'Certain Relationships Are Too Difficult To Explain'

'Two males in the same house, one who is trying to become a man, and the other one is losing his manhood, when they cross paths, it can be a tricky situation.'

"I became a photographer at the age of 34, I joined the stage at 35, started doing commercial cinema at 44 and now I'm a debut director at 65," Boman Irani tells Subhash K Jha.

The ace actor turns director with the OTT movie, The Mehta Boys, where he plays father to Avinash Tiwary's character.

He looks back at the film and its making and feels, "When the time is right, that's the time."

You took your time to turn director.

Yes. But I don't think I've taken long. Maybe a couple of years here and there to put the project together but everything happens with the right amount of maturity for the right kind of film.

I don't think I would have made a film like The Mehta Boys maybe 15 years ago. So in a sense, it's on time.

You were a late bloomer as an actor also.

My timelines have always been a little out of sync with the rest of the world.

I became a photographer at the age of 34, I joined the stage at 35, started doing commercial cinema at 44 and now I'm a debut director at 65.

I feel, no harm, who's keeping track?

I always feel that when the time is right, that's the time.

Were all these career decisions spontaneous?

Yes. From the wafer shop days to the photography days, to my theatre days, I've been picking up things that have probably helped me over the years to become a director and writer.

I used to write plays when I was young.

At the wafer shop, I did observational work as an actor and photographer.

All that I learned about composition, lighting and mood probably helped me in direction.

Theatre helped me with drama and prep for actors.

It took me about 10 years to piece this together as a script. Along the line, I studied writing.

You may think you're a writer but you don't have the science of a writer.

The Mehta Boys is, in many ways, a self-assured directorial debut.

A lot of it can come from a personal space but definitely not a vitriolic space at all.

I'm lucky to have two marvellous sons, and I have a superb relationship with them.

But like any other relationship, there will be some run-ins. Luckily for us, we are quick sorters of problems.

I did a lot of research on the different aspects of why this dynamic (between a father and son) is so strange and so common.

Two males in the same house, one who is trying to become a man, and the other one is losing his manhood, when they cross paths, it can be a tricky situation.

Was Avinash Tiwary your first choice to play your son?

I had auditioned a few but I think it worked out very well.

One of the big tilting factors was that we shared a nose.

But that's not the reason why Avinash got cast.

I think he did an extremely varied audition, and I did the audition with him.

With every single reading, I would vary the pitch, pace, and tone, and the amplification of the scene.

And with every single reading, it would be another kind of reading, another interpretation. Anything I threw at him as an actor or director, he responded magnificently. So yes, it is a no-brainer once I saw that audition.

What was your equation with Avinash during the shooting, and after?

The equation is great. Apparently, during rehearsals, he thought he wasn't pleasing me.

He felt I was not happy with his performance during the rehearsal, which lasted a month-and- a-half.

Maybe what we're looking for in rehearsals is to push you into corners that make you uncomfortable.

I'm not a taskmaster in that sense.

Then, on the set, I was a different person.

Of course, I'm not going to take away your power on set. I'm going to make you feel really good about you as a performer.

But to find those dark spaces, rehearsal is the time, not the set. And that I was very, very clear.

Which is your favourite personal performance?

Khosla Ka Ghosla. I find that quite deliciously mean.

I'd never met that kind of person before.

Your performance in The Mehta Boys is flawless. How do you succeed in giving performances beyond reproach time and time again?

I don't know how I do it.

I'm embarrassed answering this question. I guess, prep, research...

In a character like this, there is no real research except for the fact that you've got to figure out what this man wants in life, where he is mentally, how fragile he is, what is his fatal flaw...

Once I get these little things into my system, everything else becomes external.

This is the internal part, which I think is the difficult prep that one does.

The old man is cranky, they say. I feel he's cranky from the perspective of a younger person.

From an older person's perspective, he's really being uprooted, like an old oak tree being pulled out of its roots. So he has every right to be cranky.

He's not being unreasonable. People are being unreasonable with him and saying, come on, it's late, let's go to the airport. But he has every right to throw a tantrum.

So it's a wonderful character.

I love the old man with all his flaws and his methods to make his son do his best.

Like, he pushes the boy while playing cricket. He wants to still be a man, and says, let me see if I can still hold that bat. And that boy insults him by bowling underarm.

But the thing is, all his life he's ever done was push the boy -- 'Bowl like a man, bowl like a man'.

You can actually see him telling Amay in a flashback.

His method may be a little harsh, and you end up getting hurt. That's why that scene for me was very important.

My favourite sequence is the one where you tell your son's girlfriend about his tutor.

That is one of my favourite scenes also.

It's lovely because it's not just a joke. There's hurt at the end of it, which is the reversal in the scene where everything that's beautiful can turn to not so beautiful because there is a wound.

Then my character says how his son left without telling him.

But for me, one of the most beautiful scenes is the airport sequence when Puja Sarup, who plays my daughter, stomps around and lets us know exactly what she thinks of us and what my late wife Shivani may have thought of us. It sets up the conflict.

As a director, I think I love the cricket scene because it tells you more from what you see on the face of it -- what you're seeing is something else but it's saying something completely different. It's telling you what his relationship with his son may have been. And that was probably the reason why the son left.

Why a father-son directorial debut?

I don't know. If people liked the film, I liked it for the same reason.

And it needed to be told with sensitivity, not paint villains and not villainise anyone.

Because all of us may be nice but certain relationships are just too goddamn difficult to explain.

And I don't know if there are solutions.

That's the point the film was making.