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Homi's where the fun is

Homi Adajania, who is making waves with his directorial debut Being Cyrus, has led a life of high adventure — scuba diving in Lakshadweep and wandering in Vietnam on a scooterette

NEW VIEW Homi Adajania: `What I was trying to do with Being Cyrus is to take a headstand on life'

Homi Adajania has done a lot of things including being a scuba diving instructor in the Lakshadweep, travelling like he has wheels on his feet, going all round South Vietnam on a Scooty, sleeping in caves in Crete, travelling from Tibet to Maldives, acting as the "man in the music video" in Everybody Says I'm Fine and finally making his directorial debut with the quirky Being Cyrus.

"What I was trying to do with Being Cyrus is to take a headstand on life. Take a dark topic and turn it on its head. It is cruelly humorous. It is a simple story and it is only when the credits roll that you realise you were laughing at not-so-nice things and empathising with a character of rather ambiguous morality. Life has an irony and we should not take ourselves too seriously. It is like in Waiting for Godot where the guy takes off his belt to hang himself and his trousers fall off."

Secret agendas

Being Cyrus is about a Parsi family, the Sethnas, two brothers Dinshaw, a sculptor played by Naseeruddin Shah and Farokh (Boman Irani). Dinshaw was famous at one point of time but decides to retire to Panchagani with his wife Katy (Dimple Kapadia) where he potters around stoned through the day. Katy hates her marriage and into this milieu walks in Cyrus (Saif Ali Khan), a drifter.

"Cyrus' entry stirs up things. Secret agendas are revealed and Cyrus possibly has an agenda of his own."

After getting kicked out of college (Xavier's) "for attendance shortage," Homi worked for a year with Mahesh Mathai (Bhopal Express) at an ad agency. "That is where I saw the written word being transformed into celluloid and was fascinated and decided that I would make a movie at some point of time. A friend, Kersi Khambatta, showed me a short story and Being Cyrus was born."

Commenting on the original title of the film Akoori, Homi says: "It is Parsi for scrambled egg and the film is an akoori of sorts. But the distributors felt that not everyone would get it. So the title was changed."

The A-list cast was Homi's first choice. "Looking back now I feel I was very lucky. But at that point of time, I just went up to the actors and narrated the story and they said yes. I think they got hooked to the story more than anything else. What can I say about an actor of Naseer's calibre?

He is a one-take actor and if he gives you a second take it would just be a little more magical. I saw Saif in Dil Chahta Hai and felt that he had a wide range. He is very intelligent and very perceptive. His brief was `less is more'."

Homi used synch sound to "retain the honesty. I had a great crew. I was aware of my limitations but I was also very sure of how I wanted the film to look. I wanted it to look grainy not glossy and stuff like that. So I just told my crew this is the look and they executed it."

Homi ran into some trouble with the censors over language. "I cut some stuff. Actually it was the tone. All the words are legitimate... except some choice ones."

Married to Anaita Shroff, who has designed costumes for films including Dhoom and Kal Ho Na Ho, Homi says: "She designed the look for Cyrus. She has done phenomenal detailing, like this character has a pen in his shirt and a little blot of ink on the pocket."

Next in line is a film set in Goa in the Sixties. "It is a quirky story. There is also a period piece set in pre-Partition East Bengal. I basically need to get the wacky stuff out of my system before I do the regular large canvas Hindi film."

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

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