No Smoking (2007)

I knew it was just a matter of time before I got around to Indian cinema.  The reason it has taken so long is I know their movies, even when they are dramas, action, science fiction or horror, often have musical numbers.  That is a bigger barrier for me to get over than the cultural differences, especially since it must be obvious at this point that subtitles don't bother me like it does some Americans.  I'd rather read what they are saying than have an Indian guy dubbed with a Brooklyn accent. 

The reason I finally took a dive is because No Smoking is based on a Stephen King short story called "Quitters, Inc.".  This isn't the first time it has been adapted for a feature film, as it is the first segment of the 1985 anthology film Cat's Eye.  It is a story about a guy who decides to quit smoking and signs up with a company that is guaranteed to cure anyone of the habit.  It just so happens their methods include constant surveillance, torture of loved ones and occasional mutilation. 

Since it is such an American story, rooted in early 1980s attempts to steer people away from the habit for personal and public health reasons, I was curious about how it would be handled in a setting that is mid-2000s Mumbai instead of New York.  I was also wondering how the typical Bollywood trappings would enter this, somewhat wincing at the long runtime of the film, but thankful it's not a three-to-four-hour epic like some of their films.  I was pleasantly surprised that the director Anurag Kashyap is himself not exactly enamored with his country's mainstream film industry.  

K (John Abraham) is an arrogant businessman with a bad smoking habit.  It's bad enough that his wife Anjali (Ayesha Takia) is willing to divorce him over it, with his constant indulgence in nicotine causing her more distress than the rest of his terrible personality.  When she finds out his best friend Abbas (Ranvir Shorey) successfully quit she forces K's hand and, at Abbas's urging, he goes to the Laboratory, a strange rehab facility using a rug store as a front.

It turns out the Laboratory is a cult based on the teachings of a man named Baba Bengali and presided over by Shri Shri Prakash Guru Ghantal Baba Bengali Sealdah Wale (Paresh Rawal).  The Guru claims to be an illegitimate son of Adolf Hitler, using the Nazis' surveillance methods as well as the Baba's divine teachings to cure people of their addictions.  K soon finds out that the punishments for slipping up are severe and there is literally nowhere in the world that he will be safe to have a smoke.  However, when an error made by one of the Guru's henchmen results in unneeded tragedy, K begins to see the benefit of enjoying what life he has left.

James Woods played the lead character in the Cat's Eye segment, so it's fitting that K is at about the same level of unlikability.  However, it seems that with John Abrahams it was less typecasting than with Woods.  It is hard to imagine at the time that it was made but in India the fact that the movie had anti-smoking themes made it controversial enough that Kashyap had a hard time finding the lead, with Abrahams accepting it after a number of other top Hindi stars turned it down.  It's good that he did because he elevates what is a one-note character by necessity, coming from a short story that counts on him not being sympathetic and willing to put other people's lives in danger just so he can have a cigarette. 

What Kashyap does well is create a surrealistic tone that never goes out of its way to explain the how or why of the events that occur, just that they are happening.  There are segments that blur between dream and reality as well as some truly disturbing images at the end that pay homage to the gas chambers of World War II.  Happily, the music is kept to a minimum, with just one nightclub scene that goes on a bit too long and a sort-of music video for one of the big songs in the movie as the end credits role.  Supposedly that was put in under pressure to satisfy the film's producer.  Otherwise, I admire the off-kilter tone of most of the movie, with it being a lot more experimental than I would have expected from an industry more known for spectacle than art. 

What did become intrusive after a while was that everything, including a majority of the soundtrack, is about smoking or cigarettes.  Many of the characters seem like their entire lives revolve around tobacco products to the point of forcing others to indulge even when they don't want to.  Kashyap meant for many aspects of the movie to represent freedom and choice, but it just seems that going as far as to make certain props look like cigarettes themselves gets to be so heavy handed that it just becomes annoying.  Also, key players in the story come and go at random, the worst being K's wife Anjali.  By the time the inevitable comes about she has been absent from the film for a significant portion of time, with K's secretary Annie (also played by Ayesha Takia) and her efforts to force herself on her boss more of the focus.  

No Smoking is an interesting film to be an introduction to Indian cinema because, and I could be wrong, I feel that it doesn't represent what Bollywood is known for throughout the world.  Rather, the movie feels more like a restrained and more linear David Lynch effort or some of Peter Weir's early material.  Although "Quitters, Inc." is still recognizable in the plot this is quite a bit far removed from King's original story, as that dealt more with the visceral than the spiritual.  As bludgeoning as the underlying themes may feel this is still an interesting piece of cinema. 

No Smoking (2007)

Time: 128 minutes

Starring: John Abraham, Ayesha Takia, Ranvir Shorey, Paresh Rawal

Director: Anurag Kashyap