’Being Cyrus’ is that rarest of rare dark films that has been attempted by an Indian director. The film is in English, but has an ensemble cast of fine actors most of whom are familiar faces for even the basest or commonest member of the Indian moviegoing public. And for this I would like to praise the makers - the director, producers and even the distributors who attempt to make a novelty like this work. It not only works, but works excellently. First-time director Homi Adajania takes the viewer for a 90 minute long ride into a world that excites, intrigues and even shocks. Actually there are two worlds - the world of Cyrus, the protagonist of the film, and the world of the typically dysfunctional Sethna family, which Cyrus gets to familiarise with. Without revealing the details (it would have been a dampener to do so), one can say just this much that even the film’s basic premise is composed of two slices; one even starts feeling, as the film proceeds post-intermission, that one is watching two films at the same time. In retrospect one can even have a fair appraisal of the opening credits and promotional designs that holds the promise of a slicing-in-two-halves effect. The performances of Saif Ali Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and Boman Irani are superlative. Even the likes of Dimple Kapadia, Honey Chhaya, Simone Singh and Manoj Pahwa blend in perfectly and enrich the ensemble cast. The cinematography of Jehangir Chowdhary is simply brilliant. It would be an understatement to say that the craftsmanship on the whole is laudatory. I think it is the director’s principal vision that has made this film a success. The niche audience (especially those who watch films in the multiplexes as well as the single-screen theatres in the metros) would surely be proud that our country is capable of producing films like ’Being Cyrus’.