Many years from now, when we want to remember the Parsis of Bombay and reflect on their cultural practices, religious debates and eccentricities, we will watch Sooni Taraporevala’s Little Zizou (2008).
Available on the JioCinema streaming service, Little Zizou is a crackpot comedy about a serious subject: the debate over racial purity between orthodox and liberal Parsis. The community bars proselytisation and does not recognise the children of Parsi women who have married outside the faith. Though it is one of India’s smallest religious minorities, it is also one of its most vibrant, in particular making immeasurable contributions to Bombay’s social fabric.
An accomplished photographer, Taraporevala turned to screenwriting with Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! in 1988. Her works about her community include a book of photos and a screen adaptation of Rohinton Mistry’s novel Such a Long Journey, about a Parsi bank clerk in 1970s Mumbai.
Little Zizou is Taraporevala’s humour-filled tribute to her community. The episodic narrative is seen through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy who worships the French footballer Zinedine Zidane, or Zizou as the fans call him. The English-language movie stars Taraporevala’s children, Jahan and Iyanah Bativala. Several other relatives and friends appear in cameos.
Xerxes (Jahan Bativala) and his elder brother Artaxerxes (Imaad Shah) are long-suffering victims of the fundamentalism of their father Cyrus II Khodaiji. A preacher who rails against perceived impurity, Khodaiji (Sohrab Ardeshir) and his secretary (Shernaz Patel) wage war on progressive Parsis, set up the Parsi Liberation Organisation, and go to battle with the rationalist newspaper editor Boman Pressvala (Boman Irani).
Taraporevala’s gift for replicating Parsi slang might expand our vocabulary, while her keen sense of observation produces a host of memorable characters. These include Boman’s loving wife Roxanne (Zenobia Shroff), his competitive daughter Liana (Iyanah Bativala), Khodaiji’s most ardent follower Kurush (Kurush Deboo), and Roxanne’s mother (Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal). The spirit of Italian master Federico Fellini runs through the half-Parsi and half-Italian Tito Fellini (Tknow Francorsi). John Abraham, who is half Parsi himself, makes a special appearance.
The film captures the tendency of Parsis to poke fun at themselves. Warm, often very funny, suffused with love for Parsi manners, the film skewers illiberalism with a big grin and the knowledge that in the end, common sense will win out.
Also read in the ‘Start the week with a film’ series:
‘One Fine Morning’ is a terrific tale of love amidst loss
‘Network’ is a revealing satire about the decline of TV news
In ‘Frantic’, Harrison Ford is on an impossible quest (again)
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