Shortcut Romeo (2013) - Hindi Movie Review

Shortcut Romeo (2013) - Hindi Movie Review

Cast :

• Neil Nitin Mukesh as Suraj
• Ameesha Patel as Monica
• Puja Gupta as Sherry
• Rajesh Shringarpure as Rahul
• Jatin Grewal as Ashish
• Ashutosh Kaushik
• Errol Marks
• Meherzan Mazda
• Vrajesh Hirjee
• Mumaith Khan
• Himesh Reshammiya in a special appearance in a song
• Bhrigu Das

Directed by : Susi Ganeshan
Produced by : Manjari Susi Ganeshan
Screenplay by : Susi Ganeshan
Story by : Susi Ganeshan
Music by : Himesh Reshammiya
Cinematography : N. K. Ekambaram
Editing by : Dilip Deo, Hardik Singh Reen
Studio : Susi Ganesh Productions

Shortcut Romeo is desperate to be stylish, desperate to have a story, desperate to fill in all the elements considered to constitute a Hindi thriller - love, drama, action, betrayal. Only thing missing seems to comedy, thank goodness for some mercies. Yet, you have to give them some leeway for trying, even if they tried way too hard.

You have a blackmailer (Neil Nitin Mukesh) taking advantage of having caught a rich woman (Ameesha Patel) red-handed. But this lady ain't going to take it lying down and gives him a good fight at being nasty. Interestingly, both supposedly have shades of good in them too.

The schemes and counter-schemes they design are too elaborate and lie too obviously at the mercy of coincidences, which actually happen. Not to mention, they are a tad predictable too. The characters are either nasty or uninteresting for you to invest in them. That leaves the dialogue in the writing department to pull you in. Shortcut Romeo doesn't manage to take you in with any good lines either.

The performances too are as dull as one would expect from Ameesha Patel or Neil Nitin Mukesh. However, the latter does try hard to infuse life into his lines and to bring out the mean streak in his character. Puja Gupta too tries her best to be sensuous and simple, but that ultimately amounts to a one-expression deal. The rest of the supporting cast is outright bad with their dialogue delivery and body language.

Even so, it does feel like the makers give Shortcut Romeo its best shot. It doesn't feel like they take the audience for granted. Its just that the ability of the writer/director to engage us is limited.