Notes from Parzania

The correct way to say it is Par-zany-ia and not Par-zaan-ia. This is the official website.

Smile lit up on seeing Parzun Dastur after some time. Always will remember the "jalebi" ad. Still retains small-boy-charm in spite of having grown up a bit. ;-)

Zakir Hussain provides the music for this one, (and also voice in some parts) along with contributions from Taufique Qureshi and Rakesh Chaurasia (nephew, and not son of the great Hariprasad.)

Corin Nemec, (an emmy award winning actor as rediff reminds us.) has only Smallville to his credits which I know of. Am ambivalent about his role in the film. Seems superfluous at times, though the role of the impartial narrator seems integral to the film. Rahul Dholakiya insists that a white guy had to play the narrator to emphasize this impartiality. Dunno, if that is strictly true. Also the idea of a foul-mouthed, vagabond, gandhi-researching American student might not be the perfect "clean" narrator that he wanted. But maybe he did not want that.

Sarika (playing Shernaz and not Shenaz), puts in a stellar performance. Big fan, will follow her forthcoming work keenly. Shades of Dimple Kapadia in DCH, but in a different kind of role. Very mature and restrained(but not overly so) in a role which offered full scope for brow-beating.

Would like to not talk about the "socially important", "this story needs to be told" type of commentary. Will like to point the (few) loyal readers to Amu, a film with a very similar subject but pulled off with more panache, IMHO. Also to articles about how Gujarati multiplex owners once again showed what smart businessmen they are, and how the Congress showed that it will try and gain mileage out of any stupid, small incident.

Note to self: writing these notes can be quite self-rewarding. Pat-on-the-back, and encouragement for the future.