Here, Warsi plays Raju, a rogue who believes that life mein sab shortcut mein hona chahiye and wants to become a superstar without any of the hard work and struggle. So bereft of talent is he, that when he does land a role, he is shown the door after 200 retakes for a single shot. When a friend advices him to join the junior artist fraternity, Raju reveals his dream of making five crore per movie some day, but not before asking the poor wellwisher a five hundred rupee loan. Homeless and jobless, he begs friend Shekhar (Akshaye Khanna) to let him live in his chawl room. Shekhar, on the seventh heaven after completing the climax to his film script, sportingly agrees.

But the crook that he is, Raju steals Shekhar's script and trades it for a leading role. Shattered, Shekhar finds strength in his superstar girlfriend Mansi (Amrita Rao) and they get married. Mansi announces to the world that she's quitting films. Soon enough, with no money trickling in, she tells Shekhar that she'd like working again to pitch in the household expenses. This enrages Shekhar who feels belittled by this suggestion. (Honestly now, with couples sharing everything from bills to loan EMIs, Shekhar's reaction strikes as outdated and peculiar.) The film then trails the lives of the three characters and how their paths inevitably intertwine.

Shortkut's first half is alright with stray humorous moments like Raju disguising himself to meet a noted producer. The second half is straight out of kooky-land. Warsi goes on become `King Kumar`; the newly-marrieds are gifted a spacious new home by Shekhar�s bastiwallahs (his neighbours at the chawl); and hell, that`s not all: the nauseatingly nice Nukkad gang, gives up the money they are to get for their homes from a builder, for producing Shekhar`s picture. About the only portions that`ll bring a smile are superstar Kumar`s acute incompetency and the director`s attempts at getting him to act. The climax is innovatively conceptualised, but is executed in a way that the situation seems implausible.

Akshaye Khanna, in shape and all set to wow, is fabulous. Amrita Rao`s new glam look is very becoming, though her image of the simpering lover refuses to go away. Arshad Warsi plays his character earnestly, but goes a few notes too loud at times.

Writer Anees Bazmee and director Neeraj Vora (Phir Hera Pheri) take a shortcut by remaking a Malayalam film Udayananu Thanam. You truly wish they hadn`t.