A drumming success

The freedom of expression when one plays in a band has to be learnt and improvised by oneself, maintains Maraz­ban Irani, Poona’s popular drummer, emcee, theater artiste and acoustics engineer for whom the fun never stops. A self taught performer, Irani remembers well the first concert by his newly formed rock band Pyrexia at a New Year’s eve party.

While the rock band was playing, Irani on the drums saw his parents walk in. "Five minutes later I couldn’t see my dad (Gillan) anywhere. Once I got home I asked him what he thought of our concert and he bluntly said it was ‘Nothing but noise, bloody noise.’ At that time musical instruments were hard to come by. Rather than be dejected we continued with our practice,” says Irani candidly. Irani’s dad had an old chemical plant which was not in use anymore and the five-member band would practice there for almost 10 hours a day. Pyrexia, meaning hot fever in medical terminology, participated in Mood Indigo, an inter-collegiate festival hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Powai. The first year they didn’t win anything. The second year, just 15 days before the competition their lead guitarist left them high and dry for a more well-known band. Last minute they got another guitarist from Hubli and Pyrexia stood second in the Mood Indigo festival. Other concerts in Poona and Bombay followed. During its existence from 1989-1993 the band had once played a wide repertoire of around 50 songs for a crowd of 7,000 in Hubli, he says.

Irani with wife Aarti

Later, Irani was the drummer for an all-Parsi band who wanted to call themselves Super Bawas but settled for Purple Haze. They played for navjotes, lagans, had concerts in Poona, Nasik and performed at the Zoroastrian Youth Conference in Ahmednagar. Simultaneously Irani was also the drummer for a Catholic band which played primarily for weddings.

In 1993 the six-member band of Purple Haze played after Remo had performed at a Bangalore stadium. "The stadium was located near a hospital and as luck would have it, the patients complained to the cops that the noise was disturbing them. They came and shut down the outside system and we were not aware of this since our monitors were still playing. So though we were playing no music was being heard and the public was wondering what was happening. On the other hand we were in our full element enthusiastically drumming and singing and our audience was giving us foxed and blank expressions. It was truly hilarious when our manager came on stage and pulled us away telling us that we had to wind up and I refused till the song was completed. With one free hand I continued playing the drums,” mentions 35-year-old Irani with a twinkle in his eye. Irani was also the drummer for another band which called itself "Dark water fixation.”

Post bands in 1994 DJ Yusuf Kapasi asked Irani to help him set up equipment in Scooba Doo at the Residency Club, Poona. Irani joined him as a technician. His emceeing career started accidently one day when he was setting up the equipment for a show and was asked to make an announcement to remove a specific car parked in the wrong place. "I added my own bit and made the announcement interesting and from then on Yusuf and I were a team. Yusuf was the DJ and I would compere. We had the audience ‘playing’ out of the palms of our hands. We did this for the next two years at Scooba Doo and private parties. I was a flexible emcee who gelled with a DJ,” he adds.

Irani has acted in numerous plays like Ghost in the house, Careful rapture, Black and silver, Promises, Sans choice, Trip the light fantastic, Butterflies are free. He has also produced and acted in the play Where there is a will, there is a way. It is a story written by Mahesh Dattani on a dominating father who refuses to let go even after his death. When he did not act, Irani would supply sound and light for plays.

"Trip the light fantastic was shown in Bombay in 1999. It was from here that my dancing skills were brought to the forefront since the story essentially revolves around a Latin American/ballroom dancing couple and the trials and tribulations that they face. For a year I studied dance from the ex Polish ballroom champion Eva Maria Cherukuru… We performed 12 shows of the play,” recounts Irani who has danced for The Retreat, for corporate get-togethers and the Mr and Miss Pune event for the year 2000. In 2002 he had an accident and busted his knee. This has put an end to his dancing but he hopes to get back to it soon.

His love for theater germinated since his participation in school plays when he was at Bishops School and he mischievously tells us that he was a sunflower in his first play. He joined elocution classes of Feroza Bharucha and credits the vibrant and extremely talented Jal Kayani for influencing his theater performances. In 1986-87 Irani learnt to play the drums from Philip Lazarus who was the music teacher at St Vincent’s Junior College where Irani had studied for two years.

Born to Gillan and Gulshan Irani, Maraz­ban has three sisters Kayanoosh, Farah and Niloufer. While Kayanoosh and Farah are doctors, Niloufer is pursuing her PhD in Ohio. "We lived in a joint family and there were 13 kids in the ho­u­se. Our house would be a hotbed of games, laughter and perpetual noise. We had a single telephone downstairs while our bedrooms were on the top floor,” he recalls.

He remembers himself as a naughty, good-looking kid who stood first in class despite his numerous pranks. At St Vin­cent’s as part of a physics project for 20 marks the innovative Irani made a go-cart from a Luna engine and BMX cycle wheels. He rode that go-cart on the roads without a license.

"I did my graduation in science from Wadia College. It was good fun and my pranks got more innovative. Once the professor was giving a very boring lecture on electronic instrumentation and communication theory. I took crystals of a compound which is stable when wet and sprinkled them near his dais. Once they got dry they began exploding and giving out puffs of smoke. The professor left the lecture in a huff,” laughs Irani. Coming from a family who deals in compressors and engines, Irani’s father nurtured his interest in science from an early age and Irani knew he had to have a good grounding in science. After graduating in BSc (Electronics) Irani did a BSc Applied Electronics course at the Pune University catered to get students acclimatized to the industry. The course was aimed at basi­cally bringing more practicality into the courses. Irani topped this course and subsequently did his masters in Electronics from Wadia College. Here he stood third in the University.

Presently he runs a home theater store called The sound factor which sells home theater equipment and 2003 saw him set up Decibels Denon DJ Academy where the basic and finer nuances of DJing are taught. Last year he got married to Aarti, a brand consultant who runs her own event management company. "We met in 2001 when I was working for an ad agency and Marazban supplied sound and light for a Weikfield show. He invited me for dinner for which I did not turn up. He sent me sentimental messages and so next week we had dinner together. That is how it started. I love his sense of humor, the support he gives me in whatever I want to do and his ability to give me my space and respect,” says Aarti. The prankster has truly evolved into a responsible and rare performer.