Not many movies make it to my blog; which is themed around India as a whole – from Indian Books to Culture to History to Economics & Trade. Thus, I perforce limit myself to only the movies which impress me the most; and in this, Fugay score big time! In 10 years of writing, and 5 of blogging, I have reviewed only around 10 movies, maybe 12 – and Fugay is one of them. This movie is, in my opinion – one of the best I have ever watched in its genre; I can think of only two other movies that are either better, or comparable : Golmal, and Angur. Period.
THE PLOT
The movie is a mix of a comedy and a horror movie : 99% comedy, 1% horror. The source of the horror is that the plot can actually happen in real life; no jokes. At any rate, something quite similar. Do photographs appear in newspapers? Yes, they do – am aware of two instances in family & friends. {None were embarrassing, thank God!} Do things get blown out of proportion, do people overreact in marriages? Of course they do! Are you kidding me? Do embarrassing snaps get circulated? You don’t really want an answer to that in the modern multimedia age, do you? And so on and so forth. If you stretch it just a little bit, it is entirely plausible that the mix-up in the movie can happen! :D
This is a story of two nutcases – I mean that – two people who are bonkers, dedicated bonkers. Close friends for two decades plus; the proverbial Chuddi Baddis. One decides to get married, and to a rather, shall we say, possessive lady {understatement of the century}. To cut a short story shorter, the two pals decide to go to Goa for a bachelor party. One problem. Just one tiny teensy weensy problem, known across the planet by the term “fiance”. These nutcases don’t tell the only person who should have known the whole story – the fiance. And boss, trust me, you don’t pull such stunts if you are sane.
The lady takes it upon herself {of course, what else? Kamaal karte ho yaar!} to check for herself. And the proof that the man – any man, you n me included – is fundamentally a lunatic – the lady has been told the location, and not the whole story! {This - not to tell half- or quarter- or 1/8ths or 1/16thss of the truth to your wife - is a lesson you learn after marriage, so madness excusable!!!!!} And so, she walks in to meet the apple of her eye, the love of her life, in, shall we say, less that ideal circumstances. Nopes – no lady involved, and no guy either. Just a genuine misunderstanding! It takes the much chastened pals the rest of the movie to untangle it all!
THE REVIEW
If you want to laugh for 2 hours and 5 minutes without a break, watch this movie. And yes, attend to any and all calls of nature before you walk in to the theatre; people are going to be far too busy laughing their heads off to fill you in; and you might just miss some class puns and jokes! In all my life, I have never seen a movie –not after Golmal and Angur – which had me laughing throughout, and not one minute involving any slapstick comedy, hamming, overacting, cheap and vulgar jokes etc. Just genuine situational stuff, superbly woven together. That is why this gets 5 stars out of 5; good, clean, decent, genuine comedy!
Which brings me to the script – the script is nice, taut and fast moving. So far as I could tell, there wasn’t a minute wasted. No meandering, dithereing, no side-tracks, nothing. Just a tight fastpaced script that gallops along at a lovely steady pace, keeping you enthralled. The entire team has stuck to ; one theme, and one theme alone. The comic scenes are created using the situation, and one of the prevalent socio-cultural themes intertwined together, which create a genuine laughter riot. You will also note that I make no comparison with any Hindi Movie {I wont even mention the name}; there is zero commonality. This story is completely different and unique!
The performances are all round excellent; my initial thought was how will the script manage the two – Subodh and Swapnil, balance them in screen time, performances, roles etc. Kudos –this has been superbly managed; and both have, true to their style, skills and reputation, pulled off unforgettable performances. Prarthana impresses again, in a relatively small but vital role. Without her role, Aditya would have married Jaai within the first 25 minutes of the script and no movie would have been scripted! Special mention for a heart-stealing performance by the thespian Mohan Joshi!
The best part is the music – not too much, only two or three songs, and both very, very hummable with lovely tunes and lyrics both. My favourite is Kaahi Kale Tula Kaahi Kale Malaa, a nice and soft number. The absence of needless songs makes this script even more taut, keeps the narrative nice, fast and taut; and the puns flowing, keeping you in splits. If you recall, this is exactly what both Golmal and Angur did. Now you can add one more to this august list : Fugay, easily one of the best movies I have watched!
In conclusion, I must add a word for the Marathi genre; it is now far ahead of Hindi in terms of freshness, lack of vulgarity, newness of scripts, lovely soft music, and great finished products! To me, Swapnil, Subodh, Prarthana, Sai, Jitendra, Upendra, Mohan, Mahesh M, Ankush, Mukta are far bigger pulls now than the Hindi stars; the credit for that must go to everyone in the Marathi Cinema Trade – Keep it up, people!
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