The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Packed with stereotypes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 29, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Packed with stereotypes

STORY OF A SEARCH: Naseeruddin Shah and Sarika shine in parts

Parzania (English)

Director: Rahul Dholakia

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Sarika, Corin Nemec

A CERTAIN troubling trend in Indian cinema of late is of celebrating films on the basis of intent rather than actual execution itself. Rahul Dholakia's Parzania, for instance, has earned many accolades since its festival release. Despite all its hype, however, Dholakia's second feature - following up on the dismal Kehta Hai Dil Baar Baar - is a decidedly cringe worthy film, by no means worth the two hours of pain it puts the average viewer through.

The primary problem with the film, which deals with the fate of a Parsi family caught in the middle of the Gujarat riots, is that it has no heart, lacking any sort of a connection with the subjects it covers. Whether with the personal or the political, the film approaches matters from a decidedly outsider perspective and attendant baggage, and barely scratches the surface in its explications.

Thus, in one of the opening sequences, when Pakistan has beaten India in a cricket match, the film shows jubilant Muslims in a basti, followed by tikka-wearing Parishad members who take offence to this and promise to give them something to celebrate.

It is with stereotypes such as these that Dholakia populates the entire film, simplifying matters to a puerile, perhaps dangerous and irresponsible level.

With the personal too, the film is clumsy and badly handled by all accounts.

The opening sequences that establish the relationship between Cyrus (Naseeruddin Shah), his wife Shernaz (Sarika) and their children Parzan (Parzan Dastur) and Dilshad, alternate between flat and unemotional and sickly sweet. Whether in the way Cyrus asks his son if he is mummy's tiger or daddy's, or in the way the two kids always have frighteningly artificial smiles plastered on their faces, Dholakia gives his primary characters an air of artificiality that ensures the audience doesn't care a whit about them.

It is revealing that Dholakia chooses to tell much of the film through the eyes of the American Allen (Corin Nemec), who calls the Parishad an Indian KKK and is hear to study Gandhi. Dholakia seems as much a foreigner to the context of his film as his character, and Parzania is simply his attempt to stamp his views on the state of the world, rather than observe and chronicle it accurately.

Even the acting performances do not redeem this film, although much has been said by Shah and others in the press about their roles.

In parts, Sarika and Shah shine through, but most of the time all the cast members seem almost amateurish, stumbling through scenes that could have been handled with ease.

Rakesh Mehar

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