Being Cyrus (2005)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Homi Adajania

Writers:

Homi Adajania (original screenplay)
Kersi Khambatta (original screenplay)

Release Date:

24 March 2006 (India)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Who you let in can change your life

Plot:

"Being Cyrus" is a dark, comedic venture by the debutante director Homi Adajania that spins around the Sethnas - a Parsi family.

Plot Keywords:

Parsi | English | Fantasy Sequence | Neo Noir | India

Cast

Naseeruddin Shah	...	Dinshaw F. Sethna
Dimple Kapadia	...	Katy D. Sethna
Saif Ali Khan	...	Cyrus Mistry / Xerxes
Boman Irani	...	Farokh F. Sethna
Simone Singh	...	Tina F. Sethna
Honey Chhaya	...	Fardounjee Sethna
Manoj Pahwa	...	Inspector Maninder Lovely
Delna Patel	...	Miss Vinci
Ravi Khote	...	Bonesetter
Carol Gracias	...	Girl in Dream / Beggar Girl
Zareen Bhasin	...	Farokh's Secretary
Keku Writer	...	Eedu
Yasmin Khambatta	...	Bonesetter's wife
Rayaan Gandhy	...	Young Cyrus
Sephra	...	Young Tina

Also Known As:

Akoori (India: Hindi title) (working title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

India

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:12A | India:A

Filming Locations:

Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company:

Miracle Cinefilms

Trivia:

The movie was originally titled Akoori, a traditional Parsi scrambled-eggs-like side dish, to reflect the 'scrambled' Sethna family. The name was changed as majority of audience won't get the meaning. The director, however, has included a scene of Akoori being prepared where a thousand eggs are broken in a large vessel.

Quotes:

Girl with doll: [talking to the doll while Cyrus is climbing the stairs] Upon the stairs I saw a man, who wasn't there; who wasn't there the other day, I wished to god he'd go away.

Something Fresh !

When I heard about this movie for the first time, what I had in mind was a lighthearted made-in-India English comedy. We have had quite a number of those in the last few years, English, August, Jhankaar Beats and the Hyderabad Blues couple to name a few. And I was even surer about it when I heard about the cast. What would you expect out of a movie which is called Being Cyrus and has actors like Saif Ali Khan, Boman Irani and Naseeruddin Shah? Well I was partly correct. It was a comedy alright! But it wasn't half as much 'lighthearted' as I had expected it to be. Being Cyrus turned out to be a dark, psychological drama concerning the lives of an individual named Cyrus Mistry(that's Saif) and a not-so-common Parsi family.

The acting by all the characters was, for most of the movie, quite superb. Naseeruddin Shah played his relatively brief role of a doped, absent-minded artist to near perfection. And so did Boman Irani in his of a loveless husband who is frustrated with almost everything life has to offer him. Simone Singh also does well in the portrayal of a coy, frightened wife, brave enough to indulge in her personal desires only in the absence of her strict, boring husband. But the surprise package in terms of acting is Honey Chhaya who plays the role of a forgetful old man harassed to the limit by his younger son. My personal favourite was the scene in which he, having chocolates and remembering his earlier years, looks up at the ceiling dreamily and says – "Those were the good old days". Manoj Pahwa, as Inspector Lovely, also manages to sneak in some hilarious comic moments. Dimple Kapadia is perhaps the only disappointment, overacting severely in many of her sequences.

The direction by debutant Homi Adajania is very fresh and promising and he couldn't have made a better start to his career. The storyline is not amazing but strong enough to take the viewer by surprise in the end. Yes, the movie doesn't have any songs to offer but music and sound play a somewhat major role all throughout the film, adding to its suspense and drama. Only the screenplay could have been a trifle better. At some points, it wasn't clear as to what the director was trying to say. And I don't believe that could have been intentional. Or maybe, it was.

I have saved the man in the lead for the end. Saif Ali Khan, in his first English film, has shown that he is capable of a lot more than playing the 'chocolate-boy' that he has traditionally done. He was perhaps not the obvious choice for the role of a distressed, orphaned individual but all would agree that he did ample justice to the task assigned.

All in all, Being Cyrus is a very entertaining first-time watch, if only for the difference it has to present. Seen independently, it would get a 6/10 from me. But as it happens to be one of the first of its kind, it deserves a nice 7.