In a recent interview, Neil Nitin Mukesh, the star of Shortcut Romeo, had this to say about the film’s relation to its Tamil original, Thiruttu Payale: “The films are not similar except for a few nuances… The characters and the scale are completely different.” He must have been talking about the Shortcut Romeo he’d have liked to make – not the one he’s ended up making, under the crushing direction of Susi Ganesh. A few kinks have been ironed out. The romance between Suraj (Mukesh) and Sherry (Puja Gupta) has been fleshed out, and we no longer wonder about this con man’s sustained change of heart. And we have to give this to Mukesh: the original film did not feature the hero’s fight with a dozen snarling Masai warriors, and it most certainly did not make room for a dewy-eyed duet where the hero made clear his feelings for his heroine by crooning “Main shola, tu Coca-Cola.”
The tragedy of the Tamil film wasn’t that it was bad, but that it was based on great material and yet ended up bad. The story of a young man who hatches a scheme to blackmail a multimillionaire had – at least on paper – such great twists, such a chilling end. (Of course, you couldn’t ask why he didn’t end up with a bullet through his head, courtesy a paid assassin.) The film was – again, on paper – a morality tale infused with the spirit of noir. But it looked as if it had been shot on a teenager’s weekly allowance, and the pace of an already overlong narrative was horribly slackened by songs and a comedy track. A remake is usually a way to take care of the things that did not work earlier, but Ganesh is too busy having his African extras shake their buttocks to the accompaniment of lines like “Uska pichwada permanent vibration mode pe hamesha hota hai.” That sounded like bliss compared to the complaints of my own backside, at having to endure these shenanigans all over again.
Copyright ©2013 Baradwaj Rangan. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Baradwaj Rangan 
venkatesh
June 22, 2013
Susi Ganesh is one of the directors that make me wonder how the fuck does he get the money to make this shit.
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Milind
June 22, 2013
Susi Ganesh has produced it himself
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vijay
June 22, 2013
You can atleast rationalize the likes of Murugadoss being entertained in Hindi because of their commercial success in Tamil. Maybe the remake of something so successful might click, goes the thought. What you cannot fathom is the likes of Prabhu Deva, Susi Ganesh being entertained there.Their original efforts leave a lot to be desired, idhula remake vera.
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Kiruba
June 22, 2013
Wow. That’s one terrific photo you’ve put up there. Too tempting.
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indianmalefeminist
June 23, 2013
Thiruttu Payale was probably the only not-so-horrible Susi Ganesh movie I’ve watched to date. And that wasn’t great either.
PS: @venkatesh – Produced by: Manjari Susi Ganesh – FYI 😉
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brangan
June 23, 2013
vijay: I think Thiruttu Payale was quite a hit… The Wiki entry says it was the third biggest hit of the year, after Varalaaru and Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu.
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Vasisht Das
June 23, 2013
waitaminitforonenimit!
the good Doctor now takes Wiki entries on Tamizh movies to be truthful ?
:0
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sridhar270
June 24, 2013
Didn’t SG direct Five Star? Pretty decent effort, that was.
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manju
June 25, 2013
I felt Five Star very painful. I still can’t believe SG came from Maniratnam’s stable. None of his movies were worth watching.. And Kandasamy was the worst of all.
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Ravi K
June 25, 2013
Manju, Kandasamy is a guilty pleasure for me. I even own the Blu-Ray. Such a uniquely bizarre, headache-inducing film. If he had cut the Vadivelu comedy track and hadn’t abandoned the chicken-suit alter-ego completely it might have been better. The first half has some great WTF moments.
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Arun
June 25, 2013
I think as a critic it is surprising to me that you did not notice that there was a duet “Poi Solla Poram” in the original as well.But perhaps not in the manner you have noted here.
Thiruttu Payalae was a very good film. Some of its twists lacked dramatic tension but well, the concept was great. I was astonished to see the acting of Jeevan in that well and he suprised me in Naan Avan Illai as well.
Completely agree with Ravi on the minus of Kandasamy. Thinking about the film now, it feels like a B or C grade version of Anniyan.
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Arun
June 25, 2013
@ manju,
I think Five Star was a very meaningful attempt by Susi. It is the USA portions were so long drawn out – perhaps the biggest minus of the film.If the film was not noticed by the public, a star like Prasanna would not have been born!
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brangan
June 25, 2013
Arun: There was a duet, yes, but if the emotional angle wasn’t well developed there. Susi has at least worked on that, plus a few other kinks. The story is more consistent here wrt the characters.
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