Anurag Kashyap has been well acclaimed for his ahead of time films and ambitious projects. Though most of his films performed disastrous in the box office, still the works gained quite a following later. One such film is No Smoking (2007) which was one of the biggest fails of the year, but later became a cult classic.
The film received a lukewarm response from the critics and was completely rejected by the audience. Anurag said the film was way ahead of its time and the people failed to see that vision. Truly enough, the film later was called a masterpiece by many. It was also screened in several international Film festivals and received a lot of praises.
The film is a psychological drama which is based on Stephen King’s story Quitters Inc. It revolves around the life of K (John Abraham) who can’t control his smoking addiction. He comes around an extremist organisation that guarantees in controlling John’s addiction. Their leader is Bengali Baba (Paresh Rawal). K enrols for their service later finding himself in a labyrinth of puzzles and twists. He later finds himself delusional between reality, dream, surrealism and hallucinations.
People have also connected the film as an allegory in which he satirises the CBFC. The addiction control organisation represents the CBFC that restricted Anurag’s expression in his films (represented by John and his desire to smoke). This angle makes the film even more interesting to watch.
The film hails a powerful star cast of John Abraham, Ayesha Takia, Ranvir Shorey and Paresh Rawal in the leading roles. The film becomes a thrilling ride fir the viewers as they drive deep into its plot.
The film is available to watch on Zee5 and as it is an A rated film, it cannot be enjoyed with family; but if you are trying to watch a movie by yourself on Sunday, this can be an option.