The Hindu : Karnataka News : Injurious to the health of box office

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Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Injurious to the health of box office

No Smoking (Hindi)

Cast: John Abraham,

Ayesha Takia

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Anurag Kashyap continues with his fascination for experimental cinema.

This time, he comes up with a film that would not have been possible even five years ago when he made bold to make Paanch which has since been lying in the cans.

A few years ago, No Smoking would have been a 15-minute documentary. Today, thanks to a multiplex boom, Anurag has dared to make a full-fledged movie, even packing in elements of rocking music and dance in what is essentially a cry for ‘no smoking’.

He lifts a boring Sunday afternoon fill-in quasi-documentary theme and culls together a film replete with black humour.

There is a dash of wit and wisdom without homilies slipping in.

He reins himself in as he directs John Abraham as a chain smoker, an urban achiever – he has a fat bank balance and many years of prime youth left in the kitty. There is a beautiful wife and a house that could pass off for an art gallery with its brilliant interplay of light and shadow. But many summers ago a poet said, “Kabhi kisi ko mukammal jahan nahin milta”. So, there is a little problem in our guy’s life too.

He smokes like a chimney and his wife is threatening to call it quits on the relationship if he does not quit the habit that thrills only to kill.

So, does the guy end up with a shrink?

No, there Anurag comes up with a neat deflection as he sends his hero to Baba Bangali, a self-designed doctor-dervish who cures everybody of the bad habit in his own way.

He does not prescribe medicine, just a grotesque way of blackmail.

It is an interesting, even if a far fetched premise.

That Anurag is able to attempt it is no small measure to the times in which we live. He does not succeed all the way.

There is an air of monotony about the film.

And termites are not far off as the film refuses to move. The narration is weak. But he is saved with a clever use of camera angles, lights, shades and some good lines. Of course, Paresh Rawal as the baba helps too, making up for John’s ability to blend with the frames.

No Smoking is the kind of film you would applaud, but few would venture to watch. It should come with a statutory warning – Making such films can be injurious to the box office health.

Z.U.S

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