Modern day Qissa-E Parsi

Qissa-E Parsi: The Parsi Story, a film that documents the community, its achievements and concerns, has been selected for the 9th Seattle South Asian Film Festival. Directed by Divya Cowasji of Mhow in Madhya Pradesh and her classmate from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Shilpi Gulati, the film is at present being screened in schools and colleges all over the country, reports Mumbai Mirror (MM) in its edition of September 12, 2014.

Scenes from Qissa-E Parsi

Filmmakers Divya Cowasji (l) and Shilpi Gulati

The Parsi population of the small cantonment town of Mhow dwindled from 140 to 40 during the 27 years that Cowasji lived there. "Twenty years prior to my birth, that number was over a thousand,” the film maker told MM. She was also concerned that few people outside the community know about the Parsi way of life. "Due to their spirit of philanthropy and close association with the British, the Parsis have built numerous educational institutions, hospitals, centers for arts, museums, theaters, charities, eateries, and places of cultural significance that stand the test of time and are an intrinsic part of Bombay till today,” Cowasji noted.
"The other big concern is with regard to women’s rights in the community — for example, why is it that women who marry outside the community are now being banned from attending their parents’ funerals or barred from rights to property?” the film maker expressed to MM.
Qissa-E Parsi: The Parsi Story was Cowasji’s dissertation for her Masters degree. She researched various aspects of the Zoroastrian faith and shot the film in Udvada, Sanjan and Bombay which are of special relevance to the community, reported MM. The "live, laugh and love” motto is central to the Parsi way of life, Cowasji believes. "Parsis have always been numerically small, yet culturally and socially formidable,” she informed MM, adding that while her film will reinforce a few stereotypes, it will also bust many myths. A common misconception is that Parsis are "extremely peaceful people. While we have maintained perfect relations with all other communities in India, it seems we get our fill by fighting among ourselves — a trait we quite seem to enjoy,” she reportedly told MM. Members of the community have always been seen as whimsical, even eccentric, she said. "We enjoy laughing at ourselves, are food and car obsessed and rather eccentric,” Cowasji confessed.
The film was made primarily for a foreign audience, and the directors were given specific instructions by co-producers, the Ministry of External Affairs and Public Service Broadcasting Trust, that it should "showcase the contributions of the Parsis to India’s culture.” The directors are seeking funding for screening the film in New York, London and Toronto, from where the duo has received requests for showing it, MM concludes.