Vishal Bharadwaj as producer and the man who gave this year’s most beautiful film : Black Friday, Anurag Kashyap as the director. With such incredible people behind the film, expectations are sky high from No Smoking. Does it live up to the expectations? Read on to know.
No Smoking is the story of John Abraham whose parents weirdly have named him as K and he has an asthmatic brother named J. Weird is it? No this alphabetical naming of children seems normal when compared to the story. John is a chain smoker and this creates problems between him and his wife, Ayesha Takia. Determined to save his marriage John, on the persistence of his friend (Ranvir Shourie) decides to go to a rehabilitation center, Prayog Shala that is run by Paresh Rawal (who used to be Hitler’s friend, no pun here). Now this is no normal rehabilitation center. They do not give you medicines or any form of treatment to help you quit the stub. They simply tell you that if you do not quit smoking, they will chop your fingers, kill your family and destroy your life. And they charge a Rs. 21,11,111 fee for their services. Now that’s clearly a one of its kind rehabilitation center. How John Abraham tries his best to save himself from the people running Prayog Shala makes for the rest of the film.
Now the funda is simple, to enjoy a movie you need to first understand it. But the problem with No Smoking, is...
that however much you try to extend your creative and imaginative boundaries, No Smoking leaves you confused. Getting into Harvard could be easier than understanding the plot of No Smoking.
No Smoking does start of impressively, and manages to create an eerie atmosphere. Many questions pop up in your mind regarding the strange things happening in the film. But you give your self consolation that all the questions would get answered post interval. But forget answering those questions, the movie keeps posing more questions as the film proceeds and you begin to understand that the film maker has no intention of answering any of your questions. And frankly after a while you do not even care about getting those answers. You just wish for the movie to finally end and get relieved from this mess of a film.
John Abraham makes you jealous by flaunting his six pack every now and then . Acting wise though John is just about ok, with his limited set of expressions. Ayesha Takia has no scope . Ranvir Shourie gives a good performance. But Paresh Rawal is a huge disappointment and constantly hams.
Though technically the film is strong. And some scenes in the film are beautifully shot, like the one in Siberia and the flashback portions. But the screenplay is too complicated. Anurag Kashyap has created a rather convoluted, byzantine plot and failed to make the viewer understand it. Overall a huge disappointment. Smoking kills. And so does No Smoking. Atleast it killed my admiration for...
