You see things and say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were and I say, "Why not?"
Being an insomniac all my life, I rarely “dream” during sleep as “napping” or “sleeping” has been a rarity for me. Thus, I have always been interested in learning more about “sleeping disorders”. Researchers define sleep paralysis as a phenomenon that impairs mobility for brief instances at the onset of sleep or right after waking up. “Sleep relatedHallucinations” on the other hand result in convoluted auditory and visual perceptions and occur just before falling asleep or immediately after waking up.
“No Smoking” is built around the latter phenomenon, where in the main protagonist Mr. K appears to fall asleep and hallucinate. He is constantly struggling with his thoughts, which keep shuffling between his conscious and subconscious mind. For Mr. K, the line between reality and delusion is indiscernible. We have seen several movies based on similar concepts from Hollywood. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, “Vanilla Sky, ” “Disturbia” and “Memento” are some examples. In “No Smoking” director Anurag Kashyap tries to explore this realm of cinema – It is his attempt at challenging the audience to a game – A Mind Game
Plot: The story revolves around Mr. K (John Abraham), a well to do conceited narcissist, who happens to be a chain smoker. His parents were divorced before he was born and to him, his parents are more a topic that he jokes about with his friends. He doesn’t give two hoots about anyone, including his pretty wife Anjali (Ayesha Takia). Despite repeated pleas from his wife, Mr. K refuses to quit smoking. Their relationship is not exactly “smoking hot*” either, and fed up of the entire scenario, one fine day she leaves him. This is when Mr. K decides to quit, not because he wants to – but mainly because it was a blow to his inflated “ego”. At that point, he exclaims “NO ONE LEAVES ME”!! and calls his wife, promising her that he would make amends and that she should return to him at the earliest.
Thus begins Mr. K’s journey through unending alleys and his descent into the underground world, where he finally meets the highly recommended Shri Prakash Guru Ghantal Baba Bangali Sealdah Wale (Paresh Rawal). Babaji is well known for his 100% success rate, when it comes to curing people from cigarette addiction - No one has ever gone back to smoking after having been through his “treatment”. Not knowing what lies beneath – Mr. K takes the plunge.
Cigarette Smoking as we all know is injurious to health, and many would like to quit or hope to quit some day. Thanks to advances in science, there are several treatments available today– but despite everything, none of the methods are foolproof as yet. So what exactly does Baba Guru Ghantal have in store for Mr. Kin order ensure that he never lights up a cigarette again?? Does Mr. K finally quit?? Who is Mr. Guru Ghantal after all??
In order to answer all these questions, Anurag Kashyap takes us inside the psyche of Mr. K. After all it’s the mind, which functions as the center of thought, emotion and conscious or subconscious behavior.
I would say that the movie has been well conceived by the director up to a point. However, it is toward the climax, when the audience expects answers to the above questions and more, that the director falls short. In the end, the audience is left to ponder over more questions than answers. But then, perhaps that is exactly what Anurag intended.
“No Smoking” is experimental cinema – uncanny, exigent and somewhat bizarre.
At the box office, it is a sure shot flop, simply because I feel that the Indian audience have not witnessed movies like these before and it is perhaps ahead of its time. It is more like a film that will generate a lot of discussion at Film Festivals. The movie does not have any traditional ingredients of “Hindi film entertainment” and no “big stars” per say. Plausibly it may have worked at the multiplexes if Anurag had been a little more clear as to how he wanted to convey his anti-smoking message and written some of the scenes (particularly the climax scenes) somewhat differently. The ending is too abrupt and confusing.
Cinematography by Rajeev Ravi is brilliant. Whether it is the wide-open snow covered lands of Siberia, or the dark alleys of a big city – each shot has been conceived very well. The use of sepia tone during some of the sequences adds to the essence of the film.
John Abraham has come a long way since his “Aetbaar” days and suits the character to the T. He has performed well. Ranbir Shorey as John’s friend has a short but consequential role. He does justice to his character as well. Paresh Rawal as Guru Ghantal is excellent. Watch out for the sequence where he claims that Hitler was his close friend. Ayesha Takia who plays John’s secretary and wife does not have much to do but surely needs to shed a few pounds.
Music by Vishal Bhardwaj is not much to talk about, except the “Phook De” item number picturized on sultry Bipasha, sung by Rekha Bhardwaj. This sequence appears at the end of the movie. It has a similar tone to that of the “Namak” number in “Omkara”. One also hears songs from Hollywood hits such as “Moonstruck” in the background from time to time.
Watching “No Smoking” made me feel that Anurag has been highly influenced/ inspired by certain Hollywood film makers and their films. For example the scene where Mr. K’s brother slips on a banana peel seemed inspired from “Matrix”. Anurag had shown strong vision and excellent treatment in ‘Black Friday’. In ‘No Smoking’, Anurag experiments with “symbolism” to get his message across. The underground location of Guru Ghantal indicates similarities with the German Traps in the deep dugouts during the Hitler regime. There are many such symbols through out the entire movie to watch out for. Anurag has also utilized “comic book effects” to convey the character’s thought processes from time to time. Even though Anurag may have gone overboard and over ambitious with “No Smoking”, it was a gutsy attempt and deserves to be applauded for trying something different. One failure, I am sure will not bog him down. He is certainly among the new breed of directors to watch out for.
My rating 2.5 stars.