Nothing funny about ‘Fruit And Nut’ (IANS Movie Review, Rating: *1/2)

Film: “Fruit And Nut”; Cast: Cyrus Broacha, Dia Mirza, Boman Irani, Mahesh Manjrekar, Rajit Kapoor; Director: Kunal Vijaykar

“Fruit And Nut” is a film which is neither sweet as a fruit not crunchy as a nut. In fact the best way to describe it is that its makers must have actually gone totally nuts in sanctioning a film - if it can actually be termed so - like this.

It is one thing to go bizarre, break the norms and come up with a quirky affair, but it’s an altogether different thing if the makers become completely overconfident, try to be extra smart and ultimately fall flat on their face.

“Fruit And Nut” falls in the latter category. For a movie that has been sold as a quickie comedy, there is not even a single scene that actually makes you roll with laughter. At most, there could be a faint smile or two at a few junctures. The film by itself is not even silly enough to be laughed at, if not laughed along with.

In fact the latter half is so unbearable that you actually contemplate walking out of the auditorium. Thankfully, it is the ‘unusual suspect’ Mahesh Manjrekar who actually manages to make you at least remain seated till the end credits start rolling.

“Fruit And Nut” tries to pack a lot in the overall narrative by introducing newer situations and characters practically every 10 minutes. Cyrus Broacha is a loser who doesn’t fit into any role, whether it is being an office clerk, radio jockey, watchman or even a help at a pizza shop. He fumbles at every step, literally so. Exaggeration is the name of the game here and though one understands where director Kunal was coming from when he created a character like this, it becomes a little too much to digest just 15 minutes into the film.

Dia Mirza as the “lady in sari” is a pleasant watch though and carries a touch-me-not persona around her for most of the film. As a young woman who has been kidnapped, she does exude vibes of being someone who deserves to be rescued. However, the kidnapper in question, Boman Irani, gets annoying at places with his ‘Breakfast Kiya’ phrase. Of course the purpose here was to irritate but then there is always a thin line between an irritating character and an irritating actor.

Thankfully, this is where Mahesh Manjrekar comes in handy as his one liners do manage to bring on smiles at frequent intervals. Yes, just like all other characters in the film, he too is quite bizarre. One doesn’t quite mind that since the dialogues mouthed by him - a mix of Hindi, English and plain gibberish - belong to never-heard before variety. His novelty too starts fading as the reels progress.

In between all this ‘hardly amusing’ madness, there are additional characters like the villain’s henchmen, a cop, hired assassins Salim & Sulaiman, a beggar turned RAW agent and a scientist - all of whom only make this 100-minute film seem like double its length.

In the past, there have been quite a few quirky movies made and all have met with diverse results. “Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd” worked while “Bheja Fry” paved the way for many more humorous films to come. However, in the last few months, there have also been releases like “Aagey Se Right” and “Quick Gun Murugan”, none of which managed to make any impact whatsoever at the box office.

“Fruit And Nut” is all set to suffer a worse fate at the theatres.