Parzania

I just finished watching the film Parzania. It has been on my to-watch list for a long while. The film is about a Gujrati-Parsi family which lost a son Parzan in Ahmedabad riots of 2002. The movie is very well made by director Rahul Dholakia with brilliant performances by Naseeruddin Shah, Sarika, Corin Nemec & the two child artistes. It portrays the anguish of people who were victims of Ahmedabad riots (mostly Muslims) of post-Godhra attacks and callousness of the Govt officials (including Police, politicians) in handling the matter.

I felt quite disturbed after watching this film; this is the second time an Indian film has evoked such reaction from me. The first one being Bandit Queen which I watched in my late teens and some scenes from the film kept haunting me for weeks after watching it. Some of the scenes in Parzania - where mobs attack innocent people's homes and kill them with swords or burn their homes or rape women and burn them alive - were very realistic. Like one of the characters in the film said towards the end - 'I felt ashamed of being a Hindu'. How some religious fanatics can misguide people and use them for their own selfish causes! This Hindu-Muslim divide continues to be our nemesis. But the message from the film is very clear - If we take an eye for an eye, the whole world will soon be blind