By Utpal Borpujari
Sooni Taraporevala the screenplay writer has successfully collaborated with Mira Nair to give us some powerful films like The Namesake, Salaam Bombay and Mississippi Masala. She has also written Sturla Gunnarsson’s critically-acclaimed Such a Long Journey.
But when she turned a director, Taraporevala chose to pick a light-hearted story backgrounded on her own Parsi community.
Little Zizou, as the name suggests, has football as one of the elements, but tells much more through its story about two fighting Parsi men, one a happy-go-lucky community newspaper editor and the other a hardliner religious head.
Even though the film has serious elements, it is seen through the eyes of little Xerxes, who is mad about Zinedine Zidane (hence the name of the movie).
The film’s camprises the director’s own son Jahan Bativala, who gives a compelling performance, and a large number of Parsi actors from Mumbai, including Boman Irani, apart from Imaad Shah and John Abraham in a guest appearance. A sweet little film, this one is.
Little Zizou (Hindi-Gujarati-English); Dir: Sooni Taraporevala; Rs 199; Moser Baer
(Published in Deccan Herald, www.deccanherald.com, www.deccanheraldepaper.com, 11-07-2010)
Utpal Borpujari 
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