Soo, yesterday I went to watch No Smoking, a seemingly intelligent movie from Anurag "Black Friday" Kashyap. Featuring John Abraham and Ayesha Takia, this movie was supposed to be Anurag's take on his ultra-black mind. Well, to be charitable, it is a brilliant take on Anurag's mind, but a poor excuse for well-meant intelligent cinema. Infact, the only movie I can begin comparing it to is Robert De Niro's Angel Heart, a equally vapid, vacuous, self-sassy supernatural (did I just say that !! - Yess !) flick, but with a lot more intelligence and consternation for the audience.
No Smoking starts off quite well with a superbly-paced and taut first half with glitzy cuts of Siberia and labyrinths of Mumbai (amazing photography, la !) and at the 1-hr interval, you are really hooked - this is good cinema. But, then comes the punch when Anurag lets his dark psyche take over and the movie spirals downward into a mish-mash of neo-realism and genre horror, with delinked scenes and multiple unexplained sequences which makes you feel really wishy-washy. Kashyap could surely join that cult of 1st-half brilliantoes (remember Cheeni Kam) who simply lose the plot in the end (a la' India's cricket most of the time :-)).
So, please stay away from it and let Mr. Kashyap know how badly he has tarnished Vishal Omkara Bharadwaj's name (Music director and producer, he might have directed it as well, you wish !!!) - and what was that Abraham statement about Bipasha's Phoonk De being an integral part of the movie - crap and loads of crap - its just a titillating number when the credits roll in the end-as if to make it up for the crap it has served to the front-benchers.
This one ain't smoking - ain't at all (did you see, I could not even talk about the story - this movie aggrieved me so much !) - Pathetic is the word.
Ta !
Ranjan
No Smoking starts off quite well with a superbly-paced and taut first half with glitzy cuts of Siberia and labyrinths of Mumbai (amazing photography, la !) and at the 1-hr interval, you are really hooked - this is good cinema. But, then comes the punch when Anurag lets his dark psyche take over and the movie spirals downward into a mish-mash of neo-realism and genre horror, with delinked scenes and multiple unexplained sequences which makes you feel really wishy-washy. Kashyap could surely join that cult of 1st-half brilliantoes (remember Cheeni Kam) who simply lose the plot in the end (a la' India's cricket most of the time :-)).
So, please stay away from it and let Mr. Kashyap know how badly he has tarnished Vishal Omkara Bharadwaj's name (Music director and producer, he might have directed it as well, you wish !!!) - and what was that Abraham statement about Bipasha's Phoonk De being an integral part of the movie - crap and loads of crap - its just a titillating number when the credits roll in the end-as if to make it up for the crap it has served to the front-benchers.
This one ain't smoking - ain't at all (did you see, I could not even talk about the story - this movie aggrieved me so much !) - Pathetic is the word.
Ta !
Ranjan
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