Being misfit

The screenplay by Homi Adajania and Kersi Khambatta is excellent, incorporating the Parsiana with doses of action and young director Adajania moulds the subject with the skill of a potter

A still from Being Cyrus

A good, yummy dose of Parsiana, that’s what Being Cyrus is. May be "apro" is missing but the others are there, like "bailo," "bums" (don’t miss the s) etc. And promising young director Homi Adajania goes a step further and imbues it with murder, so the shift in gears from a slack, mundane period piece to near-Hitchcockian suspense and drama, provides the virtual sting in the tale to leave the viewer gasping as well as provoking thought.

When Cyrus (Saif Ali Khan) visits the dysfunctional Sethna family in Panchgani it is as mundane as black Monday. The reclusive sculptor Dinshaw (Naseeruddin Shah) is in a world of his own, trying to get as far away from his chattering, full-of-cliches, flighty wife Katy (Dimple Kapadia). Even if he suspects Cyrus of making it with her he couldn’t care less.

The Mumbai side of the Sethna family is equally Parsish. Living in an old ramshackle building the elder brother plans to inherit, Farokh (Boman Irani) is clearly a male chauvinist, barking at his cute, young wife Tina (Simone Singh) and ill-treating his old father (Honey Chayya) who has outlived his utility and therefore has to face the wrath of the new generation.

"If I wanted I could play her like a violin," says Cyrus of the flirtatious Katy who seems to talk with her tits. Tina is a little more circumspect. Sick of being at the receiving end of her husband’s abuses, she finds relief in her daily errands when Farokh is away. One of her contacts is the local police inspector (Manoj Pahwa) who could come in handy after their first meeting at the bone-setters, another typically Parsi institution. With Cyrus’ charm and potency he could wean away any of these two women. May be they both have an eye on the old man’s fortune.

But Cyrus is a quintessential misfit of society. Deprived, spat upon, humiliated, he wants a taste of the good life. He wants to see the wider frame (one of Katy’s clich`E9s). What’s more, he considers himself unorthodox and a go-getter. All he needs is a willing accomplice, but let’s stop at that.

The screenplay by Homi Adajania and Kersi Khambatta is excellent, incorporating the Parsiana with doses of action and young director Adajania moulds the subject with the skill of a potter. He is helped no doubt by Jehangir Chowdhury’s caressing camerawork which embellishes the ambience. But Adajania is able to shift gears smoothly when it comes to the action.

In a star-studded cast, Saif Ali Khan is brilliant, followed closely by Honey Chhaya as the pathetic patriarch and to a lesser extent Boman Irani. Dimple Kapadia tends to make a glutton of the role by overacting at times but her "bawaisms" are authentic while Simone Singh underplays her part well. But it is surely a refreshing piece of cinema, breaking away from the usual clich`E9s. It may not go along too well with the conservative Parsi but one just cannot doubt its candidness.

To end on a probable Katy clich`E9, it is like a breath of fresh air. As entertaining as it is thought provoking. You don’t have to be a Parsi to see it.

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