Selima (Enakshi Rama Rao) and Shah Jahan (Charu Roy), in Shiraz. Pic/BFI

It was a telling 'Bombay moment'. We had been watching the 1928 silent film Shiraz: A Romance of India, with live musical accompaniment composed and played by Anoushka Shankar, with an ensemble of seven musicians, at Shanmukhananda Hall last Sunday. The story is of the orphaned Persian princess, Selima, adopted by a potter and raised with his son Shiraz. Later Shiraz (Himansu Rai) falls in love with Selima (Enakshi Rama Rau), but she is kidnapped and sold to Prince Khurram (Charu Roy) who also falls in love with her. Shiraz desperately traces Selima to the palace, and when caught talking to her, Khurram asks Selima if she loves Shiraz. “No, I have always thought of him as my brother,” she replies, and the entire Mumbai audience collectively groaned. Briony Hanson, British Council Director of Film, told me that they had played the film and music in London and four Indian cities, but Bombay groaned the loudest. Selima friend-zones poor Shiraz (Rai is lead actor and the film's producer), and worse, bro-zones him.