No Smoking

Oh My God!

This is all what I can manage when I now get what 'No Smoking' was really about. The movie is as close to about 'quitting smoking' as Laloo Prasad Yadav is a fashion photographer( Okay. Bad simile this, I concede. I just wanted to get my point across). All I want to/should say is this, Anurag Kashyap is a fucking genius. Period. I should have known it before watching 'No Smoking' and hence, should have watched it with a bit of respect. I almost slept through the movie and now, I regret it. And how.

This is one movie which makes you think. We Indians, have the habit of being spoon fed right from the academics to even movies, as I realized lately. There is almost a fixed pattern in our movies, there are very few directors who push the envelope and even if they do. they are panned by the 'Critics' and the mass alike. Although, there has been a surge a of directors who have gone beyond the stereotyped Circular motion around the trees and have given us some quality movies. Anurag Kashyap is one of the clan. Deriving inspiration from the David Lynch, Stanley Kubrik, Martin Scoresese School of film making, he gives us a philosophical treat. Yes, this movie has tones philosophy, the cigarette shown in the movie is a metaphor to John's soul. It is about one man against the whole society. Whether he will confirm or will he stand his ground? And then the 'Baba ki prayogshala' is about this structured moralist world which is so far removed from reality that makes one living in it possible (Although, I don't agree much with this version of the director) and hence, the constant references to the obscure Cigarette Shashtra and even the weird fees, which is some 21 Lakh 1 1 Thousand and one. Yes, this is very much your one man against the whole society whine. Very Fountainhead like. Although the idea itself is much talked and written about. What stands out for No Smoking is the execution. The manner in which the Director has drawn parallels from the real world leaves you awe struck.

The movies does take inspiration from the Franz Kafka's The Trial(the protagonist Joseph K. is taken to Jail without any fault of his) and David Lynch’s Quitters Inc. But, that takes nothing away from the Director who gives us a movie which delights you, teases you, makes you think.

I've not seen the movie second time around so I can't elaborate that much on the movie plot but what happens is this, K, the protagonist of the story is a Chain Smoker, smoking almost 5-6 packets of Cigarettes without any worry, admiring himself in the mirror and says, 'No one tells me what to do.' Cigarette to him is an integral part of his living, his identity card, his soul in this directionless 'idol seeking' world. Yes, Cigarette being used as a metaphor for soul to many would sound rather weird. But, why not? It is up to the Individual to decide where his soul lies. We didn't decide for Howard Roark that his soul lies in Architecture. It was he himself. Similarly, we can't decide for anyone else. No matter how bad or how good, a soul is a soul. Sorry for digressing, so, K doesn't want to part away with Cigarette at any cost and then starts the constant nagging of his wife, the 'advice' of his peers. Symbolically, it can be interpreted as: Here is one man who is doing something and he loves it. It may be unconventional for the conventional society and thus, they try molding him, try converting him, try breaking him.

will post more later..tired.. :)