Nowruz today: Six plays to mark Parsi New Year in Mumbai

The tradition of watching a Parsi Gujarati play on the community’s New Year, which is today, continues in some parts of the city even now.

Viraf Kapadia, a resident of Godrej Baug, Napean Sea Road recalls his childhood when his parents would take him to watch Parsi-Gujarati plays. He goes on to add that the younger generation of the Parsi community prefer partying or watching a movie, rather than watching a play.

The cast of Matilda Noh Malido, directed by Sam Kerawala and Meherzad Patel, to be held at the NCPA on Thursday. (HT photo)

“I was a great admirer of Adi Marzban, and watch most of his plays. In those days, since we didn’t have much exposure to television, we would also hear these plays on radio. Because Marzban was associated with Aavo Maari Saathe, a TV programme, I started watching that show too,” said Kapadia.

However, the tradition of watching a Parsi Gujarati play on the community’s New Year, which is today, continues in some parts of the city even now. The city will be hosting six plays.

Matilda Noh Malido, directed by Sam Kerawala and Meherzad Patel, is a play to be held at the NCPA on Thursday. Two shows are already sold out.

“It is not like there are fewer Gujarati Parsi plays, but the number of performances that have gone down. Earlier if there would 100 performances, now there are just three, and that is because we do not have enough audiences owing to the dwindling population of our community,” said Patel.

Another issue that was highlighted by the community, which concerns the theatre is that the sponsorships for such events have reduced, while the ticket rates are higher, compared to that of movies, owing to taxes

Patel suggested that in order to revive their culture, the younger generation are trying to reach out to a wider audience. “Since not all communities would want double meaning jokes which is a quintessential quality of such performances, we are now preparing content that could appeal to other communities as well,” said Patel.