Being Cyrus Movie Review

Being Cyrus

Cast
Saif Ali Khan       Cyrus Mistry
Naseeruddin Shah   Dinshaw Sethna
Dimple Kapadia       Katy Sethna
Boman Irani       Farokh Sethna
Simone Singh       Tina Sethna
Honey Chhaya       Mr. Fardonjee Sethna
Manoj Pahwa       Inspector Maninder Lovely

Expertly made and realistically treated, Being Cyrus is a notch above the commonplace. The zone it flounders in is towards its finale. The writing of the finale could’ve been much, much better…Yet, despite the hiccups, it is engaging and involving . And credit for this goes partly to the director, in some degree to its background score and to an extent to the on-screen performers. The story is narrated by the protagonist, Cyrus, who himself sits at the brink of his dilemma of why life is the way it is.

Being Cyrus

A Parsi family, Sethnas resides in the hills of Panchgani. A retired sculptor Dinshaw (Naseeruddin Shah) heads the family. Other members of the joint family comprise of Dinshaw’s wife Katy (Dimple Kapadia), brother Farokh (Boman Irani), sister-in-law Tina (Simone Singh) and second brother Fardoonjee (Honey Chhaya).

Then arrives Cyrus (Saif Ali Khan) at the Sethna house and stays on.

As the movie proceeds it gains a psychological insight into the family and reveals that everything is not all right with the Sethna family. Not just that, even Cyrus comes across as a bizarre personality.
Being Cyrus succeeds on various levels –

The ambience is so life-like that the viewer is immediately transported to the setting.

The characters seem straight out of life. The pain ,anguish ,the revenge– seldom has these emotions been depicted with such precision.Dialogues are brilliant. Ranging from poetic to acidic , the dialogues add sheen to the enterprise. Sets deserve a special mention as well.

Being Cyrus

Performance-wise, it’s Saif Ali Khan all the way. Rarely do you see a performer in a negative role rising head and shoulders above the rest of the star cast. His presence and dialogue delivery instills life in every frame.

Dimple comes across as a natural performer. Naseer, in a cameo, makes his presence felt. As usual, he essays his part with conviction.

Being Cyrus journeys through mind-spaces, though it lends itself as a great new take on classic Film Noir. And although it aims to take the audience on a confusing goose chase, we are left in uncertainty for some time about the crimes committed, and the end ties up conclusively apart from the protagonist’s own predicament.

Being Cyrus is an obsessive, inconclusive, disorderly, and strangely humane story about an outsider struggling to get inside himself. It’s a thought provoking film that will take the audience through a journey of emotions with alarming twists.

A must see.

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