Custom Loop Using Shortcode in Custom Page Template

I am trying to output a custom loop created using shortcode in a custom page template. Here is the code I am using to generate the shortcode:

function archive_sc( $atts ) {

    // Attributes
    extract( shortcode_atts(
        array(
            'cat' => '',
            'number' => 10,
        ), $atts )
    );

        $args = array( 
            'post_type' => 'smr-product',
            'smr-product-category' => $cat, // 'taxonomy' => 'term',
            'posts_per_page' => $number,
        );
            // The Query
            $the_query = null;
            $the_query = new WP_Query( $args );

            // The Loop
            if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
                while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
                    smr_product_the_frontend_item();
                }
            } else {
                // no posts found
            }
            /* Restore original Post Data */
            wp_reset_postdata();
}
add_shortcode( 'pcats', 'archive_sc' );

And, here is the code in Custom Page Template:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Product Archive
*/

get_header();
?>
    <section id="content" class="review-container">
    <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
        <div id="list-items-review">
            <?php the_content(); ?>
        </div>
    <?php endwhile; ?>  
    </section>


<?php get_footer(); ?>

The smr_product_the_frontend_item() is just a function for the HTML of each product.

However, its returning infinite number of posts (although the blog has roughly 20 products) from nowhere. What I am doing wrong?