Being Cyrus

First Punch: Being Cyrus is a offbeat subject and very artistic and may not appeal to the masses.

Those who were fortunate enough to watch Spike Jones' "Being John Malkovich" may find subtle references to the Cyrus movie other than just the movie titles!!

The interesting thing about the movie is how it speaks in subtle meatphors. Several sequences are interconnected at the conclusion to give the audience a "ohh" and "AAHHH" in thier heads. The story uncovers in a very strange way with a few dream sequences interwoven in between. The background music and the story's ambient setting give a haunting feel.

Cyrus(Saif) walks into the Dinshaw household following an Ad to work as an apprentice to Dinshaw Sethna (Naseerudin Shah) in pottery and sculpting. During his stay at the Dinshaws', he develops an intimacy with Katy(Dimple), Dinshaw's wife, who apparently believes that she is married to a loser.

Dinshaw and Farukh(Bomman) are diametrically opposite brothers, who don't feel much for each other. Thier father lives with Farukh in a Parsi locality in Mumbai. While Farokh doesn't treat his father well, Cyrus tries to befriend the old man. This is when the threads in the story begin to connect together and you slowly get a hang of the game in Cyrus' mind.

Being Cyrus is directed by Homi Adjania, and is pretty good for a debut. The movie has some sure elements of Film Noir, and has a lot of quaint mysticism.

The acting of Bomman and the Police Inspector(???) adds a lot of humour(Black) to this much serious movie. Saif is brilliant in portraying Cyrus Mistry, but you might get turned off by a lot of hamming by Dimple.

The movie got a lot of cheer for a couple of dialogues in the theatre. One was when Saif quotes Leo Tolstoy " Every happy family resembles the other, and every unhappy family is unique in its own way" in the background at the dysfunctional family of the Dinshaw's. And the other is "When the game is over, the King and the pawns go into the same box".

The first half of the movie takes you on an enigmatic ride with a major twist setting in the second half. Even though the movie has very strong characters and a conclusion that catches you off guard, I felt the movie falters at the end. Frankly, I came out of the movie "Being Stupid" and hearing a lot of strange voices in my head!!!

Bottomline: It's a movie which won't let you rest in your seat. Being Cyrus is like entering someone's mind (Think Being John Malkovich) and watching his dreams, thoughts, fears and desires. Now you take your own call to watch the movie or not!!!