The Film That Captures The Hidden and Lost Art of Parsi Theatres

Rianna Tarapore

Nariman Point: The Mumbai premiere screening of the documentary film ‘The Show Must Go On’ was

held at the National Centre for Performing Arts on February 3. The film is directed by

national award winner cinematographer Divya Cowasji and her brother Jall Cowasji,

also a cinematographer. The film was also recently selected as the opening film at the

International Indian Film Academy Awards (IFFA) in Goa, 2022. The film was produced

by the brother-sister duo under the label Bhai Behen Films, and premiered at the Film

South Asia in Kathmandu in April, 2022. It also won an award for Best Documentary at

the Logcinema Theatre at the Buenos Aires Film Festival.

The film is special in a way because it is very differently made from other

documentaries. The film was made by combining different clips of behind the scenes

and rehearsals from the theatre play ‘Laughter in The House 2’ which took place in

2017. It can be said, which is also agreed by the directors of the film, in a way that the

film was actually made at the editing table. The conceptualisation and ideation was

done while editing the film. Cinematographer Divya Cowasji was very interested to

know more about Parsi theatre and drama which was slowly declining with time. She

came to know about the preparation of the theatre ‘Laughter in The House 2’ in

Mumbai in 2017, and decided to go and see how the senior actors came together after

so many years to put together a final curtain show of their theatre.

A little information about the play ‘Laughter in the House 2’ - the play was a

tribute to the late writer-director Adi Marzban whose contributions to Parsi theatre

were enormous and can never be forgotten. The play was able to bring along ageing

Parsi theatre actors back together after many years since they made the first sequel of

Laughter in the House. They, in a way, put their age boundaries aside to put up a

show as an ode to their dear friend and mentor late Adi Marzban.

The documentary film was able to capture those nostalgic memories of the actors

practising and how the senior actors put away their walking sticks and not let old age

hinder their performance to put together a show which had a bond of senior actors who

had a lot of experience along with support of young actors, who were very new to the

stage. During this, they all learned something new from each other, the experienced

seniors taught youngsters to respect and carry forward the art of theatre and the

younger actors taught them trends and technology.

Divya Cowasji decided to document a few rehearsals as still photos and short

movies using just her DSLR camera with no clear goal other than to create a keepsake

and so, she captured the fun and frolic of these actors practising for a day or two. But

seeing them bond and support one another, she could not leave the project and

instead, stayed there till the final show. She also said that she had captured around

100 hours of footage. The idea of the film came to Cowasji when, during the lockdown,

she was going through the clips she shot with her brother. They sorted them out and

decided to put a documentary film together.

The film has not only been able to capture the efforts in putting together a play,

but also the emotions and feelings of the actors present there. It wasn't always fun,

they would fight and have arguments sometimes, but the most important thing was that

they supported each other through it all.

On what the makers expect from the film, cinematographer Divya Cowasji says,

“I hope our little labour of love will make people experience a touch of magic of the

Parsi stage”. Cowasji also said that she had earlier been a little apprehensive about

whether the film would appeal to the universal audience who are very likely unfamiliar

with Parsi theatre and drama, but that the response she has received so far has been

overwhelming.

Hormuz Ragina, who was a part of the play, while sharing his experience with

the senior actors, said that there was always something to learn from them,and that

while the youngsters would often get scolded for coming in late or not remembering

their dialogues, they would always be on time for rehearsals and were ready with their

dialogues.

The actors respected each other, teased and pranked each other, and were

ready with funny jokes, but the fact is that they stood up for each other always and

thus, the film has been able to effectively capture the bonding between the generations

and the laughter they share together.