Review: Shortcut –Storytelling gets hacked

• Review: Shortcut –Storytelling gets hacked
• Director: Harish Raut
• Writers: Harish Raut, Vinay Narayane and Rajesh Balapure
• Producers: M K Motion Pictures and Chitrakar Nirmit
• Cast: Vaibhav Tatwawadi, Rajesh Shringarpure, Sanskruti Balgude
• Music: Nilesh Moharir, Premanand, Sushant-Shankar, Puneet Dixit and Nickk
• Genre: Drama
• Review By: Keyur Seta

Rating : 1.5/5

Review:

The only noteworthy feature in debutant Harish Raut’s Shortcut – Disto Pan Nasto is that it is the first Marathi film based on Cyber Crime. There is nothing else to take home from this one. This year has seen a large number of silly Marathi films. Shortcut enters the list successfully.

The film tells the story of Rohit Pradhan (Vaibhav Tatwawadi). As he is passionate about hacking and anything to do with computers, he enrolls for computer engineering. He meets and falls for the bubbly and beautiful Ishika (Sanskruti Balgude). Rohit secretly continues his hacking antics for various reasons. But he soon lands himself on the other side onthe law and comes into direct confrontation with ACP Nimbalkar (Rajesh Shringarpure) of the Cyber Cell.

To be fair, despite the lack of conviction and logic, the first half is watchable and at times, decent. The hacking expedition of the central character and the Cyber Crime track at least keep you interested in knowing the further development and the culmination.

However, the already unconvincing tale submerges further into silliness and poor execution after the interval point. The series of questionable incidents lead up to some truly unconvincing twists in the finale. Apart from the lack of logic in the tale, the major reason for the goof up is some poor research on Cyber Crime and hacking and silly working style of the Cyber Crime officers.

Here are is a list of some unfathomable incidents without spoiling the suspense:

• To relish pizzas for free, Rohit Pradhan hacks into the website of a pizza outlet and makes fake payment. The pizza guys deliver his order without knowing a thing about it.
• A radio station announces an Audi car as a prize for the winner of a contest. The protagonist wins it, of course by hacking into their system.
• A character is made an undercover agent of the Cyber Cell. But he is given an ID card and made to work with the rest of the staff. He also enters their office openly in broad daylight.
• A character is given a chance to prove himself innocent of a cyber crime. He plays few tricks on the computer right in front of the senior officers and deletes their entire data. The officers couldn’t see this coming although their eyes were fixed on the screen all the time.
• The hacking procedure is shown through some funny and, at times, irritating visuals, which appear more like a video game.
• Cyber Crime officers search for evidences in the hostel room of the protagonist in panic mode and leave in the same state, as if they are robbers.
• A character doesn’t want the police to arrest him because he is partying with his friends.

The songs are too many without much purpose. They just add up to the length. The cinematography is average and the background score forceful.

Vaibhav Tatwawadi is a good performer with innocent looks. But the script doesn’t allow him to rise much. Rajesh Shringarpure, another fine actor, provides a decent act, but is let down by his character development. Sanskruti Balgude does what was asked from her.

Overall:

Shortcut – Disto Pan Nasto suffers from a silly storyline and poor execution. This coupled with the lack of hype will make sure the film stands no chance at the box office.