A film Parzania was screened marking the first day of children’s film festival. The film was screened here on Thursday.

Parzania is a 2007 Indian drama film co-written and directed by Rahul Dholakia; David N. Donihue is the other co-writer.

The film featured Naseeruddin Shah and Sarika in the lead roles, while Corin Nemec and Raj Zutshi played supporting roles.

The film is inspired by the true story of a ten-year-old Parsi boy, Azhar Mody, played in the film as Parzaan Pithawala in the film, who disappeared after the 28 February 2002 Gulbarg Society massacre during which 69 people were killed and which was one of many events in the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002.

The film traces the journey of the Pithawala family while trying to locate their missing son.

Allan (Corin Nemec), an American, arrives in Ahmedabad searching for answers, to find internal peace and to understand the world and his troubled life.

He chooses India as his school and Gandhi as his subject of his thesis.

It is here that he meets the Pithawala family Cyrus (Naseeruddin Shah), his wife Shernaz (Sarika), son Parzan (Parzan Dastur) and daughter Dilshad (Pearl Barsiwala).

The plot is based on the story of Rupa Mody, whose son went missing after the 2002 Gujarat riots.

 The ten-year-old Parzan disappears during these riots when their surrounding homes are attacked. Cyrus, Shernaz and Dilshad manage to escape the carnage.

In the aftermath of the riots, Cyrus searches for his missing child while fighting for his own sanity.

While assisting the Pithawalas in their search, Allan battles to uncover the reason behind the riots in an effort to make some sense of the incident.