Sixth Happiness

Sixth Happiness
Directed by	Waris Hussein
Produced by	Tatiana Kennedy
Written by	Firdaus Kanga
Starring	Firdaus Kanga Souad Faress Khodus Wadia Nina Wadia Ahsen Bhatti
Music by	Dominique Le Gendre
Cinematography	James Welland
Editing by	Laurence Méry-Clark
Studio	Arts Council of England BBC Films British Film Institute (BFI) Kennedy Mellor
Distributed by	Regent Releasing Dreamfactory Mongrel Media here! Films
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Sixth Happiness is a 1997 film directed by Indian director Waris Hussein. It is based on the autobiography of Firdaus Kanga entitled Trying To Grow. Kanga played himself in this film about Britain, India, race and sex.

Sixth Happiness is about Brit, a boy born with brittle bones who never grows taller than four feet, and his sexual awakening as family life crumbles around him. It is also about the Parsi or Parsees - descendants of the Persian empire who were driven out of Persia by an Islamic invasion more than a thousand years ago and settled in western India. Parsees had a close relationship with the British during the years of the Raj. Brit is named by his mother, both after his brittle bones, and in tribute to his mother's love of Britain.

Brit's family is non-stereotypical: his parents are ardent Anglophiles with fond memories of the Raj and World War II. Brit is bright, spiky, opinionated and selfish with a razor-sharp wit, never a martyr or victim. He prefers the Kama Sutra to Shakespeare and does not allow gender or disability to come in the way of his desire for sex and love.

Sixth Happiness also features performances from Souad Faress, Nina Wadia, Indira Varma, and Meera Syal.

Sources

• Sixth Happiness at the Internet Movie Database