Padma Shri Yazdi Karanjia Takes Comedy Theater On Global Tour Digitally

The Parsi-Gujarati diaspora in Canada are set to get entertained with two Parsi laugh riots performed by members of Surat-based Karanjia Arts, but with a catch — the plays will be staged virtually amid the pandemic conditions. Parsi theatre legend and Padma Shri awardee, 84-year-old Yazdi Karanjia, who has dedicated his life to the performing art, will also play the lead role in one of the two plays — ‘Parsi Harishchandra’.

The Karanjia family, known to be the guardians of Gujarati Parsi Theatre, have kept the hilarity rollickingly alive for the past seven-odd decades with their stupendous performances. All the characters in both the plays are performed by the entire Karanjia family itself. Two comedies — ‘Mungi Stree’ and ‘Parsi Harishchandra’ — have been performed by the Karanjia family for Canada-based ‘Friends of Gujarat and Gujarat Abroad’ (FGGA) and especially in the digital form for the Gujarati diaspora overseas.

“Before the global lockdown, they (FGGA) had invited us to perform in Canada, which got scuttled owing to the pandemic. So, the Gujarati diaspora group asked us to recreate the two comedies digitally for them. We rented an auditorium for the rehearsal of the two plays for more than one month before shooting them with three cameras from different angles and converting it into a digital mode,” said director of both plays, Farzan Karanjia.

[Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com (Surat)]