The technical rehearsal of Hasa Has at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. After the 1960 bifurcation of Bombay and Gujarat, writer-director Adi Marzban (seen at the mike) presented this revue to say Go east, go west, Bombay is best. Far left in the frame is the trio of singing stars Jimmy Pocha, Ruby Patel and Piloo Wadia. Popular accordionist Goody Seervai is also seen playing. PHOTO COURTESY MEHER MARFATIA/LAUGHTER IN THE HOUSE

"Nothing in the world was more joyful than Parsi plays 50 years ago," MF Husain told me. On a dull afternoon in monsoon-mulched Mumbai, there was no missing the mirth lacing his voice. It wafted warmly over a phone line from London, where our foremost artist in exile sat, 10 years ago, with gallery owner Dadiba Pundole. Growing up on Grant Road, Husain knew well the comic stage tradition of the community he was close friends and neighbours with. "We had great times in those play halls," he said.
Without a doubt those were golden years for a theatre genre at once unique and universal. Few can forget the sparkle of Parsi plays which touched thousands of theatre-goers thronging 20th-century city halls. They were productions attracting the widest spectrum of viewers bound by the Parsis' mother tongue - Gujaratis, Bohris and Khojas applauded these adroitly adapted Broadway or West End originals.