If you’ve seen the works of Stanley Kubrick and have heard of Franz Kafka, then you know what I’m talking about.
Here’s a director - Anurag Kashyap - who can surely enter your minds and can also play with your thoughts. If you ever wanted to see an Indian movie that is truly neo-noir and bizarre, then No Smoking is certainly worth an investment. But if you’re looking for a movie that spponfeeds you at every juncture, that doesn’t tease your brain cells, then I guess you can hold on to your money till Diwali and walk in to a multiplex screening OSO(Om Shanti Om).
No Smoking is all about a nightmare of a chain smoker. His trip to a living hell.
Where does reality end and surrealism begin? That’s what you will be left wondering in No Smoking.
To just give a heads up - John aka "K" is a narcissist, self-loving and an obnoxious character. He is everything that you would not like your man to be. He is a chain smoker. "Nobody tells me what to do" is what he says. His marriage and his societal ties are on the rocks coz’ of his obsession for that nicotine stick. He decides to finally give up smoking when his wife leaves him.
In his bid to give up smoking, he visits(rather descends to) a surreal, dark Dharavi-esque hell(pataal) and meets Sri Sri Guru Ghantal Baba Bengali. He signs up a contract without even realizing what he’s got into. Now begins his mental journey/descend.
Even before you enter the theater to see this movie, you are sure that you’re gonna compare this film to Black Friday. but trust me that comparison should be avoided. if Black Friday had a straight-jacketed and well laid-out screenplay, this one is the most complicated, psychological and bizarre film you would have ever seen on the Indian screen.
The screenplay tests the audience and refuses to think on the behalf of the audience. It forces you think and interpret for yourself. It involves and hooks you on a mental level. The direction is expert and phenomenal to say the least. Anurag Kashyap is extremely brave and deserves a pat on the back fro making something that surly has never been attempted in Indian cinema ever.
Watch out for symbolism.
The movie opens with a sequence in Siberia where all you can see is a vast stretch of white land and blue sky. Till the end of horizon(It’s an indication of where does reality and surrealism begin and where do they meet/end?)
When John is driving his car, there is small toy that dangles off. that is an amazing piece, that signifies he is also now dangling between realism and surrealism.
Watch out for the rat trying to find an escape sequence(signifies John trying to escape but doesn’t manage to)
These are just some of the exceptional moments of a neo-noir classic.
Again this movie, the ciggie is used as a metaphor. Essentially this is an arrogant movie. It is a story of arrogance. On one hand you have "K", man who thinks he rules the world and he is his own master/boss. Nobody tells him what to do. and on the other you have the self-proclaimed righteous and Hitler-esque "Baba", who thinks he has been sent by God to cleanse the soul of corrupt HomoSapiens.
It also is a very personal tale of anger. A man who wants to live life on his own terms do what he wants to do and wants freedom to do things his own way and how his life is changed by a system that is dictatorian. And this change of lifestyle happens without even the person in question knowing it. And that’s a scary thought.
In a nutshell, "K" is Anurag Kashyap. Smoking is "his style of Cinema" and Baba Bengali is the’Yash Chopras and Karan Johars of Bollywood"
Performances are excellent except for Ayesha Takia. John is every inch a self-obsessed and narcissistic man. His body language and confused performance only makes the descend of his soul look all the more convincing. Paresh Rawal is scary and draconian. It’s such a relief to see him doing something different from those crappy Priyan films.
The music is fabulous and the background score is even more phenomenal. The camerawork transitions between reality and surrealism with panache. The sepia-grading heightens the rawness the director wanted to convey. A classic piece of cinema which will be thrashed by self-proclaimed critics and will also be recieved poorly at the box office owing to immaturity of Indian cinegoers.
Watch No Smoking. It’s psychological cinema at its greatest. Wish this film heralds a new genre. and also we see more of Anurag Kashyap.