Being Cyrus - Movie Review

Usually I read reviews before watching a movie. In this case, I did not and hence, had no preconceived notions about what to expect. So what I thought was a Hindi movie turned out to be Bollywood actors delivering dialogues in English. The movie revolves around a Parsi family and Cyrus, a wannabe artist. It has some good actors like Naseruddin Shah and Dimple Kapadia, who do deliver in the break from the constant prose-like narration. Although, this genre of movie is definitely a first in Indian cinema the whole experience was like watching a book being enacted out. There is a difference in speaking and passing off "reading what is written" as speaking. Unfortunately, the latter dominated the film. The constant use of cliches, idioms and popular literary descriptions in the narration begged me believe that a book was the script with no effort in etching out the screen play!

A part of the movie reminded me of a section from "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell. Of course, not enough replication to create another Kaavya Vishwanathan furor. I am certainly pleased that we are trying hard to move away from dancing around trees and breaking into an item number because Rai had the dates. However, this break away need not necessarily have to be scripted in English. The movie would have been more delightful in Hindi. Atleast, avoiding the awful echoes of pretentious writing.

being cyrus