REVIEW: Little Zizou is charming

The small community of Indian Parsis currently finds itself divided at its seam over the issue of 'purity'.

A section of the Parsis believes that it is time to encourage conversions and inter-community marriages so as to save the dwindling community from extinction. The traditionalists however strongly oppose any intermingling so as to uphold the purity of the race.

This raging debate is the focus of Little Zizou the directorial debut of screenwriter and photographer Sooni Taraporevala, herself a Parsi.

The film gets its name from soccer legend Zizou or Zinadine Zidane after whom the protagonist Xerxes Khodaiji (Jahan Bativala) nicknames himself.

Eleven-year-old motherless Xerxes is however quite a handful. Even as your heart goes out to him, you can't help but smile each time he emotionally blackmails a friendly neighbourhood aunty into mothering him.

It is through Xerxes' eyes that we see the charming world of this affable community.

We are introduced to his father Cyrus II Khodaiji (Sohrab Ardeshir), a religious bigot who wants to 'cleanse' the community by discouraging conversions and 'the breeding of horses with donkeys'.

On the other hand, there is Boman Pressvala (Boman Irani), the freethinking liberal owner and editor of a Parsi newspaper.

The two are almost always at loggerheads as Khodaiji starts taking his Parsi Liberation Organisation or the PLO a tad too seriously.

Boman leaves no stone unturned in poking fun at Khodaiji's feather-brained plans till one day he pushes his luck too far.

Enraged, Khodaiji hits back, leaving Boman with no option but to shut down the over-century-old newspaper.

A silent spectator to this drama is Xerxes' older brother Artaxerxes (Imaad Shah). Art is a graphic artist who also maintains a Bawa Blog and hopes to convert a scrapped Boeing cockpit into a flight simulator.