When Divya Cowasji arrived in Mumbai in 2008, it felt like a happy homecoming. A lonely Parsi who grew up in small towns, Divya felt excited to be in the city that 2/3rds of the Parsi population considers its home. Gradually, it led to an interest in the ways of her community which has only deepened in subsequent years.
Divya and Shilpi Gulati, former students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) have now made a short documentary that presents the story of Parsis. Titled Qissa-e-Parsi , the documentary produced by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust and the Ministry of External Affairs was screened recently at the Open Frame Film Festival in New Delhi.
At TISS for their Masters dissertation, Divya and Shilpi worked on their respective communities and felt that the research could also lead to documentaries on the same subject. The first of these was Dera Tun Dilli , a film on the first-generation refugees of the Derawal community (who hail from Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan) living in Delhi.
Intended as an introduction to the Parsi community, Qissa-e-Parsi comprises interviews with common and eminent Parsis. They include Bejan Daruwalla, Cyrus Broacha and Sooni Taraporevala among others, who speak on matters as diverse as Parsi food, history and their distinctive, wry sense of humour. The result is a light-hearted portrait of the community that genially explains what it means to be a Parsi.
“Everybody was very enthused with the idea of the documentary, and even celebrities were generous with their time,” says Shipli.
Having arrived in Gujarat between the eighth and tenth centuries after the conquest of their homeland Iran by Arab Muslims, the Parsis gained prominence as a community of traders and entrepreneurs under the British rule. It was during this time (1680-1780) that the Parsi association with Mumbai began, after waves of migration from Gujarat. As the documentary explains, it is an association that has come to shape the city as much as the Parsis.
Although the official brief was to “showcase the Parsi community to audiences abroad” and highlight its contributions, the film is more than a celebratory document. It confronts the community’s anxieties regarding its dwindling numbers and attendant debates regarding conversion and intermarriage. While children of men marrying outside the community are considered Parsi, those of women marrying outside are not.
The directors will explore this subject in greater detail in their next documentary. A film on Parsi theatre is also in the offing.
