K has given up smoking !
iView Author: zeitgeist (Mumbai, India)
Email : withheld
K has given up smoking
K has given up smoking. It’s been almost a year since he last twirled tightly packed, rolled-up nicotine around his nimble fingers. Instead, he just fiddles with the gold ring around his index finger—a vestige of matrimony.
He doesn’t miss blowing wispy rings into the heavy air anymore, nor does he pine for a fix after meals. He wears broken-in t-shirts and worn-out jeans, having eschewed his dapper dressing. He has trouble shitting. A good half hour is spent every morning: he’s tried newspapers, caffeine, has been on a fiber-and-fluids binge.
He has tried to be more accommodating of the new him, and has grown used to his ways like a young bride apprenticing herself of her husband’s habits. Sometimes the new him takes over, persuading the old, impaired version to turn a corner, cajoling the best behavior out of him, or threatening him with obscurity were he to continue with his pig-headedness. The new disregards the old, and wants it to give in. The old plagues the new like vermin.
K has a wife and a secretary. They are the same. At work, she’s the other woman. At home, she’s the one he is married to and has given up smoking for. When he’s his womanizing self, he’s with his secretary who directs all the right feelers at him. At other times, he basks in the warmth of the hearth, reveling in the bestowals of a supposedly unquestioning benefactor. Isn’t it every man’s dream: to have a mistress and a wife, enjoy both, and watch them coexist in perfect harmony, like the colors in a rainbow? Who then is the whore—the secretary who is faithful to her boss or the boss who sleeps with his secretary and flaunts a beautiful and loyal wife? And what transpires when the secretary and the wife are one? What happens when heaven and hell conspire and decide to serve each other? Where exists the duality then?
Sex and love—the most beautiful of hues; so much so that when proffered in abundance, every intervening shade imbues and radiates some of the permeating beauty. And what more is needed if both are mere reflections of the same entity? Shouldn’t he, the owner of absolute loyalty and the recipient of unequalled joy, be granted all his wishes?
Where K lives his perfect life is a bare room without windows. There’s music within the four walls, but the stations change without warning. Neither do they take requests. Scripts are slid under the door carelessly, and K passes his hours practicing the lines therein. He has as much inkling of the bigger plot as he has of the world beyond the shut windows. Sometimes, he exchanges scripts with the one in the adjoining cell, hoping to find a better part to play. The only piece of furniture is an ashtray. A year ago it was stubby butts that smoldered, searing blacks on to it; now, as he looks into that empty receptacle, he sees his fingers bleed, the crimson filling it, and then flowing out to feed a cold pool.
The recurring nightmare—a pack of cigarettes beside a bathtub surrounded by snow, a curfew, and Russian soldiers with guns aimed at him as he lunges at the pack—has stopped its visitations. The new visitant is a shuddering sense of reality that appears only in dreams, holding him in a vice even after he snaps out of it. In these regular episodes, he has just been sentenced to good behavior for the rest of his life. The courtroom is packed with rehearsed expressions on faces, one scorched reaction after another.
But, why such a harsh judgment?
Harsh? Isn’t that what every man aspires toward? A life of goodness and freedom from sin. Why do you complain?
Because I have no say in this matter.
What use is choice when the best possible decision has already been made for you? Don’t you realize that you’ve been relieved of the weight of guilt and the burden of responsibility for your actions?
A life of goodness is no good when all I’ve become is a virus. And all you want from me is to spread among people and seep into their souls and expel everything that’s within. I am not prepared to sacrifice my soul for this.
But haven’t you already? Why else would you be in this courtroom?
P.S.: Through this post, I wish to thank Anurag Kashyap for making a movie worth thinking over and for doing it for his own reasons.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
thank you zeitgeist.. your post makes it worthwhile..:):):)
Glad to know there are others who can interpret this movie (requires little brain usage)
Because Sawariya was weak…OSO became the biggest commericial hit of 21st century
Movies like Johnny Gaddar …a breakthrough in Indian cinema went unnoticed.
Jab We Met was a true entertainer unlike OSO.
To Anurag sir : Thats how irrelevant No Smoking felt to the Indian crowd as my above statements were to the original post
One of the best article in recent times. Bravo. Introspective and a true entertainer.
sheer poetry………..
Zeitgeist,
I still think that the judge passing the judgement should have a smug glow on his face and a cigarette in his hand.
“What happens when heaven and hell conspire and decide to serve each other?
>-
Very Poignant.
To be honest didnt understand all the underlying colors of the movie. BUt def better than the run of the mill shitty stuff by the yash’s, khans and bhansali’s!!
Oh..you’ve gone and spelt out the aftermath. The undoing of morality! The price of being good and dutiful!!
NS is turning out to be a mine filled with metals of different hues. Every digger finds his own favorite metal!
Anurag..read in a blog of Baradwaj Rangan that A R Rahman does not create soundtracks, he creates soundscapes!!
Is this a Lifescape (if I may create a word) from you??
So many meanings for the ones who care to delve in!
Was reading “The Trial” yesterday..no, you weren’t inspired by it!!
Is No Smoking out on DVD? …this movie i can watch over n over again & come out with ideas..
This movie somehow inspires me….of course in a way
no one will understand
yes, dvd is out. but eros goofed it up big time with subtitles they are not in-sync
yes it is out pl buy it
@Anurag…. why didnt you add director’s commentary, deleted scenes, alternative ending, etc… or you are saving it for criterion edition. I assure you it will go on to make history… :d/
I am disappointed with the special features in the current dvd, it has making of songs only with kumar mangat blabbering (no offense) about no smoking being a social messg film against smoking.
Any idea from where can I buy the DVD in the US? saw it on nehaflix.com but dunno whether it is the original one!!!! my indian grocer has one but it does not have any special features!!!!!
nehaflix sells the original one. got mine a few days ago from them
I FINALLY GOT TO SEE IT…
i bought the dvd ONLINE FROM EROS.. spent $13 AND ALREADY SAW IT TWICE…
I WANTED TO LIKE IT.. SO MANY PEOPLE ON PFC LOVED IT..I SHARE THE SAME PASSION.. IF NOT MAKING AT LEAST VIEWING. MAYBE I HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO.. EVEN IN THAT..
ANURAG SHOULD HAVE INCLUDED THE DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY.. I GOT LOST TWICE AT THE SAME SPOT..EVERYTHING IS GREAT UNTIL THE SCENE WHEN JOHN ABRAHAM SINKS/DUNKS IN A WATER IN THE JAIL CELL AND COMES OUT OF BATH TUB IN HIS HOUSE…
:- I PICKED UP AGAIN. BUT GOT DISCONNECTED..
MY CONFESSION.. I LIKED THE STYLE.. AND DIRECTION… AND SONGS… KASH LAGA WAS AWESOME.. BUT GOT CONFUSED WITH THE STORY.. TOWARDS THE END..
axw11
YOU CAN BUY IT HERE
http://dvdstore.erosentertainment.com/product/bollywood-movie.asp?Buy_No_Smoking_DVD
Thanx dude!!!!!
Hey zeitgeist…Awesome post man ..keep up the good work ..its really inspiring..I saw no smoking twice and it goes deep into my nerves ..the more i watch i get obsessed with it ….I liked the role of guruji…its reminds me of Jigsaw from the movie Saw..THE GAME HAS JUST BEGAN…Special thanks for Anurag for making this movie….Such movies are made once ..no matter people didnt understand ..but its for the guys like us…:d Kash laga song is awesome ,cool and takes you into trance…man no smoking rocks :d
yes K has indeed given up smoking…….. I wudnt have believed this earlier but now i know it for sure coz Anurag Kashyap has appologised to Karan Johar….. Survival is the key as No Smoking tried to tell us….
Hey Zeitgeist. Interesting read & very well-written.
I didn’t the get the quitting-smoking-for-almost-a-year-thingy though..
i could very well be wrong, but this sounds like our friend ‘tutu basu’.. now, now, now, aren’t we getting a Reveal???
- Well, here’s news for you… Dr. Guido Bonsaver at Sight&Sound has voted “No Smoking” as the best film that was screened at the Rome Film Festival… can’t find the link as yet. The article isn’t online I guess though it’s available in the print issue of Jan’08
congrats anurag and oz thanks for the news…..:)>-:)>-
I don’t know if I’m supposed to be replying to comments. But anyway, I will.
Thanks Anurag. Thank you all who found this article worth a read.
@ Thani: The K in my story is K one year after he has quit smoking.
a sheer waste of time
yawn
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next…
above reaction..was more wid ref to the film than the article
A very well written article. Haven’t seen the movie, so won’t comment on that but your article sure does triggers the thought process