Bomania!

Manjula Negi / TNN / Feb 25, 2006, 21:28 IST

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With 25 films in five years, the going's certainly fantastic for Boman Irani.

With 25 films in five years, the going's certainly fantastic for Boman Irani.
"It's not a sequel. It's another episode in the life of Munnabhai. It's another chapter," states Boman Irani with all the emphasis and patience he can muster �� like he would when explaining trivia to a juvenile delinquent.
He is reacting to a query about the role he plays in Munnabhai Meets Mahatma Gandhi �� purportedly a sequel to the now cult classic Munnabhai M B B S, where he played the unforgettably brilliant Dr Asthana."I am not Dr.
Asthana but someone else in the film. It's almost like... the James Bond series wherein it's a different plot and story each time.

If at all, then it's more like a prequel but not a sequel. And as for the script, it's amazingly fantastic, something that only Raju (Rajkumar Hirani) could have come up with."
So Hirani's take on the life of a golden-hearted bhai and his best pal, Circuit, will soon be back with the same cast in different moulds? "Only Munnabhai and Circuit remain the same. There are no connections with the original.
They live in the same places, inhabit the same space, their business is the same, Munna still waves his magic wand and spreads happiness but happens to meet other people. And I am one of them." Probably the Mahatma himself? But Irani's not telling... not yet.

The witty and soft-spoken Irani began with the family business of selling potato chips. Back then he loved taking pictures too and before you could say, 'cheese' he'd become the family weddings' photographer before he chucked it all up to take fashion photography earn-estly.
A natural mime and great singer, Irani remained content behind the scenes until one day buddy Shiamak Davar insisted that he get his act together �� for stage.
Since then, Irani has always been in the spotlight, not behind it. So, post a few, but very successful plays �� among them Jesus Christ Superstar and Mahatma vs Mahatma, Irani made his film debut with Mansoor Khan's Josh (2000).
He has since been seen in over 25 films (darn good for five years, ain't it?) �� including Farah Khan's Main Hoon Na, Yash Chopra's Veer-Zaara, Jahnu Barua's Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara, Ram Gopal Varma's Darna Mana Hai and Farhan Akhtar's Lakshya.
Even as he awaits the release of Khosla Ka Ghosla and Being Cyrus (co-starring Naseeruddin Shah and Dimple Kapadia) Irani is busy �� shooting Akhtar's remake of the 70s classic Don.
"I am playing one of the cops," he reveals modestly. The shooting of Don, which began this month in Bordi (a coastal town on the Gujarat border) is "probably Farhan's favourite.
Directing it is perhaps his childhood fantasy come true, just as mine did when we doing the chase sequence, donning the holster, driving, the roads were cleared out ... it was great. Perhaps Farhan always dreamt of making a modern 70s film."
But, it is after all, a remake of a film that an entire generation has grown up with. "I am not familiar with remakes in this country, but all great Hollywood films have been remade.
Don is a great entertainer but I don't know how familiar people are with the exact film or its sequences today. There is stuff that's been added, stuff that's been deleted... a couple of songs have been retained just as... But it will have Farhan's touch, his technical finesse, so it is his film.
You can see the passion he brings into it." And the passion is alive in Irani too, as you hear him defend the project �� a passion that has surged onto the screen and touched so many lives.
manjula.negi@timesgroup.com

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