Review: 'Little Zizou' is a modest tale told through a child's perspective

Spicezee Bureau

As ‘Little Zizou’ unfolds, one gets to see a world as seen by the 11 year old protagonist – Xerxes (Jahan Bativala) – a boy who just loves his football and looks forward to meet his icon Zinedane Zidane – on whose name he got his nickname – Zizou. A motherless child born Zizou is brought up in a typical Parsi surrounding. He is the son of Cyrus II Khodaiji (Sohrab Ardeshir) an extremist who proclaims to be a spiritual healer thereby misleading the Parsi community for his own sake. Through the portrayal Cyrus II Khodaiji (Sohrab Ardeshir) and Boman Presswala (Boman Irani) of fundamental and liberal Parsis, Sooni Taraporevala, who makes her directorial debut with the flick, is successful in highlighting a long drawn dispute among the Parisis. However, the film does not dwell much upon the origin of Parsis except for the fact that Parsis came to India when Persia was attacked by the Arabs. Nevertheless, talking about the general mood of the film, the movie is an optimistic and lightheaded comedy shot in the backdrop of a Mumbai Parasi colony. The art design of Amrita Singh and the production design of Nitin Desai are successful in recreating a perfect Parsi setting for the film so as the Arjun Bhasin and Shahnaz Vahanvaty’s work in costume designing for the film. Sooni ensures that the Parsi characters she portrays are not mere caricatures but real characters – amusingly unique in their own way while they venture out to realize their goals. However, many goals lie unachieved; for instance, Boman shuts down his printing press, gets a heart attack and in return gets sympathy votes from his community. With the help of an all Parsi cast, one gets to see an authentic Parsi mannerism and performance. Well, except the child Zizou’s role, few characters that stands out in the movie include Boman Irani – a progressive Parsi and Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal as the grandma, Imaad Shah and Bollywood hunk John Abraham, who has done a mere cameo. However, Kunal Vijayakar and Cyrus Bocha and Kamal Sidhu are a waste of talent in an otherwise beautiful film! Little Zizou is a cheerful, original film that one is sure to enjoy with family! In all three cheers for this one!