A COOLLY CRAFTED CAT-ANDMOUSE GAME

Shortcut Romeo

STARRING: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Ameesha Patel and Puja Gupta

DIRE CTOR: Susi Ganesh *** s,.'r,'r here are two ways of doing a fullon masala fi l m

You either turn it on its head and poke fun at r idiculous cinematic conventions Or yo u treat the stereotypical characters and sacred cows of our cinema with full seriousness

Shortcut Romeo takes the midway route It seems so full of the o l d -world formulistic flavo ur and the stench of the famil iar that parts of the pulsating aggressive storytelling actually feel like a spoof

So, we have the film's unfaithful wife Monica (Ameesha Patel) and her slimy lover (Jatin Garewal) making out on a golf turf: it is beyond l ogic why an affluent couple, who could afford the poshest of dupl ex to meet, would choose such a spot

And then the lover tells the unfaithful wife, "First time you do it, you feel b ad. Then it becomes your style''. Er, how stylish!

But please don't laugh First-time Hindi director Susi Ganesan is dead serious The fi l m shot at the speed of sound is filled with bizarre twists and t u rns. It's basica ll y the story of a woman who cheats on a saintly tycoon of a husband (effectively played by Rajesh Shringapure) who has a massive portrait of Rabindranath Tagore in his bedroom, and a cheesy blackmai l er named Suraj (Ne i l Nitin Mukesh), who believes i n taking risky short- cuts to get ric h.

This is not the first film about a cheating wife and a blackmailer Reena Roy and Naseeruddin Shah had done the roles with heart-stopping tension in Bezubaan Shortcut Romeo scores in the way the plot paces out its drama in the ongoing friction between the cheating wife and the b l ackmailer

Neil plays the cheesy go-getter with a schemer's delight His eyes glint when he talks of teasing more money out of Monica He drool s when she transfers cash into his trashy life Alas, excessive hedonism is just an excuse for African tourism

The Kenyan expedition reads like a botched- up touristic brochure Bad idea, Ganesan Even worse is the director himself showing up in the second - half as the cheated h usband's detective-friend.

Ganesan's accent is so thick, it slices the gamboling narration into smithereens At least for a wh i le But then again the film gathers momentum towards the end-game The finale is a breathl ess whammy wi th Neil making a run for his freedom, quite l iterally, with the narrative panting beh ind him.

Shortcut Romeo i s redeemed by a strong message on today 's 20- somethings yearning for material ism. And when our Shortcut Romeo finds his short -skirt Juliet (Puja Gupta) there is a delicious irony attached to the associati on The fi lm's most vivid interl udes go back to Neil 's chi ldhood to show how he l earned to be corrupt, acquisitive, and i nquisitive, at a tender age

Some of the action sequences with Nei l, specially one key fight with African tribals, are first-rate. But then the songs - oh my god! - they pop up at the most inopportune moments complete reve lation! In a bornagai n performance she sparkles, creat ing a kind of sunshine - girl who i s so taken up with herself that she doesn't get the chance to see what effect she has on the oth er until it's too late Swara Bhaskar as Dhanush's devoted ill- t r eated girl-pal and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as his loyal friend, once agai n prove themsel ves natural-born scene stealers

Raanjhanaa is a very simply-told story of a l ove so intense, durable and destructive, that it hurts SUBHASH K. JHA

In spite of its massive flaws, including the cheesy d i al ogues, Ganesan's sty li sh shocker of a thri ller manages to stay constantly one step ahead of the audience A coo ll y crafted cat- and- mouse game Shortcut Romeo finds Neil giving grit to the gripping goings - on Th e l ast half- hour is a knock-out.

SUB HASH K. JHA