Kaizad Gustad's Bombay Boys is a film about this city and its people, a tribute to an "incredibly organic, vital city". Yet the director doesn't exactly claim the pulsating metropolis as his own. His equation with Bombay is best described by one of the characters in his film -- "I love to hate it, and hate to love it.""It's the kind of place I am constantly humbled by. It caters to all the senses and varied sensibilities. While I don't like to stay anywhere for too long, when I leave Bombay I miss it," he says. The only constant in Kaizad's life being his suitcase -- "I don't want to settle down in one place, nor do I want to be a part of any greater plan for the future."
Which is why, even though he loves Bombay, he doesn't want to get tied down to it. In fact he is fascinated by this city largely because it's always on the move. And while he loves the whole of Bombay, his special corner is Colaba, "the Sleazeville capital of India". "It's a curious neighbourhood, seedy, slimy and five-star allat the same time," he says.
And Kaizad has experienced life on both sides of Colaba's strange divide. "When I first came to Bombay, I'd lived in a shady hotel for a few months. But then I've also lived at the Taj, which, funnily enough, is just down the road from this establishment. And both are equally interesting," he says.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.