Directed by: Kunal Vijaykar
Starring: Boman Irani, Cyrus Broacha, Dia Mirza, Mahesh Manjrekar, Atmaram Bhende, Rajit Kapoor, Vijay Patkar, Surendra Rajan, Kishore Nandlaskar, Suhas Khandke, Anisha Hinduja, Sachin Nayak, Bachan Pachehra, Anil Mahtrey
Music Dir: Sangeet Haldipur, Siddharth Haldipur
It's tough to make comedy and tougher still satires. Comedy in Bollywood is typically a situation satire just like Kunal Vijaykar's 'Fruit & Nut' that hit the screens in India on October 23, 2009. 'Fruit & Nut' is all spoof on India's (Mumbai especially) amusing socio-political state.Interestingly and curiously, the flick is named after a popular chocolate in India called Fruit & Nut.
The story is about a hard-on-luck nerd (Cyrus Broacha) who turns a celeb overnight. As you can imagine, instant fame follows his rescue of a VIP (ironically from a suitcase) played by Dia Mirza. Rest of the story is how these two take on a lunatic Maharaja (Boman Irani), an evil builder (Mahesh Manjrekar) and a self-obsessed scientist (Rajit Kapoor) - who all want to take over Mumbai for different reasons.
Kunal tries to weave in smart satires about the urban metropolis - like a multiplex fetching more value than a royal palace or that bit about a chai stall spelt as JW Mariatte. The flick takes outright jabs at Bollywood bigwigs are, without being offensive.
But if you don't get these garbed spoofs - not everyone can - the film is a monotonous comedy. The characters are far too removed from reality. Overall, the flick is far from appetizing.
Some aptly point out that the movie possesses quite slapstick David Dhawan moments. Cyrus Boracha is no Akshay Kumar and he doesn't really get far even with his Chaplinsque bumbling buffoon act. Boman Irani evokes laughs as the Maharaja, though his dialogue and its delivery can be irritatingly repetitive.
Boman plays a mix of Dr Evil from Austin Powers and Amrish Puri of Oh Darling Yeh Hai India. Mahesh Manjrekar keeps mouthing a mix of English and Hindi gibberish.
Most of what he says is a mish-mash of synonyms and proper nouns, though at times the way he delivers his lines is a riot. Dia Mirza is a delight and certainly a hottie in a saree. She is a desi bombshell and seems to be the delicious fruit among all the nuts.
Kunal Vijaykar may have tons of potential as a writer. But, he needs to seriously think about the directorial responsibilities as he quite frankly does not have pace and lacks knowledge of how and when to punctuate plot with songs, dances and humor.
Cyrus and Kunal may have been great guns doing comedy on the idiot box but this is celluloid.The ruling is that 'Fruit & Nut' may be a great idea but the movie should have remained just a brilliant two-minute spoof on TV. The film runs out steam.
