Persian Ponderings

Persia never fails to intrigue me. Yes, Persia. I prefer that name instead of Iran.

My introduction to that country was through its films. During my undergrad days, there was this phase, where on lazy afternoons during the holidays, I’d feed on a steady diet of dubbed Iranian films.

In Not Without My Daughter, Sally Field plays the role of Betty Mehmoody, the American woman who married an Iranian doctor and visits Tehran on a holiday with her daughter and husband to meet his family. Little does Betty realise that the moment she set foot on the Iranian soil, she had jumped into a ring of fire.

One of my favourite Iranian movies is The Apple, the story of two sisters locked up in their house all their life by their ageing father and blind mother.

The film industry in Iran is a well established one. Film-makers like Jaffar Panahi have made Iranian films accessible and appealing to the global audience. Bumm Bumm Bole, the Bollywood version of the charming film Iranian film Children of Heaven, is no match compared to its mother version.

The simple yet powerful emotions of ordinary Iranians in these films are just what stole my heart, and are sure to steal yours too.

Now, with my growing fetish for Iranian films and of course Iranian novels, that country figures on my list of top five places to see before I die. It is not Iran that I want to visit. I want to go to Persia; the mystical land of old-world charms and culture. Such a place seems surreal today, with the tumultuous events that plague the country. May be I could use a magic carpet and go back in time. These carpets will be 'made in Persia', of course.