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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2018}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Percy
| image =
| caption =
| director = Pervez Merwanji
| producer = Pervez Merwanji
| writer = [[Cyrus Mistry (writer)|Cyrus Mistry]], Jill Mistry<ref name="RajadhyakshaWillemen2014"/>
| narrator =
| starring = {{plainlist|
[[Kurush Deboo]]
* [[Ruby Patel]]
* Hosi Vasunia
* Sharad Smart
* Ratan Batliwalla
* Zenobia Shroff
* Rajan Bane
* Tushar Joshi
* Porus Irani
* Kyan Bharucha
* Keziah Elavia
* Ashdeen Lillawalla
* Silloo Mahava
* Roshan Tirandaz
* Aban Shiekh}}
| music = [[Vanraj Bhatia]]
| cinematography = Navroze Contractor<ref name="RajadhyakshaWillemen2014"/>
| editing = [[Priya Krishnaswamy]]
| studio = [[National Film Development Corporation of India|National Film Development Corporation]]
| distributor = [[National Film Development Corporation of India|National Film Development Corporation]]
| released = {{Film date|df=yes|1989|||India}}
| runtime = 128 minutes<ref name="RajadhyakshaWillemen2014"/>
| country = India
| language = [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]
| budget =
| gross =
}}

'''''Percy''''' ({{lang-gu|પર્સી}}, Parsī) is a 1989 Indian [[Parsi]] [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]] comedy<ref name="Publishing1989">{{cite book|author=R R Bowker Publishing|title=Variety Film Reviews|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wHRZAAAAMAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Garland Pub.|isbn=9780835230896}}</ref> drama film directed by Pervez Merwanji.<ref name="GokulsingDissanayake2013"/> The film is about a Parsi boy from Bombay (now [[Mumbai]]). The film was well received and won the 1989 Best Gujarati Film Award at the [[National Film Awards]].

==Plot==
The somewhat awkward bachelor Percy Bhathena is 27 years old and lives together with his mother in a residential area of the Parsi middle class. He works in a small [[Unani]] drugstore, where he is harassed by a [[Marathi people|Marathi]] colleague. His mother goes from house to house and sells homemade sweets and [[pickling|pickles]].

Percy learns of her youth love Vera, that she is going to get married. From that moment on, his thoughts drifts into the past, into his childhood. He reflects on his childhood with his religious mother's quarrels, the reluctant and devastated father, his drowned friend Dara and playing with his childhood friend Vera.

Percy proved the misappropriation of funds by colleague and the colleague was dismissed.

Percy finds out an old [[Gramophone record|gramophone]] of his father which has the music of [[Swan Lake]] and he recalls the incident of sudden death of the father. With the music he imagines to dance with the adult Vera, he even buys a dance councilor for his imaginary dance exercises. The visit of Vera's wedding party with his mother leaves Percy unhappy despite the good food.

Percy's solitude finds a comfort in a music society of his Parsi community, which regularly meets with the common listening of records with Western classical music. Percy is studying [[Edvard Grieg]]'s piano concerto. On his way home to one of the musical adventures, Percy is hit on the street by the former ex-colleague and his friends. The next day, he has to conclude that the drug trade has been subjected to a fire and that he suddenly has no work and no income. He takes his mother's sales trip, but he does not get rid of anything. Without a goal or as an anesthetic, he strays his time in the streets of Bombay and finally lands in the Music Society. There, in a vision, he experiences his childhood friend Dara as an adult man, who urges him not to waste his lifetime and grab the opportunities at the top.

The next day, Percy is unsuccessful in search for jobs, and his mother breaks up on her sales trip. With the death of his mother, desperate Percy stands alone.<ref name="RajadhyakshaWillemen2014">{{cite book|author1=Ashish Rajadhyaksha|author2=Paul Willemen|title=Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rF8ABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1994-IA1081|date=10 July 2014|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-135-94325-7|page=1994}}</ref>

==Cast==
* [[Kurush Deboo]] as Percy Bhathena
* Ruby Patel as Banubai, Percy's Mother
* Hosi Vasunia as Percy's Father
* Sharad Smart as Seth
* Ratan Batliwalla as Dara
* Zenobia Shroff as Vera
* Rajan Bane as Ajit
* Tushar Joshi as Pappu
* Porus Irani as Percy (teenager)
* Kyan Bharucha as Dara (teenager)
* Keziah Elavia as Vera (child)
* Ashdeen Lillawalla as Percy (child)
* Silloo Mahava as Homai
* Roshan Tirandaz as Freny
* Aban Shiekh as Aunt Sera
* [[Priya Krishnaswamy]] as a bus rider (cameo appearance)

==Production==
''Percy'' is based on the short story by Gujarati writer [[Cyrus Mistry (writer)|Cyrus Mistry]] written in 1976.<ref name="RaiPrasad1999"/><ref name="DwivediLau2014">{{cite book|author1=O. Dwivedi|author2=L. Lau|title=Indian Writing in English and the Global Literary Market|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DCRHBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT105|date=28 October 2014|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-137-43771-6|page=105}}</ref> It was produced by [[National Film Development Corporation of India|National Film Development Corporation]]. ''Percy'' remained the only feature film of documentary and television director Pervez Merwanji, who died two years after its production. Several well-known actors of the Bombay Parsi Theater appeared in the film and he uses the self-irony typical for Parsi plays.<ref name="RajadhyakshaWillemen2014"/>

==Reception==
The film was well received by critics. The ''Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema'' notes, "The film intercuts his actual experiences with his dreams and fantasies... The two realities are separated and merged mainly via Contractor's masterful camerawork."<ref name="RajadhyakshaWillemen2014"/>

==Awards==
The film won 1989 [[Discontinued and Intermittent National Film Awards#Best Feature Film in Gujarati|the best feature film in Gujarati]] award at the [[37th National Film Awards]] "for its searing exploration of the neuroses and the claustrophobic embrace of an ingrown familial culture".<ref name="37thaward">{{cite web|url=http://dff.nic.in/2011/37nfa.pdf|publisher=[[Directorate of Film Festivals]]|title=37th National Film Awards|access-date=29 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002235001/http://dff.nic.in/2011/37nfa.pdf#|archive-date=2 October 2013|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=National Film Festival|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7X_kEnZC7VcC|year=1990|publisher=Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India|page=146}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Parsiana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eD8vAAAAYAAJ|year=1998|publisher=P. Warden}}</ref> At the 1990 Mannheim International Film Festival, Pervez Merwanji received the ''Prize for the Promotion of Intercultural Dialogue''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iffmh.de/das-festival/archiv/|title=1990 Archiv Das Festival|date=2017-02-24|language=de|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224025727/http://www.iffmh.de/das-festival/archiv/|archive-date=2017-02-24|url-status=|access-date=2017-08-27}}</ref><ref name="RaiPrasad1999">{{cite book|author1=Sara Rai|author2=G. J. V. Prasad|title=Imaging the Other|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9VD76xCoiS4C&pg=PT1|year=1999|publisher=Katha|isbn=978-81-85586-92-2|page=108}}</ref><ref>[https://www.stadtarchiv.mannheim.de/chronikstar/public_html/index.php?start=8288&sort=4 Chronik der Stadt Mannheim] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150710125159/https://www.stadtarchiv.mannheim.de/chronikstar/public_html/index.php?start=8288&sort=4 |date=2015-07-10 }} (Eintrag zum 13. Oktober 1990)</ref>

The film is preserved at the [[National Film Archive of India]].<ref name="GokulsingDissanayake2013">{{cite book|author1=K. Moti Gokulsing|author2=Wimal Dissanayake|title=Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinemas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=djUFmlFbzFkC&pg=PA99|date=17 April 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-77284-9|page=99}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0239795 }}

[[Category:Gujarati-language films]]
[[Category:Indian comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:1989 comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:1989 films]]
[[Category:Films based on short fiction]]
[[Category:Films about Zoroastrianism]]
[[Category:Indian films]]
[[Category:1980s Gujarati-language films]]

Percy (1989 film) - Revision history

->Citation bot: Add: isbn. Removed parameters. Some additions/deletions were parameter name changes. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by Abductive | Category:1989 films | via #UCB_Category 1351/1428