Roy starrer called BEZUBAAN which also revolved around betrayal and blackmailing. But the execution here is so bizarre and shaky that it totally ruins its otherwise satisfactory plot and gives you nothing in return as a crime thriller. To give you an idea, for a good 10-15 minutes, the film uses some extremely poor graphics (with chroma) showing the four friends touring abroad and then there are few wild life shots too simply reminding you of the Discovery Channel. Moreover, the Kenya locals are used quite hilariously who instead of making you laugh, force you to look at your watch or phone repeatedly.
Further its quite hard to believe, the way this film has been conceived and directed, with a young boy climbing big mansions (of the rich & famous) so easily surpassing all kinds of security, multi billionaires making their e-mails ids at Gmail and Yahoo known to all, people barging into Police Commissioner's home just like that and a mother willing to make the most out of her beautiful daughter with some loud and sick intentions. Its over length becomes another nail into the coffin and then the last scene at the race course turns out to be pretty funny instead of exciting, forcing you to leave the theater at once without caring about what happens to the characters in the climax.
So then does the film has simply nothing to offer literally? No, fortunately there are two appreciable insertions in it as a silver lining in the dark clouds. Firstly it has a thoughtful sequence wherein a 10 years old young boy gets on the wrong path after witnessing his father taking bribe from different persons on a regular basis. And secondly the film has an interesting soundtrack which has few good songs including "Khaali Salaam" & "Jhoom Barabar" well composed & arranged by Himesh Reshamiya.
As the title suggests, SHORTCUT ROMEO is the rough character played by Neil Nitin Mukesh in the film and I really wonder why Neil is only there in such mediocre projects repeatedly doing all the hard work. Honestly I would love to know what Neil might have been thinking while shooting all those absurd sequences in the film, particularly the scene where he is made to run like a horse in the race course (in the climax). On the other hand both Ameesha Patel & Puja Gupta perform well in their respective roles but the rest keep on over reacting more than required.
In all, it's a film which needs to be avoided even when it will be coming on the channels soon, just for free. Or probably you can watch it only to be in the AC for a good two hours along with enjoying a few melodious songs and pretty faces on the screen, in this terrible heat.
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