LOCAL movie maker Masood Boomgaard will soon release his latest endeavour in film, Curry and Vice, with the film starring some of the best comedians to come from Durban.
Neville Pillay, Glen Bo, Robbie Collins, Shashi Naidoo and Koobeshan Naidoo are just some of the featured funnymen.
Tonight touched base with Boomgaard (also a popular comedian and journalist) to find out more about this, his second film after Attack of the Indian Werewolf.
He said Curry and Vice was a buddy-cop genre film with a South African twist, drawing inspiration from TV serials such as Miami Vice and CSI and evergreen fan favourite films like Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys and Rush Hour.
Set against a tropical Durban background, the film centres on Rajen “Curry” Currilall and Vicent “Vice” Jacobs, detectives who are worlds apart in personality, forced by their iron-fisted boss to work together after they “arrest” each other in a bungled undercover operation.
Reluctantly, they join forces to investigate a mysterious police station evidence room robbery in which only a consignment of toilet paper seized from an impounded vehicle is taken.
What is mystifying is that the robbers have left drugs, cash and guns untouched.
Curry and Vice, meanwhile, are at odds with each other from the word go. After much argument Vice decides to go along and back Curry on his hunch that “it wasn’t any ordinary toilet paper”. And so begins their journey to unravel the mystery…
Boomgaard said he’d always been interested in doing a buddy cop movie.
“I’ve grown up on cop shows and movies like Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour and Bad Boys. It’s probably my favourite genre. In many ways this film pays homage to the genre.
“I wanted to take the excitement of those films and localise it and that’s what Curry and Vice is about. It’s a cop movie with Durban as a character.”
Commenting on his choice of cast, Boomgaard said the role of the older Indian cop, Rajen “Curry” Currilal, was written for actor/comedian/radio DJ Neville Pillay “so he’s a natural fit. There was some debate about who I should get for his partner.
“In the end we settled for Robbie Collins to play Vicent Jacobs. There were a few other natural fits. There wasn’t any auditioning, everyone was hand-picked.”
The movie is shot entirely in Durban with lots of famous locations. “I liked how Michael Mann showed off Miami in the Miami Vice TV series and I wanted to do the same with this film.”
Boomgaard said in comparison to his film debut, Attack of the Indian Werewolf – which was released in cinemas and later on DVD – Curry and Vice was bigger in scale.
“But the philosophy remains the same: to entertain in a completely wild and off the wall way… It was an incredible experience making this film.
“We shot it in 21 days so there was a bit of pressure. I got to work with really talented actors and technical crew.
“There’s lots of action in it and audiences can expect lots of guns and fights. But at the heart of it, it’s a comedy.
“We want to make the kind of films that people want to watch. I don’t care much for serious subject matter.
“I see myself as a cinema goer and a film-maker and I know the reason I go to the movies – escapism.
“Durban has a lot of talent. I’m actually excited about what is going to be achieved here in the next couple of years.”
• Watch the press for the release date of Curry and Vice.