Ok, time for some apologies first.
First one goes to the director, I am sorry Mr. Kashyap but I will have to bash the movie badly here.
2nd one goes to, the other movie directors or movie related guys who loved this movie. Sorry guys, I am from aam janta and I really can’t stop bashing this.
Okay, I guess, I am done with all disclaimer things and etc.. etc..
Let’s talk about the story, let me try my best here, coz I just don’t know what was it.. I was just watching frames changing one after another.
K (John Abraham) is a chain smoker, who smokes in the bathroom, in the lift, in the bedroom, hotel, in the bed…what not.. his wife Anjali (Ayesha Takia) wants him to leave this bad habit. But our K saab is not ready to, so she leaves him.. naturally K bhai has to agree to join rehabilitation center.. which is called Prayogshala, run by Sri. Sri. Sri. Sri. Baba Bangali or something… (Paresh Rawal). Now our K bhai.. signs some contract and something happens to him.. now what happens.. don’t ask me and don’t bother finding it out too…
I know, that this was just an imagination of the director or something, but I never knew that this imagination will be proved so costly for people… 190 bucks for the ticket, 100 bucks for sandwich & cold drink and another 50 bucks for the cold drink in the interval and what about my fuel man…?
The theatre had like around 20 people and I am sure most of the people (including me) came there thinking of a great movie.. Black Friday in mind.. but after watching this disaster, they will stay 100 feet away from any Anurag Kashyap film. (No, I won’t, I like taking risks.. lol)
The movie might be good for other movie directors or people in the movie fields but it is certainly not for people like you me…
Still, expecting me to rate this movie? Forget it.. I have watched so many bad movies and I keep on telling people to stay away but this movie will be always take the top position in the worst movies I have ever watched. My head was literally spinning and for 2 minutes I was looking around for my car, despite of standing near by my car.. PATHETIC… PATHETIC… DON’T EVER BOTHER OR THINK ABOUT WATCHING THIS MOVIE.
26-Oct-2007 at 11:11 pm
one such movie was Budhha Mar Gaya…
:))
ha ha
27-Oct-2007 at 4:25 am
[...] movies, Socha Na Tha, my expectation level quickly reached on top. Today, despite being hammered by No Smoking, I went for this one. And, I this movie made my [...]
27-Oct-2007 at 7:02 pm
haha.. my news paper says[in bold]… kick anurag kashyap’s back …. lol
28-Oct-2007 at 5:39 am
Wow what a review…
02-Nov-2007 at 1:38 am
Gosh………… I had to take my whole team out - decided on NO SMOKING n the whole team wanted to kick me so bad!!!! I’m sure JOHN himself culd not understand the movie!!
04-Nov-2007 at 10:27 pm
Dude with all due respect to your review, and to the fact that this is a democracy, and all that, i beg to differ..
The plot is really blurry right from the start and gets even blurrier as the end approaches. You don’t know whats happening. But that’s the catch..
This is one of those obscure movies that makes you think. Instead of the director pointing things out to you, it’s you who has to interpret what he’s trying to say. Its just a different kinda film.
You don’t necessarily have to understand it. You just have to watch it, and admire the craftsmanship of the director.
I’d say its a very brave effort by a brilliant filmmaker, but clearly in vain.
So, commercially, it bombed, as i expected, but artistically, forgive me for saying this, it’s a Picasso.
05-Nov-2007 at 11:26 am
How can you “review†a movie you don’t understand. I am sorry Mr. Deep but I will have to bash your bottom badly here. Go watch some real movies before trying to review this one.
05-Nov-2007 at 11:33 am
Sandman - I think the same should be applied to the director as well as to the poeple on his blog too.. becasue they are still trying to make poeple understand the movie.. I had seen couple of blog posts with different meanings of the movie / story.. So the point is, the movie was such a hopeless piece of work that no one could understand it and the ones who tried to understand.. are still trying and waiting to get success with it..
So, it’s better to stop people going to the theatres and save their money…
btw I would love to know what you understood from the movie..
cheers
Deep
06-Nov-2007 at 11:41 am
i agree with Adwait…the movie is a artpiece…that you’re supposed to admire…not stand in a museum and understand…(its like looking at Girl In Chair by Picasso…you see the chair…you see the girl….but you never really understand what is the girl doing)…but the movie isnt that complicated…if you go from the beginning…sure there are some parts in the movie that are completely absurd…but unless you go bizzare people wont talk about it….if you connect the dialogues in the movie…and a few sceans you can actually diffrenciate the dream from the reality…its a different movie…excellent background score…but there is one thing i have to say the whole thing about rehab centers…very misleading (i mean rehab centers dont cut fingers if you dont quit smoking…lol)….all in all…i liked the movie…i like the intrigue…the element of open ends….of putting my brain into it…and actually figuring it out my way…so that i can make it into a story i think it is…not the directer point it out for me.
i’d rate it 3 and half stars…
P.S. this is the first movie i actually liked john’s acting!!!
06-Nov-2007 at 10:58 pm
thanks the_black_dahlia, its nice to find some like minded people around here.
11-Nov-2007 at 8:41 am
This is one of the very few movies in Hindi which is surreal and makes you think,Definitely it’s not always very clearly laid out ,but when Hindi movie industry still is dominated by melodrama and lack of subtlety(which is definitely changing),it’s a bold attempt ,
A movie is not a logical piece ,it’s an expression …
If someone likes “Vanilla Sky” ,Mullholland drive will like this one too…….
14-Nov-2007 at 3:56 am
Hat’s off to Mr. Kashyap for No Smoking.Sir I do beg Sorry for you.Indian audience needs quite a few decades to understand you.Thanks for taking such an bold step.Firstly Im astonished by the fact that common people are criticising this movie.I got stunt when people feel sorry for Mr.Kashyap.Let me tell you this wasn’t a very common and easy movie that everybody would understand.There are few things in this world which is not for a common man.This movie was one of the few such things.
The movie shows how Human free will is curbed by this hypocrite society.Smoking had been metaphorically shown.It shows that freewill cannot be stopped by rules and regulations.
Friends I would humbly request you to take your time and watch the movie.if you dont get to understand it, ask someone who can explain it to you.Plz let us not try to justify our disability to interpret the movie, by criticising it.
We should aquire the courage to say good if its worth saying.Lets come out of our Hypocrisy.
14-Nov-2007 at 2:38 pm
Deep-I had seen couple of blog posts with different meanings of the movie / story.. So the point is, the movie was such a hopeless piece of work that no one could understand it and the ones who tried to understand.. are still trying and waiting to get success with it..
Is it not idiotic to assume that because people do not come to the same destination in terms of meaning that there is something wrong with the movie.
Are you truly that pretentious to say that every single person who watches this movie should see and understand a piece of work (such as a movie) the same as everyone else?
Stick to your own views next time.
14-Nov-2007 at 2:59 pm
Sand - that was some other comment poster with the same name. I am firm on my review, i.e. the movie sucks big time. Following are the replies to your comments:
Well, it would have been idiotic if only few would have failed to understand and those few people claiming the movie to be pathetic.. but here, the case is different, 99% of the people failed to understand and 1% might have understood… so, in short, the movie was such a pathetic piece of work that it failed to make majority of people understand the meaning / purpose of it.
Well, if the movie is made for public then it should be made in a such way that people understand atleast something, rather than not understanding a single thing. Many movies, let people decide few parts or ending of the movie but here director asks everyone to understand the whole movie on their on, which in short means that, we will do the job of gathering all the scenes one after other and now it’s on you to decide the meaning of those scenes.. find out why y scene was after x scene..
Heard of Fevicol?
17-Nov-2007 at 11:58 pm
its a nice movie. not bad at all… never say its a bad movie when u don’t understand it!!!
18-Nov-2007 at 1:04 pm
okay…so i read all the posts …again
and i actually had the courage to watch the whole movie again….if anyone over here in this audience has seen ‘Vanilla Sky’….and understood that movie….they’d understand this one….’No Smoking’ is an out and out copy of ‘Vanilla Sky’…its not an original concept…its not a fragment of the directors imagintion…its a delusional and dreamy concept that Cameron Crowe already experimented on…and it was an instant critic hit in hollywood…i don’t expect it to do any better than that in bollywood….except that this movie isn’t a hit
But just because the original concept comes from a mind that created Fast Times at Ridgemont High , Minority Report, Jerry Maguire and such….i think ill let this one pass…no smoking is a failed attempt to copy one of hollywoods most complex drama’s.
23-Nov-2007 at 1:49 am
It really sucks! The subject may be bold but direction is really at all not understandable by most of the people. There is no clue where the story goes.The director has tried to make movie like hollywood but its really worst. Only some typical kind of people can understand it.It’s only for some special crowd of san fransisco
Never go for this movie, it sucks
02-Dec-2007 at 8:36 pm
I liked the movie…… Good Work done by Anurag Kashyap…. The only thing lacking in movie was that the frames prepared were to be adjusted accordingly. He just randomized the screenplay to make it complex. But in the end it was good. But i hate watching Bipasha Basu in the end…. it should have been someone else….. Ranvir Shorey was at his best… John Abraham was centralized but okay not too good… Kunal (RDB fame) should have been good for this one…
HATS OFF TO TEAM OF NO SMOKING
03-Dec-2007 at 7:09 am
the movie was a good experiment in bollywood and i appreciate it. the only reason i think why indian audience werent able to anticipate the movie is that they are still bound to the saas bahu, n al other emotional crap and are not willing to switch over frm karan johar/chopra’s banner to such movies…
12-Dec-2007 at 5:09 pm
thank you vick, sunny for making a logical assessment there. And by the way ppl let me make it crystal clear that no smoking has not been lifted from any hollywood movie, or for that matter any movie at all..it is loosely based on a stephen king short story called ‘quitters inc’ which can be found in his ‘night shift’ anthology. The direction and screenplay is totally original. And anurag kashyap totally deserves credit for it.
21-Mar-2008 at 12:01 pm
Mr.Reviewer, I appreciate your comments, but there is always a not so aam janta, Anurag is a talented director, and has targeted the psyche of Smokers and I should say he has hit bang on target, i you spend some time associating K’s characted with any chain smoker or smoker, trying really to quit somking, the movie will make sense, we need to appreciate a fact here that a attempt has been made by the director to focus on a serious issue like smoke addiction, can you name a few movies made on this topic by our so called ace directors, result will be nill(so please do justice to the messages of this movie).We have maatured as hindi movie audience and have to support talented directors like anurag….
21-Mar-2008 at 3:18 pm
It’s not about supporting or not supporting anyone. its about making a movie which makes atleast some sense.. which in this case it was not making.
22-Jun-2008 at 2:17 pm
Wow…this movie was horrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiddddddddddd………
Really stupid movie…….
I too felt my senses go numb at the end of it….
Don’t even DREAM of comparing this piece of shyt with hollywood movies…..
Don’t compare fireflies with the sun….
But I gotta admit I kept on watching the thing just to laugh at it’s utterly stupidd scenes and derive sick pleasure outta abusing the director,storywriter,and the nutty actors who signed up for it…
I wanna smoke n get some coke till the focus gets dope yo!
26-Sep-2008 at 5:02 pm
I must say that some people can be so judgemental. This is a great movie…a little confused due to the concept spilling on the sides (looks like it was originally a long movie but the editor did a bad job). But it was a great attempt and successful to a large extent. From me it gets 3 stars for story, concept and art direction. And 2 1/2 starts for editing and screenplay.