Welcome apro Homi

Being Cyrus

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Naseeruddin Shah, Boman Irani
Direction: Homi Adajania
Rating: ***

What, no dhansak! No condescending how-cute takes on the Parsi community. No ketlo mittho Daddyburjor dikro kind of characters, no pious visits to the agiary, no ghanoo majenoo brand of dialogue. Gratefully, clichés are avoided like rent collectors.

Indeed, first-time writer-director Homi Adajania’s Being Cyrus is as refreshing as raspberry soda. Instead of romanticising his people, he looks at their frailties and foibles fairly fondly and on occasion, incisively. In addition, technically the peanut-budget effort packs in a wallop.

Note especially seasoned Jehangir Chowdhary’s nature-lit cinematography, the creative editing by John Harris-Anand Subaya, and above all, the script’s structure which juggles with time ellipses in the manner of a circus acrobat.

Moreover, two entirely guffaw-inducing performances are whipped out by Boman Irani and Dimple Kapadia as conniving creatures crazier than psychos babbling to themselves on the street. In fact, the entire acting crew seems to be all there, motivated to breathe life into the portrayal of the scattered and scatty Sethna family.

Enter the stranger, our eponymous Cyrus (Saif Ali Khan), who ingratiates himself into the lives of a dysfunctional Panchgani couple (Naseeruddin Shah-Dimple Kapadia). The man’s a pot-puffing potter gone to seed. And his overwrought wife is longing for male company, a quick Mrs Robinson-like affair, and maybe even an escape to the brighter lights of Bombay.

The initial interaction between the stranger and the daft duo is hilarious, written with vim and wit.

So far, so shabash. Next: the seduced Cyrus lands in the city to carry out a complicated murder planned by Panchgani’s Mrs Robinson.Errr..eeps, from this point things become positively Quentin Tarantinoish.

Cruelty, unmitigated avarice and morally questionable situations abound as you come face-to- farce with the pothead’s quarrelsome brother (Boman Irani), his scared dimwit wife (Simone Singh) and the Sethna father (Honey Chhaya, first-rate) who’s as cracked as the blasting TV set in his hovel. Meanwhile, vignettes of a horrifying childhood assail your dear Cyrus.Tsk.

Aah, individual scenes work marvellously. Like the visit to a comic bone-setter’s clinic or the brush with a dog-loving harridan. Almost fatally though, the larger picture suffers from the lack of a convincing story. Sadly at the end you feel as if you’ve gorged on a juicy mango, only to be  disappointed because it didn’t have a gutli.

Despite elementary flaws, the result is still far superior to the fakery and frippery you’re accustomed to at the movies nowadays. Saif Ali Khan in his most casually cool performances yet asserts that he can be a very vital component of cinema that cocks a snook at the formula.

Naseeruddin Shah is so effortless that he’s almost invisible.  Undoubtedly for its perks, the Adajania-nama  is several notches above the commonplace. Suggestion: Keep your expectations on the moderate side. And then try Being Cyrus — before it does the vanishing trick from the popcorn ‘plexes.

khalid@dnaindia.net

Rating:

Outstanding:*****
Very Good: ****
Good: ***
Average  **
Poor: *