The Path of Zarathustra, Review: The temperature of departure

To say that Parsees are a minority community in India, or, for that matter, anywhere in the world, might be an understatement. Official figures put their entire population as 80,000, most of them being Indians. Followers of the prophet Zarathustra (Zoraster) and natives of Iran, they fled an oppressive regime in their parent country to seek refuge in India, and were granted asylum in what is present day Gujarat, along the western coast. This film is a fictional tale addressing the burning issues that have been rocking the community for last few decades, and endorses the controversial views that Parsees should not ex-communicate any of their brethren if they marry outside the faith, and children born out of wedlock and/or adopted by Parsees, should be welcomed into the fold, if they choose to embrace Zorastrianism. It is a bold attempt, not likely to attract wide audiences but quite likely to create ripples in the closely-knit Parsees of India.

Though I went to two schools run by Parsees and had many Parsee friends, who took me to be a Parsee myself, on account of my name, Siraj (real close to Shiraz, a Parsee fore-name), my maternal ancestry being Iranian, and my father being a Persian (Farsi) scholar, I shall let the authoritative Encyclopædia Britannica define the religion (excerpts): Parsis, also spelled Parsees, means Persians, live chiefly in Bombay (now Mumbai) and in a few towns and villages, mostly to the north of Bombay (in South Gujarat, like Surat, Bharuch, Billimora, Udwada and Sanjan, the last one named after their ancestral city in Turkmenistan). The exact date of the Parsi migration is unknown. According to tradition, the Parsis initially settled at Hormuz on the Persian Gulf, but finding themselves still persecuted, they set sail for India, in the 8th century. The migration may, in fact, have taken place as late as the 10th century, or in both. They settled first at Diu, in Kathiawar (in Gujarat, later part of the centrally administered Indian territories of Goa, Daman and Diu), but soon moved to south Gujarāt (in areas listed above), where they remained for about 800 years, as a small agricultural community.

Anthropologists have estimated that by 2020, the world Parsee population will come down to 23,000, making them a species as endangered as the vultures, who the Parsees leave their dead to feed upon. Highlighting this fact, the film also reminds the community that the eternal flame, the Atash Behram, that was brought with them as the symbol of illumination and belief, is kept aflame with sandalwood, might die off, for there is no belief without believers. Incidentally, the claim made in the film, that Zorastrianism is the oldest monotheistic religion, may be debated, for, though Christianity and Islam came after Zoraster, the Jewish faith is much older.

A young woman, Oorvazi (Oorvazi Irani), born into Zoroastrianism, the religion of her forefathers, leaves the isolation of her remote abode, when her grandfather (Tom Alter), with whom she lives alone outside Mumbai, as his caretaker, dies. He leaves her a mysterious message and an even more mysterious book. Oorvazi journeys to Mumbai, and heads for her aunt’s home, the place where she spent her childhood, and where her childhood sweetheart Perseus (Rushad Rana), an out-of-wedlock child born to a Christian mother and a Parsee father, adopted by her aunt, live. She is welcomed there, and Perseus confesses that he still loves her.

Over the next few days, Oorvazi comes across ‘imagined’ figures from the historical past of the Zoroastrians—Kardir, Zurvan and Mazdak--who appear to her as real-life persons, in the shape of a beggar, a professional mourner who is also an antique clock repairer, and an intellectual. She also encounters a reformist making revolutionary suggestions before hostile, orthodox community leaders and disdainful neighbours who still cannot accept Perseus as one of their own. As images begin to appear and disappear on the magic book, and the historical figures engage her in debate, Oorvazi realises that she has the same feelings for Perseus as he does for her.

Written by Pune-born/London-based Farrukh Dhondy, the film could not have been more different from any of his previous forays into Indian cinema: Bandit Queen (Executive writer), Split Wide Open, Kisna and The Rising--Mangal Pandey. It is heavy going, and makes no attempt to make the subject accessible to non-Parsees. Ancient Parsee scriptures are not easy to translate, because the languages they were written in, like Avesta and Pahelwi, are too old and archaic. My father, late Syed Hashim Husain Rizvi, earned tremendous gratitude from a devout Parsee for translating some of these writings into modern Persian and English. Perhaps Dhondy has stuck to the original texts, and that is why they sound so abstract, even in modern English. His screenplay has a dream-like quality, seen in the works of some East European masters directors, during the 1960s and 70s, and the dialogue is an unequal blend of realistic and bookish, tilted in favour of the latter. Humour, though sparse, is welcome. Language-used is mainly English, with a smattering of Parsee Gujarati, just for flavour.

Director-actress Oorvazi Irani, who names her character after herself, is not entirely new to cinema, having made films like The K File (online release, screenplay Farrukh Dhondy) and Mamaiji (Grandmother). She also Researched, Directed, Produced and Presented The Michael Chekhov Acting Technique DVD (2011). She has been the CEO of Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting Lab (which has trained many a superstar of the Hindi film industry), South Mumbai Chapter, and taught Film Appreciation there. Her father is Sorab Irani, who worked as General Manager with the famous Anand brothers: Chetan-Dev-Vijay, on three films, Kudrat, Saheb Bahadur and Hum Rahe Na Hum, and incorporated his production company, SBI Impresario, in 1975. Oorvazi is a director of the company, which acts as literary agent for Farrukh Dhondy’s publications.

With such credentials, one would have hardly expected Oorvazi to make a film like The Path of Zarathustra. Shot on 4K using a Canon 1DC camera, with a 2K DCP projection format, it has some arresting visuals and very good sound quality. Acting hovers between pause-filled theatrics, done with a flourish, and fluent, almost casual, realism. While going along with the ‘stream of consciousness’ flow, there is a distinct possibility of viewers being lulled into a trance that won’t take long to turn into 40 winks, which is bad for an 80-minute film.

India-based American actor Tom Alter, often cast as an Englishman, has the unenviable task of delivering a long piece of nebulous dialogue, right in the beginning, in an emotion-charged dying scene. When Oorvazi gets terribly concerned about his body temperature shooting-up, he responds with, “This is the temperature of departure.”  This stilted prose is in sharp contrast with some highly convincing optical and vocal reactions by Oorvazi. She seems to be oozing oceans of love for her dear grandfather, and her speech is full of pauses that seem to go with the scene. It later emerges that this kind of speech and diction is Oorvazi’s persona, at least as evidenced in the film, which gets irritating with repetition. Rushad Rana (Veer Zaara, Dor, Mod, Tasveer) reminds you a lot of Sharman Joshi, and under-acts, though constrained by space and mechanical blocking of scenes. Shishir Sharma (Satya, Talvar) as the clock-repairer as well as Zurvan, impresses, especially with his naughty smile. Darius Shroff, as the Intellectual and Mazdak, delivers his lines with flair, as does theatre veteran Firdausi Jussawalla (Percy-produced by SBI, Such a Long Journey), playing the two roles of Mani and the Beggar. Vivek Tandon is good as Kardir. Special mention must be made of singer, songwriter Vasuda Sharma (Percy, Shahrukh Bola Khoobsurat Hai Tu), who has composed really appropriate music for the film.

A must for every Parsee, the film succeeds only partially in universalising the theme.

Rating: **

Trailer: http://www.thepathofzarathustra.com/trailer.html