SYNOPSICS
No Smoking (2007) is a Hindi,English movie. Anurag Kashyap has directed this movie. John Abraham,Ayesha Takia,Paresh Rawal,Ranvir Shorey are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2007. No Smoking (2007) is considered one of the best Drama,Horror,Mystery,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
K lives a wealthy lifestyle in India along with his widowed mother and brother, J. His mother works as an interpreter with the German embassy. As a child K acquired the habit of chain-smoking along with his friend, Abbas Tyrewala. Now matured, running his own business, married to Anjali, who also doubles as his Secretary, Annie, K continues to chain-smoke. When Abbas quits, he manages to convince K to undergo treatment at the Prayogshala located near Kalkatta Karpets but K refuses. He changes his mind when Anjali moves out, decides to undergo treatment, goes to Prayogshala, meets with Guruji, is forcibly enlisted, then again forced to sign a Cheque for 21 Lakhs Rupees for his treatment, and after doing so is discharged with a warning that very bad things will happen to him and everyone of his family if he dares to smoke again. Watch what happens when K decides to secretly re-locate and continue to smoke.
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No Smoking (2007) Reviews
Awesome compilation of random thoughts in the subconscious
The Plot The Protagonist "K" is a narcissist, self obsessed chain smoker. But I believe most smokers are narcissist to an extend. So is K, the man who spends hours in the Wash Room, to enjoy the smoke look at his well toned body and enjoy his looks, his style, rebuilding his confidence, by self assuring that "nobody tells me what to do". He takes his life for granted, when he says, no body leaves me. The question of leaving, quitting in his life has to go with his past, where his mother and father split. He is so obsessed with himself, that he is got less time to think about it. A self made cosmopolitan corporate boss, who makes things possible, with out leaving cigarette not even a moment. His name is K, because his name is K, and there is no surname, last name attributes, to add to the fact that he is self made man. His wife Anjali is a woman, who never complained, at last sticks her foot down, and asks him to quit smoking. He is referred to a clinic, Prayog Shala, which has a reputation. K decides to go to the clinic to bring back his estranged wife. He goes down the shabby "Kalkatta Karpets", a shady place where Prayog Shala is located. Bengali Baba, chief there asks him to enroll, or else die. He is got no option but to take it. The conditions put by Baba are simple. If K smokes his first Cigarette after this , his brother who is in hospital will be suffocated with cigarette smoke. Second cigarette, his fingers will be cut off. Next cigarette, his wife will die. As I was leaving from the theater, I could hear viewers puzzled comments on the movie. I am sure, more than half of the crowd didn't understand the movie. Hence writing this. As Anurag said before the release, there is only one key to understand the movie. Anurag has employed the same devices that was always incorporated by likes of David Lynch (Blue Velevet, Mullholland Drive etc.), Martin Scorsese ( After Hours), Charlie Kauffman (Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, adaptation, being John Malkavitch, etc. ) This film has nothing to do with quitting smoking. But everything to do with quitting any addiction in life. Smoking being one of the worst, yet popular addiction is difficult to kick, because of the availability of cigarettes was just chosen by him. This film is about habits, that has gotten in to us, in the subconscious, which makes us feel we need it. The inner struggle , whether for good or bad. the dream K is having is of Siberia, it represents oppression, a communist rule, where there are no individual liberty. He is the one who believes he is independent and free, and he is made to quit his individual liberty, his dream state just signifies that, the state he is in, the desperation for smoke. He will get killed if he goes for the smoke. * the Baba is a doctor, there is no Baba, he instead of the usual chemical treatment, treats K psychologically. After all smoking is more a psychological addiction * the dialog Baba says about Antaratma, is about subconscious. the struggling K we see is his subconscious, what Baba does is he is taming the subconscious, the key factor of individuality and liberty from the mind of a narcissist man, who says, no one teaches me what to do. For that fear in injected in to his mind. * there are no actual loss of ears, eyes, family, what ever. Those are fears of losing loved ones, harming them, causing harm to oneself, by smoking, there are no accident, but its what he is going through * there are no Annie, only Anjali. Annie is the guilty feeling that he has in his mind, that if he smokes he will loose her, and also the temptation to smoke. (to cheat or not to cheat one's wife) * he is forced many times to smoke, and smoking he is made to believe causes harm to his loved ones, that explains the murder of Anjali, suicide of his brother (he is made to believe that he is the cause of his brothers lung problem), etc. * the dialog I reached here through bathtub, him though Almari, signifies the subconscious of other people going through the same, similar phase * the other K inside the that dirty room, trying to reach the original K, is none other than his subconscious trying to reach him, and make him smoke, the dirt signifies many things, the smoking dirt, the suffering he is going through * remember the announcement "those who have paid full fees can go for the bath". It means the course is complete, where the subconscious is cleaned up * finally he, the subconscious, is being burnt , and finally K is relieved and treated. * the cut finger is none other than the fact that, he is missing the smoke in his had, the fingers which are cut are the ones which we use to smoke, so when he finally quit smoking, he is missing those, the only way he can get out of it is to get himself company and relief, which is why he has to enroll another person for the program. 9/10.Anurag has has suspended disbelief and played with it,. there are more comments to it, explaining each and every incident, but i believe i just have to give key. please feel free to correct me, if i got any thing wrong. one more thing john Abraham has done a good job, really commendable, for the first time ever. seems all he needed was a good director
Unbelievable, Classy, Abstract
There is no doubt left in my mind, that Anurag Kashyap is the next big thing in Bollywood. He is probably the best Indian director for a long time, after the great Satyajit Ray. After his controversial debut in the industry with Paanch, and Black Friday, he delivers this classy act with No Smoking. Truth be told, I was a bit skeptical about this film. A few of my friends had already had a glimpse of it and warned me against going for it, but I gave it a shot nonetheless. And I'm not complaining. No Smoking is not your traditional movie. Its not targeted to be a box office hit, because simply 9/10 people will find it stupid, boring and curse Mr.Kashyap to be a raving lunatic. But in the truest of sense, there could not have been any better addiction movie than No Smoking. We have had Requiem For a Dream, Trainspotting in Hollywood, but this the first time we have an Indian story to it. True No Smoking is even more abstract than both, but it also follows a complicated theory. One which is iterated by the Guruji(Paresh Rawal) of the Hindu knowledge of the soul, consciousness, and the Vedas. What is the basic theme of the movie is that every addiction has its core in the consciousness, the soul and we have to purify the soul in order to rid us of the addiction. The entire movie we are thrown into possibilities where the antagonist, K (John Abraham) is comprehending what is right or wrong. And that is not restricted to his addiction but all judgments in his life. Whether or not to cheat on someone's wife, or whether or not to trust someone, whether or not in his actions/inactions he is unintentionally causing anyone harm. Which is why we see he is made to believe his wife's death, his brother's suicide is his doing. But this is what his subconscious is telling him. This is what the cure is trying to tell him. The treatment that the Guruji is giving him is completely psychological. We find all the patients/relatives of the people who have been to see the "Prayogshala" is admitted to a ward which is made by the Prayogshala itself. People will misinterpret as an emotional blackmail, but in truth its cleansing the soul. We see that the antagonist feels claustrophobic at the end of the end of his dream. He says that his throat is parched and he needs a smoke, when he breaks a window and rushes to the middle of nowhere to get a smoke. The dream of Siberia, the Russian soldier shooting him(although no blood comes out) is all an indication that this is not real, its the journey of the soul, a pathway to cure of his afflictions. We find many clues to this right from the start to the end, to the point when he is desperately trying to prove to the cops that he didn't murder his wife, we find him going all ends out to prove that he is innocent, but somehow nothing works out, since HE has been living a dream, and he just woke up, so his stories are not matching up. This is something novel that Fincher did in the legendary "Fight Club" We find in the end the real K, looking out as if searching for a long lost friend, but in real he was searching for his soul, which was waiting to be cleansed, and as his soul his bathed in fire, it is cleansed and is returned to him. About the missing fingers, well everyone thought that was another torture device, but did anyone notice the fingers missing ?? They were the index finger and the middle finger, the ones we use to smoke. They are taken from the patient as a precaution. And the journey of the soul is complete only when he convinces another of his kin to undergo the same procedure, then his finger is returned to him. The movie was like I said, superb, and instead of praising any of the actors, well, this is a all in all Kashyap movie throughout. It didn't matter who was the actor, true John Abraham has done a remarkable job, but the genius that Kashyap is, made this movie so good. The direction and screenplay made this the success that it is. The script was just too good, and the sets used, (which I think were real locations actually) were also marvelous. Also the small glimpses of cheap visual effects makes it even more brilliant to show the journey of the soul. The soundtrack is also too good. Apart from the Hindi numbers exclusively for the movie, we are also treated with lots of melodious oldies starting from Frank and Nancy Sinatra to others, and to careful notice one can see that all these songs were about smoking. Paresh Rawal is also excellent in his role as the Guruji, he makes it look so easy. Ayesha Takia is again just a pretty face in this movie, without not much chance to prove herself. Lastly this review would be incomplete without a special credit to the masterful, artful Anurag Kashyap. He made a movie about a social peril, about smoking, and he made it look so easy, that it was just brilliant. He has well proved his merit over all other contemporaries. It is just pathetic that people still want to watch stupid remakes by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, irritating soap/family dramas by Karan Johar, and utter bullshit from the likes of Farah Khan, Sajid Khan when they always have options of watching brilliant stuff from this man. This perhaps is my longest review but you also don't get to see such exquisite movies such as No Smoking everyday. 9/10 !!!
No Smoking - Welcome to New Age Cinema of Beauty and Class
Throw away the colorful clothes, all the expensive jewellery and welcome to realistic cinema. A theme which is hard to make a movie on, attempted by a writer/director of many realistic movies like Black Friday and Satya. What appears on the screen is true magic of a director who thinks a different way. A second of this movie cannot be missed, a minute is as good as not watching the movie. Put on your thinking caps for a movie. See, visualize, enthrall. This movie is a must-watch for those who love change, who love to think about every scene in the movie and analyze. Commercial? -- 0% value. Cinematic Experience? - 200% value. It did take me two full times to watch this movie to understand the whole concept of this movie. It did make me think 10 times before I touched my next cigarette. I applaud you Mr Anurag Kashyap. Screw the critics who slammed you.
The best tribute to Franz Kafka
For all those illiterates (the numbers of these great unwashed I do not doubt, it is hardly surprising that the movie bombed) who give it 1-2 stars and talk about preserving sanity, a question: Ever heard of Franz Kafka? I saw this movie just after I had read The Trial and The Castle back-to-back. It is a brilliant tribute to the genius of Kafka: I wonder that is what Anurag Kashyap intended in the first place. The plot follows the same twists and turns that one would have in a Kafka novel, particularly the descent to meet the Baba. It is not just any shady place, it is a passage from The Trial faithfully replicated: when K first approaches his accusers (note the name: another Kafka hallmark). Sheer genius. Both the original writer, and the film-maker.
wanna THINK deep, just watch it than!
EXCELLENT is the only word that suits on this movie, i just saw this movie in December 2010 because of the great Indian reviewers who had given such a bad comments on this movie, my friend told me again and again to watch this movie but i was always saying no to him (i thought why to watch that movie which is rated 1.5/5 in the times of India)...i was wrong with every aspect, it is a shame that i had watch this great movie so late! i loved every scene of this movie, this movie has really something to say in each and every scene, Anurag Kashyap no doubt is the best director in India who wanted to change the taste of Indian viewers and i know that he will succeed in this...storyline great, cinematography great, a big hand for Jhon and Paresh, they did the great job...a deep, dark and real concept makes confused sometimes but if you start thinking deeper you'll see that this masterpiece really has many things to say...very well done Anurag, very well done the other star cast...lastly i wanted to say that please watch this different masterpiece and you'll be surely comparing it to the Hollywood movies!