Little Zizou Opens Triumphantly, Where is PFC?
iView Author: NINA (USA)
Email: nina@theajnabee.com
Little Zizou Opens Triumphantly, Where is PFC?
Well, it seems that the opening weekend of that priceless gem of a movie “Little Zizou” has come and gone, while silence about it has reigned at PFC. It’s a hard pill to swallow for me, since I have been a strong supporter of this film since watching it back in November and falling in love with the story and the characters. And, on top of that, I have heard nothing but good things from everyone who has watched the film. A friend and frequent contributor on this site has called it her favorite movie of 2009, while many well-respected critics have called it variations of “fabulous”, “highly entertaining” and “a perfect weekend treat”. It has been called the best performance by Boman Irani in a long while, Imaad Shah is spellbinding in it, the kids are absolutely perfect and to hear anyone who has seen it calling it “an early Christmas present” and the likes, I question the lack of chatter about it here on the official Passion For Cinema forum.
I could be very, very unpopular and blame this speechlessness on the fact that Little Zizouis a film written and directed by a woman, with strong female characters and very powerful children’s roles, dealing with the small and somewhat exclusive Parsi community in Bombay. I would hate to think this was the case but even I was asked, by a fellow member of the media at the screening of the film in NYC, whether I could “understand the subject?” Really?! What would there be not to understand about the dreams of a small boy who misses his deceased mom and wishes for someone loving and kind to take care of him once more? What is there not to understand about a couple who truly love one another with such joy and passion, love which has never been so candidly portrayed on the big screen? What is there not to understand about a teenage boy with his own struggles and a near-taboo crush on his close neighbor? Even to those who would typically question an Italian’s understanding of Hindi films – usually posed as the question “But how do you understand the dialogue?” – this film is 90% in English, so absolutely no problems there!
But in light of the latest wonderful piece by Khalid Mohamed – http://passionforcinema.com/no-way-to-treat-a-ladyor-women-in-the-movies/ - and the supportive articles written by Anurag Kashyap and others about Zoya Akhtar’s “Luck By Chance”, I forgo the notion that perhaps there is a bit of a boys’ club thing happening here and hence the quiet about this charming, lovely, poetic and global film. Let me instead explore the ways in which this film is a sure-fire winner. The story is written by one of the most brilliant screenwriters of modern cinema. Equally at home creating a story from scratch – as with “Salaam Bombay” and “Mississippi Masala” - as she is in adapting a best-selling novel for the big screen, as she did with “The Namesake” and transformed the novel into a whole new and untold story, Sooni Taraporevala is as phenomenal as they come. With such a successful career under their belt, most people would be satisfied, and complacent. But Ms. Taraporevala is also an accomplished photographer and now a director to be contended with, after having made a movie that I bet my reputation on, will break many boundaries and bridge across many cultures.
Why such a powerful statement, you ask? Because there is a palpable sense of magic in “Little Zizou” that same magic that I discovered while sitting in a dark theater in NYC, with just a few other members of the press in the audience, on a chilly November afternoon. This film felt like a personal gift to my soul, with characters who dreamed, loved and felt, in bright colors and joyous sounds. And if you were to take the Parsi references, the graphic novel interludes and the children’s soccer story away from the movie, you would still be left with a cinematic, global love letter to the power of our dreams.
Tags: Anurag Kashyap, boman irani, Immad Shah, Khalid Mohamad, Little Zizou, Mississippi Masala, Salaam Bombay, Sooni Taraporevala
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Here it is! ;-)
Void is filled.
Loved it, just watched it yesterday, but it was no gem, i mean it was good but not something great, it’s good that it’s coming outta India but it’s no great film, just a good one
hahaha..come on in PFC everbody goes overboard for so called ‘NEW CINEMA’….and your just another example….little zizou is ok movie..not bad but nothing great or something which shd be admired….bonam irani is great no doubt…but “Imaad Shah is spellbinding in it” …i dont get that..he has altogether 10 seen in the film..and nothing exceptional…he has done better in yu hota to kya hota or dil dosti etc….n y the hell its named ‘little zizou’…just bcoz we hear zizou’s voiceover in between the seens… the movie is not at all from little kids point of view…lets not go gaga over this movie…its just another hatke movie but not good enough….
regards
mars
plz ignore the typo error… ;)
This is not the first time it has happened Nina. I’ve no clue about the reasons. But another very fine film, The President Is Coming, was totally ignored recently.
I loved the film, by the way. Except for the end that was slightly stretched, it was a beautiful film.
Little Zizou is the most pretentious piece of crap that i have watched in a long time.. Sooni Taraporevala is a good writer.. period.. but she is NOT a good director at all… the movie must have been amazing on paper but when delivered onto the screen it just does not resonate as a whole…some of the vignettes are interesting (Roxanne and Boman Irani were excellent) but otherwise the whole Kamal Siddhu episode, the crazy grandmother piece, etc was ludicrous..
i can very well imagine the setting: a bunch of self congratulatory people who all think they are making great cinema and the director caught in a over indulgent state of mind, only for the end product to be completely underwhelming..
but i must admit it is a great piece of marketing (what a title!) and i suggest that you come and watch the movie in a local multiplex in Juhu to hear the audible groans of the audience…
PFC should have carried the article on the movie though, for good or for worse…
spot on shyam….:)
@Jitesh – write a piece on The President is Coming. If it’s worth it, it will get published like this one on Little Zizou. Stop complaining, and get to the action.
@ Nina,
People here are busy in praising “Barah Aana” & other medium Budget flicks. NO matter how good “Little Zizou” is, it wont get recognition here till Vinay Pathak acts in it or somebody makes a pseudo-intellectually simple & middle budget film with Great ators like Naseer Bhai, Pankaj Kapur etc or less known actors or unless AK recommends it.
Don’t bother! :P
I think its a sweet film and not more than that.You have to be parsai to really njoy it.
But why in the fucking world to we need to make English films for Indians? Fuck it. English transcends boundaries but so does subtitles. Usage of English wherein necessary is okay but not a complete shit outta it.
I guess they wanted to market this film for the NRIs
And if it was truly made for Indians they needn’t have subs for the Hindi parts, it’s okay for the Gujarati parts.
And it’s too preachy too.
President is Coming wasn’t anything Awesome or anything, worth a watch that’s it
It was clearly made for the NRIs, the one’s without the brain NRIs I mean
@Debarun,
whats wrong in making English movies. You are typing in English…..Its not the language, the quality that matters….
@Nina,
There is tredemendous bias in any forum, even PFC. PFC was overdosed with Gulaal. Good that you bough ‘Zizou’ into light. It is definitely a gem…Sooni Taraporevala is perhaps one of the greatest underutilized talents of Indian Cinema
@holycow
PFC is always overdosed with Anurag Kashyap’s moveis…they are obsessed abt him….
@Debarun
y ur using f word so frequently..and in first comment u have praised the movie…r u the same guy???
Little Zizou is a bad film.I do not why it is tendency of people to think all small budget fils are path breaking and good.
Does pfc has duty to discuss each and every movie released,\.If nobody discussed the movie then may be it did not merit for.
I said I loved the film, but why make it in english? I just don’t get it!
I am so happy to see all these comments on here! Glad that my post generated so much intelligent discussion, be it a negative or positive support of the film. There is a great saying — one all actors live by — the only bad press is no press.
Ultimately, I am not a Parsi, I watched the film in a non-Parsi environment with a mixed — meaning Desi and non-Desi audience — twice, and both times, the film was beloved. I don’t claim to know much, but I do know good films that appeal to me and my friends. This one did.
Thanks you to Holycow for the support and 32 for the insight. And thank you to everyone, you all responded with honesty and from the gut!
@Nina…even if one were a Parsi, and like the film, they have every right to express it. PFC is not a community forum. Cinema takes precedence here over everything else.
@Debarun. Some movies are made in English, some in Hindi, Telugu, or Oriya. It is the choice of what language the filmmaker is comfortable with and wants to tell the story in. If Ramayana is made in Oriya, you cannot question how Ravana speaks Oriya…as simple as that
Some people are now questioning the “bias” & “favoritism” etc in PFC…
It is kinda ironic…There are many AK fans here who do their bit to promote his films…But AK himself was a victim of bias from myopic “mainstream” bollywood untill recently…only after Dev.D people are warming upto him…
So better not get deeper into such things & discuss the film…(I have yet to see it & so not saying anything about it as of now…)
About the use of english…
Yes the makers are free to use anything they want…
But personally I was never comfortable with the films with the Indians speaking english (in some cases they also boast a fake accent)…it doesn’t look natural…
that is why slumdog was a very difficult watch for me…
but may be in certain places or communities english is more prevalent then I am used to…
BTW the Oriya Ramayan example by Holycow doesn’t really fit into this argument…it is after all an Indian language and all principal languages in India have their version of the epics…
Hey Nina, I was disappointed too that none of us wrote about it, I should have, having seen it but was too caught up with work unfortunately to write a fitting review that this lovely little film deserves. Most of us at PFC I guess haven’t seen it yet, and I would definitely recomend it to anyone- and the lead actor is my namesake, so it’s all the more nice
Glad you wrote about it… great job.
I too kept looking at PFC all weekend to see how India’s audiences are responding, with not a peep in sight. I had assumed that PFC’s authors had prioritized Gulaal and would get to Little Zizou as the favorable word spread.
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Also, Little Zizou is in limited rollout now with just 29 screens the first weekend. I hope its distribution expands, similar to the gradual releases of Slumdog, Monsoon Wedding and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
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Little Zizou is whimsical and a bit magical, with its hand-drawn comics and some Fellini-style exaggerated characters. But it’s also a bit daring in critiquing religious zealotry without clunking you over the head with its message. And how many Indian movies do you see with That’s Amore in the soundtrack?
@Jitaditya and Debarun,a lot of Indians do speak English. And the characters of Little zizou would speak in English in their day to day lives. What’s the problem?
@ Jitaditya – I do agree with the idea that Hindi films should be in Hindi and understand how some had issues with SM for that reason. But why didn’t you see it as “Slumdog Crorepati” which would have taken that factor away from your issues with the film? Anyway, that’s for another forum and a different discussion altogether.
For this film, I found the English befitted the placement in the Parsi community and didn’t distract me from the story. Not in the way Hindi detracted from “Bose: The Forgotten Hero”, since I craved for him to speak Bengali instead…
@ Jahan, am happy to read that you enjoyed it so much and I know all about working getting in the way of writing, so kudos to you and thanks for the kind words.
@ Evelyn, you always manage to bring the discussion to a greater level. Thank you for insightful comments and additions!
@Jithesh
I never commented about this film…I made it clear that I have not seen it…it was more of a general comment…BTW it is also difficult to see some of the bollywood filmstars fumble when interviewed in hindi…it is somewhat fashionable!
@Nina…
Slumdog Crorepati is another case…a film originally made in english & dubbed in hindi is another pain to watch…dunno about this one…but in most cases immature dubbing ruins the film…It should have been originally made in Hindi…if Mel Gibson can make films in Aramaic & Yucatec Mayan…
As far as Bose is concerned..you can take that much…He was a national leader not only a regionalist one…
Nina and Evelyn – It’s not yet playing here, but your ringing endorsements will make me go as soon as it does.
@Debarun – Not everyone in India speaks Hindi. I know not everyone speaks English either, but saying just subtitle the Gujarati parts doesn’t make sense. I for one am on a campaign to get all Hindi movies subtitled
Nice sunday evening film. Loved two dialogs:
“I don’t know the Marathi word for Subtlety”
“He is not a Healer, he is a Feeler!”
I would call the film delightfully racist and stereotypical. :-)
@Shripriya – thank you and I completely agree with you! And subtitled well, not with strange and incomprehensible translations.
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@Tushar – Really?!
Oh, found it!
Sorry about that, Nina, I had trouble finding your review of the film.
But i’m glad that you also have a positive opinon of Imaaduddin Shah!
I think you’re the 2nd or now, 3rd person on PFC who thinks so!
Will be a while before I get to see this film here though.
Debarun Sarkar, trust me, English languaged Indian films are NOT made for the NRI market.
Infact, it’s so damn hard to get hold of such films abroad.
Even the famous Pirate ‘market’ won’t have them!
Lekin, i’m definitely gonna keep my eyes peeled for this one :-)
Yes, really.