Oh! Jesus...it was one helluva movie....dnt expect me to say above lines atleast till I am a judicious movie-lover. Anyone -- compos mentis -- may not jump out of his/her seat to acknowledge this frenzied and hoped up dark comedy “Being Cyrus”.
I am not a great art film lover -- but knew it from the very first scene that this was not the one aimed at commercial success. The empty theatre may have added to it’s nutty and psychotic theme. (Did the producers pay greenbacks to the theatre owners for keeping the ambience haunted, seriously it went very well with the movie). As the theatre lights went dim came out a familiar voice. Our very own -- all renovated -- Saif, the same guy who played ‘Salman Khan’ in ‘Salman (oops Sallam) Namaste’. A first look of him sends thoughts of some ‘berserk’ & ‘demented’ person. nah! he can’t be..how can he be?..he did play few useful roles in past few years. Played nice guy, well dressed, princley, baronial, grand or rather grandiose. But, here he was playing another guy on the street, shabby, bedraggled -- very unlike our metrosexual Saif, people called him Cyrus.
Oh! I forgot to mention the plot.
Story centers around the lives of a Parsi family, the Sethnas (90% of the movie is in english, and remaining I dnt know cudnt judge what crap the were talking...thought it to be parsi...Please cross-check that for me..but I could make out that out of remaining 10 % say 100 words...90 were used for abusing).
From the film’s name, expectations that conjure up are about a typical Parsi existence. But as the film gets underway and the plot unravels, you realise that it is far from that. The story brings out the dark sides of some seemingly ordinary characters, who eventually go to unbelievable lengths to achieve their goals.
Now..gosh dn’t expect me to narrate the entire story out her for you..go and spend 100 bucks and help those dying theatre owners..they need your contribution....
I would rather talk about the characters..because that is what was the USP of the story.
Saif ALi Khan- There isn’t much to talk about him, but his unkempt look, his torned (may be faded..I dint notice actually) denims, his english accent, his empty pockets, eccentric behaviour, his shrewd look, and his unacquainted dark character. From scene one to scene last he had this same “I-dn’t-know-whats-going-on” look on his face. (yeah! which changed in b/w for one minute while he was trying to kiss some illusionary character -- may be his look then was “Gosh-I-know-this-now-:)”)
Naseerudin Shah aka pot maker Dinshaw -- Probably, the best performer of the movie. Outcasted others, old and new, with utmost ease. There was something about his character. He lived in Panchgani (yeah! the place where Aamir tied his second knot), with his wife Katy (Dimple Kapadia). He was one crazy fellow. (Why dn’t u implicitly prefix ‘crazy’ with all the characters, bcaz I may use it with each and every one of them). Artistic Dinshaw was potrayed in a demiurgic manner. He would do some really bizarre stuff for the reasons known only to him . Stoned -- like all ingenious souls -- Dinshaw was more busy in the shapes of pots rather than the shape of his busted wife kate. They lived in this haunted mansion with weeds all around them. He would jump into an abandoned well to pluck a wild flower for dining table and in return was abashed by his lovely wife. But that doesnt dissuade him from his whacko activities.
Jesus! I guess I m messing it up....I shud have told you the story line for better understanding...
Okies! its better late than never ....I finish the storyline first and then I ll comment on the other characters.
Here it goes...
Cyrus shows up at the Sethna’s at their Panchgani bungalow, and offers to be an assistant to pot maker Dinshaw (Naseeruddin Shah).
He spends a year with them and in the process a romance seemingly brews between him and Katy (Dimple Kapadia), Dinshaw’s wife. Other clandestine activities coincide with this; Cyrus receives some money for an undisclosed reason, and he is shown working on something in a lab setting. He then arrives at Dinshaw’s brother, Faroq’s (Boman Irani) house in a very Parsi locality in Mumbai. Faroq takes care of their father who lives in a room in their Mumbai apartment, and does not treat him too well. Cyrus befriends the father but Faroq loathes his proximity. Katy on the other hand, gets frequent calls from Mumbai, in a parallel unexpected development. Tina(Simone Singh) who is Faroq’s wife, befriends a policeman Lovely (Manoj Pahwa), and their interactions provide good comic relief. In what follows, the plot slowly unfurls, revealing morbid and unanticipated sides of many personalities. The movie takes a shocking turn at one juncture and the few minutes around that scene unravel a range of unforeseen occurrences.
For rest of the characters please go through comments section....guess I m using too much of space :(