Director Susi Ganesh’s Shortcut Romeo tries to imbue formula fare with lessons in moral science. From adultery and blackmail to double-crossing, he puts everything into the plot to entertain his target audience and then starts giving reasons to justify the charade.
A remake of his own Tamil film Thiruttu Payale , it is about a rich man’s wife (Ameesha Patel) who cheats on her husband. A small-time conman (Neil Nitin Mukesh) captures her escapades on camera and starts blackmailing her. Not to be outdone by a novice, the wife hits back with her paramour and a cat and mouse game begins. It starts in Mumbai, but the action soon shifts to Kenya.
We get to see some safari and fancy show, as our conman suddenly discovers true love (Puja Gupta) in the jungle. Ameesha seems desperate for attention and perhaps that’s why she has taken this ‘bold’ villainous turn. But still she has very little to show off when it comes to acting talent. Neil has picked a wrong one this time in his relentless pursuit to do thrillers.
In an effort to make it look cool, it is not just the performances, even the cinematography and action look put on and jerky. The background score jars and the segments of sentimentality make you laugh as these are not the characters, which require a back story. Ask Abbas-Mustan, experts at this game.
Genre : Crime Thriller
Cast : Neil Nitin Mukesh, Ameesha Patel, Puja Gupta
Storyline : A small-time crook blackmails a rich man’s wife to have a good life but in the process gets caught in a web of betrayal and deceit.
Bottomline : Who said it’s cool?
