What it's about: Producer Anil Kapoor always said his film company believed in making 'different' movies with Gandhi My Father offering a glimpse of his vision. And then Anil springs up Short Kut with director Neeraj Vora making the most unpalatable khichdi out of the Malayalam superhit and Mohanlal starrer, Udayananu Tharam, a take-off on Eddie Murphy's Bowfinger.

Short-kut is about assistant director Shekhar (Khanna) who is in love with an actress (Rao). He soon gets a chance to become a director himself. He writes a brilliant script but it is stolen by his friend Raju (Warsi), a struggling actor.

Raju uses the script to launch himself as a hero and goes on to become a superstar. A shattered Shekhar loses interest in his work and reaches a point where nothing matters. It's payback time when he decides to make a film with Raju in the lead; however without the actor knowing it. How he pulls off this con is what the rest of the film is about.

What's hot: With Neeraj Vora (the writer of Hera Pheri and the director of Phir Hera Pheri), at the helm of things, you expect a laugh riot, especially when it's been scripted by Anees Bazmee. The dialogues are good in places and some of the sequences have their funny moments.

Arshad manages to evoke a few laughs but the surprise funny man of the film is Chunky Pandey. Amrita Rao is competent but doesn't succeed in looking sexy, despite the skin show.