The casting of this Danny Denzongpa film is inspired, just being able to watch the wonderful Danny on screen should have been good enough. But the film is choppy, especially in the way the father-daughter relationship is fashioned.

You are very likely to come away from this experience embittered and swearing to stay away from everything Swedish except the music of ABBA all your life.

Even though the movie puts together an impressive ensemble cast comprising some of our best actors, it takes a lot of time to establish their characters. A veteran in Neeraj Pandey’s movies, Manoj Bajpayee carries the film on his shoulders.

Though the story lacks in originality, it displays more brawn than brains and excels in its production values. The production designs, cinematography, editing and background-score are all of ace quality.

Overall, watch the film only if you want to encourage new talent.

Overall, “Shortcut Safari” is a shoddily presented escapade which is neither engrossing nor appealing.

The exorcism itself, where we might expect to get our money’s worth, is an almost amusing mix of the bizarre and the banal. In a room much too crowded with defenceless witnesses, a stern cardinal from the Vatican talks the holy trinity, sprinkles the holy water, wields the holy dagger, and extracts some wholesome eggs.

Gyllenhaal too is curiously disappointing, more caught up in his own character, with its tattoos, its constantly puffed eye and its mumbled speaking, than in genuine contact with either the people around him or his audience. There are many scenes of Billy and his daughter Leila, but never do you sense the desperation he constantly professes to feel to get her back.

This film, which calls itself ‘India’s first carbon neutral film’, and which wants to talk up ecology and conservation, and the joys of going-back-to-nature, has a nice premise. But its execution is amateurish.

…you keep waiting for that saving-the-world moment, and all you get is an ant squasher.