No Smoking: The Hanzo sword which cut through ‘God’
DISCLAIMER: The opinion in this article is entirely mine and bears no viewpoints of any other author of PFC. If this piece of writing hurts anybody, I sincerely apologise for the same.
The best way, according to me, to understand a film director is to watch his films together. You understand his creativity across the reels. You understand his sensibility beyond one story. You understand his understanding of the medium in general.
I remember how I watched all the Almodovar films back to back, over a week. I watched all the Coen Brothers movies one after the other. Even for Guru Dutt I saw everything from Baazi to Kaagaz Ke Phool without a David Dhawan or a Wachowski Brothers break. And it is such a joy when you can feel the same warmth in the frames, the same glow in the faces, the same layers in the folds. It is NOT about the signature touch.
It is the unique commonality every movie of a great director has. Mouna Ragam and Yuva may be completely different in their setting and scope but you can feel it’s a Mani Ratnam film without seeing the credits. It’s in the relationships Mani Sir paints, it’s in the worlds Tarantino creates, it’s in the humanity Satyajit Ray adds to his every film. They are all different, yet they are all one. You can see a Bad Education in Volver, an American Beauty in Road to Perdition.
This is why there is a serious question mark on directors who haven’t lasted the distance. Why couldn’t we see Parinda’s soul in Eklavya? Why Sin City is not written over every Robert Rodriguez movie? Why Salaam-e-Ishq has no flashes of Kal Ho Naa Ho? Good, bad, ugly, you can feel a Karan Johar film. It’s not the stamp, it’s the seasoning.
And that is my only problem with Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking. I could not find the man who made Black Friday. I looked and I looked and I looked. Everyone around me laughed, some cursed, a few walked out, but I looked. Just looked. And by the time the end credits rolled (I believe he disowns the Phoonk de promo jig, that’s why it came after the names), while I couldn’t find the man who made Black Friday, I did find the man who writes on PFC.
(The only flicker was the way he carried his narrative forward. Just like in Black Friday, there was never an effort to end the film. Anurag let No Smoking go where it’s headed.)
Call it my fortune or misfortune, I haven’t seen Paanch. I saw Black Friday when it released in the theatres and bought the DVD when it came out. I return to the movie every now and then as a de-stress mechanism after a hard day’s work. I do the same with Kill Bill and Big Lebowski. I am an unabashed fan of the maker of Black Friday, Anurag Kashyap.
But sorry, he’s not the same man who made No Smoking. A man’s creative outlet is the biggest epitome of his state of mind and being. And the man who made No Smoking is one who’s gone so full of himself, he just can’t see what he is doing. And I know this sounds so aweful and my fingers shake as I write this but I feel PFC is responsible for this. This whole worshipping, this whole demi-god thing, I don’t think it did any good to Anurag. I have to say HE HAS MADE NO SMOKING FOR PFC.
It’s like another post of his. “Look at how I mixed Gulzar and Hitler and Castro and Plato and Socrates and Sinatra and Sealdah… Did you notice the number on John’s shirt in the cell? Did you see what was shown being played in the car stereo? Did you see how the Writer’s Bloc billboard was flashed?” It’s so ME, MYSELF and I, it’s a big insult to anybody who queues up to watch it. It’s like I don’t acknowledge your presence.
I shouldn’t have written this and specially on a public forum like this but I just had to say this out loud. Anurag is a great, great talent. The maker of Black Friday is God. But the halo that we all have created around him is that Hattori Honzo sword which can cut through God.
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
Heartfelt Pratim. I know it hurts… It hurt me too when I saw the film. And i also agree with you about PFC being responsible for Anurag’s state of creative being as shown in No Smoking. Angst is one thing, arrogance is another. And once you realize your arrogance and force others to take it then it’s demeaning!
i somewhat agree with this write up. anurag kashyap is a graet mind. he just needs to channelise his energies in a more cohesive unit…i m sure he will bounce back…its just a matter of time
Honhaar, I wouldn’t have written such a long epilogue if I wanted to look for Black Friday in No Smoking. Read what I am saying… I was looking for the Anurag Kashyap who made Black Friday in the Anurag Kashyap who made No Smoking… It’s obviously not the same… The 30-page treatment was conceived before PFC came up but the film was made after PFC and the execution is where it matters… If you say readers only worship him, there’s just nothing left to say… Keep defending, hope it does Anurag more good…
I am not defending anybody, if I was defending anything then I would be defending PFC. I am just trying to understand what you are trying to say.
And what is that? Same as Black Friday, no? You’re like any other Indian Cricket fan who expects Sachin to score a century every-time he walks onto the field.
You do not talk about the film in your article, you’re talking about the man (and some other comparisions), and why is that? Is it because you worshipped Anurag and now feel a bit disappointed for some reasons? If you did not like the film, fair enough.. but atleast cite reasonable reasons, rather than saying oh I did not find Anurag of this or that. Isn’t Anurag supposed to be more than that if he wants to become a better filmmaker?
How can you say PFC was the cause of the film being bad or messing up Anurag without giving any justifying reasons? I do not seen any correlation between the final treatment of No Smoking or PFC.
Because Honhaar you didn’t understand my article and I didn’t want to write yet another review… Trying to revisit that film is like stirring up yet another whirlpool of betrayed emotions… And I won’t use up more space to explain what I have written very clearly… At least there are others who did understand… Why don’t you just ignore this post? Thanks…
I do not want to ignore this post because I do want to understand your point of view – your angst towards Anurag Kashyap and PFC? That is why I asked you about it in my previous post, and I have not found the answers. I only ask once, so ain’t going to ask again. And it’s fair enough, if you do not want to explain.
The thing is your article if full of contradictions. You are accusing PFC, people, etc for worshipping Anurag, but you’re doing exactly what you have accused… by dedicating a post to Anurag. I would have preferred more reasons in your articles, but it’s all comparisons… and cliche.. sorry
I thought a film is always bigger than the director/actor. And for god sake, it’s only his
secondthird film.anyway,….
Yeah, I am agree.. I was terrified to see this film with only 5 people around me.. You have made great point.. These guys like Krisnan, OZ made him demi-god.. He is great. One of the best we have right now. I am his great fan. His movies with RGV – Kaun, Shool, Satya are my favorites.. Satya is my alltime favorite indian movie.. Black Friday to me is best of this decade but when he comes out and says No Smoking is better than Black Friday then something is wrong with him. I must say I visit PFC only for his blogs and his worship articles but if end result is not right then what to do with demi-god thing..
Nik
Pratim Bhaiyya, I thought you were intelligent. Ab yeh padke pata chal gaya ki tera bhi screw dheela hain…Yaar…yeh site toh abhi abhi khula hain…picture start karne ke pehle log script tayyar karte hain aur script kaafi pehle ready ho chuki hain No Smoking ka. Bina script ka paisa dene ke liye Ajay Devgan ya Vishal Bharadwaj chutiye nahi hain…
Ab tu kya bol raha hain ki har blog ke baad Anurag ek ek scene shoot kar raha tha? Ek ne Anurag ko praise kar diya aur woh tension mein aake No Smoking ko shoot kiya? Abbe bakwas band kar.
Gupta bhaiyya, main bhi picturey likhta hu…website ka alag jagah hoti hain aur apne kaam ka alag jagah. Woh koi chutiya hee hoga jo hazaar logo ke liye pandrah karod(I guess) ka picture banayee. And I am sure Anurag is not that. He had an idea, he was excited by it and people who wanted to fund it and act in it also saw some merit in it and the project rolled. But sometimes some things work, some don’t. Every film maker has some films that don’t work. But just because he writes a blog and to say that the blog was the cause of his intellectual ruin is chutiyapan and does not deserve any kilobytes on this site. If you wanted attention, we would definitely give it but not with this crap…and at a time when there is already too much crap.
Ramgopal Varma kaunsa blog likhkhe Ramgopal Ki Aag Banaya? Subhash Ghai kaunsa blog padke Kisna banaya hain?
I am not saying NS is as bad as the above mentioned movies. The very very fact that this movie has been getting mixed reactions and that too extreme reactions, both from the media and the public means there is much more to it than that meets the naked eye.
You read the fucking comments on this site. You will not find a single frigging comment that said its “OKAY”. You will either find its “Bullshit” or “Excellent”.
Same with the reviews. You will find reviews that say Chutiya movie or you find reviews that say a great movie. Nothing in between.
The main reason the majority finds it bullshit is they don’t understand it. This movie was anyway not intended for them I guess. Those chutiyas have been conditioned for 100 years to like song and dance routine, scenes filled with glycerine, gut wrenching comedy. Ab koi alag kiya toh kaisi chalegi? Tum logo ko Bhool Bhulaiyaa super movie lagti hain…Kyon? Akshay chutiya jaise act karta hain aur hasatha hain…director audience ko chutiya banata hain magar hasatha hain…toh super movie!! wah! Priyadarshan movie yaar! Paisa vasool…chal dekhne chalte hain…
What else do you expect from our country where every fucker if not rich is struggling in a cesspool of mediocrity both personally and professionally? His brain is already overloaded with bad boss/bad wife shit….Why will he even like any movie that gives it extra work?
Do sau rupaiya diya hain toh humare chutiya brain ko relax karne ke liyee…Aur tension mein daalna hain toh boss ya biwi ke paas hee chale jaate hain…paisa kyon dena hain? THIS is the mentality of our chuts. Look at the faces of people coming out of the theatre (Watch it in TV while they interview picture acchi hain ya nahi)…Half the faces are chutiya bhaisaabs….in logo ko aisi picturey kaise samajh mein aata hain? Sirf Hamara desh mein ladkiyon ko ghoor ghoor ke dekhte hain chutiye log….Aise chutiye logo ko Mallika Sherawat ya Preity Zinta ke picturey hee acchi lagti hain…
Ab Anurag sirf do cheez kar saktha hain…apna creative instincts control mein rakh ke aise chutiye logo ke liye bhi picturey banayega aur industry mein tikhega ya sirf picturey likhega aur paisa kamayega..Aur humko aur 50 saal intezaar karna padega humanga chutiya desh vasiyon ka dimaag thoda mature hone mein…tab koi aur director risk le saktha hain…
Black Friday was a masterpiece. No Smoking is all about symbolism. Abstract thoughts are appealing but even then there has to be a logical flow in the narrative which was missing in No Smoking. People say they don’t understand poetry but there are many who understand good poetry, poetry that has stood the test of time. Poetry of ghalib, shakespeare, iqbal etc is liked because it makes a difference to many lives. i reiterate anurag kashyap is a great find. rather than finding faults with others or fighting other people’s battles (read his fellow filmmakers or the group he belongs to, none of whom are talking), its time he stood for himself. when he delivers one good film after another the change will happen automatically. there’s a lot of difference between making a film for one’s own self and a film for people at large (even shakespeare wrote plays for people as it was his source of livelihood but weren’t his plays artistic enough! he wrote the sonnets for himself, and still they make a difference in other people’s lives).
Anurag, there are a lot of hopes from you in terms of delivering something radically different and yet having a wide appeal (other than pfc…the kind of language people use here at times is sickening). i end by dedicating an urdu couplet to you…
BHEED KA HISSA BAN JAATA YUN TANHA NAHI HOTA
SACHMUCH AISA HO JAATA, ACHCHA NAHIN HOTA…
@ Pratim,
you are contradicting yourself bro.
whoever said that everyone had to follow the same old ‘my kinda film’ trap?
whoever said that having ‘an ambiguous signature tone’ is what there should be in every movie made by the same guy…
you seem to think (there may be a long list here but lemme stick to the names u have mentioned) and equate anurag as a superhero who is at par with those mentioned in ur post…
give the guy a break..
its his second release..
i had mentioned this whenever there was a tag on Black Friday being some kind of ‘greatest ever’ by anurag or in indian cinema, by other cinephiles here – it was a good movie thats it nothing more…
and lemme make it crystal clear.. i aint defending anurag here…
the minute you walk into a film with any kinda expectations.. u are making urself a fool..
and its a shame that U – who has written this post- is attributing the same kind of godly connotations to Anurag…
speculate all u will but lets speculate on the movie first and then the guy who made it (if at all)..
when u say ‘the halo WE have created around him” then again u r making the same generalisation that most of the visitors here make.. that somehow PFC considers Anurag GOD!!
faar from it mate!! and it would have been more appropriate if u had put ‘I’ there instead of that ‘WE’
this is actually in reply to a comment posted above…i found a couple of points that i wanted to comment on
“Same with the reviews. You will find reviews that say Chutiya movie or you find reviews that say a great movie. Nothing in between.” This is not true….i have read/seen a couple of reviews (NDTV/Hindu) which don’t say the film is excellent….neither do they say that the film is BS. they don’t have any problems in understanding the intention but what they question is the execution.
“The main reason the majority finds it bullshit is they don
One more thing..
it is wrong of people to say, ‘I was looking for Anurag of Black Friday in No Smoking, which I did not find so I hated the movie’. Because Black Friday and No Smoking are different films, so you are never going to get that! it’s irrelevant..
I had said something similar when Omkara released.. I was looking for Vishal of Maqbool in Omkara, but I did not find that, so for that reason and other reasons, I did not like the film as much as I had expected. I only said that because Maqbool and Omkara.. same genre!
Which is not the case.. with this…
i hope that makes sense.
If this is the case, I’m shutting PFC down.
You guys don’t seem to be getting the point!!! No one is talking about how the movie shaped up!! I completely respect your opinion!! But one thing that really baffles me is why is everyone jumping up and down to make a connection between anurag and this website and the sycophants being the reason for the movie being bad?
WHY DOESN’T SOMEONE GIVE IT A BREAK AND APPRECIATE THE EFFORT ATLEAST? WHETHER EXECUTION WENT WRONG OR WHATEVER THE SHIT, IAM NOT FIGHTING ON THAT…OKAY…MAYBE THE EXECUTION IS WRONG? SO? YOU WANT HIM TO QUIT FILM MAKING? WHEN YOU GIVE PPL LIKE PRIYADARSHAN AND HARRY BAWEJAS 100 CHANCES, WHY NOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT FEW PICTURES FROM THIS GUY? RAMGOPAL VARMA, AFTER SHIVA MADE “GOVINDA GOVINDA”, IT WAS A WASHOUT, PEOPLE DID NOT UNDERSTAND IT AND EVEN QUESTIONED THE EXECUTION….SO? THAT DID NOT STOP HIM FROM MAKING A RANGEELA OR SATYA? ATLEAST HE EXPERIMENTED!! THAT IS THE KEY ISSUE HERE…THE EFFORT TO EXPERIMENT!! DON’T DISCOURAGE THAT!!
unfortunately people seem to have taken the phrase “looking for Anurag of Black Friday” almost literally….;) even though the films are different (maybe as different as chalk and cheese) the indelible impression of the director will always be there……as an example you can go through all of RGV’s films….you will always find the RGV’s characteristics…..i also remember when “Aag” released everybody was saying — is this the same man who delivered “satya”….
Congratulations Pratim! Your critisicm of NS is apt.AK’s utter disrespect for the intelligence of his viewers is absolutely baffling.I think,just because he writes regularly for PfC, we are wasting too much time on him.He is just two films old and has yet to prove his credentials.
Exactly Machchar! Kissi Deemagi addmi ka khoon choosa aaj kya? ;-)
and oz bhai, do not get provoked. some people will have misconceptions about pfc, you cannot just shut down pfc for that reasons!
see this is completely wrong….no body is discouraging him from making films…did anybody discourage RGV from making films after he made “Aag”…..you should read the NS review in “The Hindu”….it’s a very balanced review….
Honhaar Goonda, forget others blood…My BP has been up very much seeing all the freaks around here..I guess I am gonna take a break! Hey…Any NON “NS” posts coming up? We desperately need some now.
yeah machchar chill out…
u seem to be really agitated by the sound of things…
Yeah, definitely going to chill out now…I don’t understand one thing but…We see an avalanche of comments regarding this movie here…Are these the guys who watched the movie? Then I am sure the collections would have been great :D
I have a suggestion can we rename PFC as PASSION FOR CHUTIYAPAN. I am serious, because for the last couple of days, i have not seen any cinema discussion, only isko goli maaro, usko jala daalo, yeh fraud hai, yeh joker hai, tu moron hai, nahin tu gadha hai.
Sorry we are not behaving like movie lovers here, we are behaving like a bunch of street thugs and goons. AND I AM HONESTLY SICK AND TIRED OF THIS.
I guess thats the problem. Yaa kisi ko Bhagwaan bana deta hai, yaa kisi ko Shaitaan. Par kabhi kisi ko insaan ki tarah nahin dekhta hai.
When things go wrong, we need to find the issues, and then try to work upon them. But no sir, we are too lazy to find issues, so we take the easy route out, we find scapegoats.
So if we lose in cricket, sack Rahul, sack Sachin, sack him, sack that fellow. And thats why we still are sad sacks.
Movies not good, Anurag dont make movies, RGV quit movie making, KJO ur gay, Farhan Akhtar get lost.
And its the same in almost every field, we keep losing, and we keep finding scapegoats, but never bother to see what the issue is.
No Wonder we are a nation of big time losers. As long as we refuse to look beyond the person into the larger issues, this circus will be never ending.
OH GOD!!
Friends the only problem is that everyone can post their opinion on this site… why get angry then ?? let everyone speak their mind.. you can’t expect everyone speaking positively about anyone’s work!! I think everyone is right in their respective manners AND mind you all every person.. EVERY PERSON discusses after watching a movie … bad or good doesn’t reach upto makers ears so you don’t know what Ho-halla is happening … and this is a place where everyone can speak up.. so what’s wrong… Just one example do you think RGV would agree he made a disaster in the form of AAG… its still a masterpiece for him… I personally Loved black friday.. But NO SMOKING!! NO WAY!!…
If i would have been around Anurag who knows i might have seen it in different perspective and would have appreciated it…
but something had gone awry.. something was missing…
Exactly… I was a silent reader of this site and practically all posts… but i am toooooo surprised to read all CHEAP language here!!
UFF!! this is what intellegency is!! this is what creativity is!! this is what Film makers are made of!! not even respecting the primary right of every individual in this country … and why these A, B, C and D’s advocating for anurag unneccesarily… let him speak if he wants or leave it that way! Just read .. and proceed for your work… Heavan’s!!! even i am doing the same!!:((
- Pratim, sorry, the first comment was not meant to be a one liner. Have just woken up and shuttling between your post and making chai.
Firstly there are a few things about Anurag that you have mentioned are bang on the target that I too hold the same view. Yes, the “see how i did this.. etc. etc.” factor hehehe.
Now since the topic has moved from the movie to the questions of Anurag making it for PFC, I’ll lay down my views here without making an attempt to convince, control or make you change yours, that have been expressed in the post above.
1. I would like to start by disagreeing with you that Anurag made the movie for PFC.
The question you have to answer is: Who is PFC?
It is not a group, a club, a band, a corp structure where I along with others have a morning meeting in a conference room to decide the things that need to be executed on PFC. Neither is there a agenda on the table. There is none.
So who is PFC? It is readers like you who come read, comment, write, iView and then email me with a request to make them an author.
So who is PFC? It is anyone with a Passion for cinema and keeps reading or writing (via posts or comments) on this site.
So who is PFC? It is anyone who will attack, get personal, display anger in a positive or negative, the one time passerbys who will pick up the stone and throw it on it’s pages and move on. It is also the iViewers, the commenters, the authors who are free to express what they feel from the confines of their cubicle, their office, their bedroom, living room, from their laptops, their desktops, their Macs, from Internet stores.
So who is PFC? Now that you have answer, for it is beyond what you’ve read above so far.
You posting on PFC as an author and commenter also makes you a PFCian.
So in a sense if “I for a moment” agree to your statement that PFC is responsible for the bad that your saw in No Smoking, then “Pratim D. Gupta” is responsible for it. For PFC is made up of Pratim and such authors.
This example is ofcourse not true for Pratim has had no hand to influence Anurag to make No Smoking the way he did. An extension of this is: No other author did. As far as I know half of PFC’s authors and commenters have not liked No Smoking.
So how could PFC influence Anurag to make something which Half of PFC does not have a taste for?
The question to ask again, even if it irritates you, is, Who is PFC?
2. Now coming to the logic of it all. Yes No Smoking was written before Anurag started PFC. There were three days to go (Anurag’s first post) before the film went on the floors. The only thing to write on paper were the schedules and not much else.
Hence, No Smoking was destined to be made with or without PFC. It’s destination was locked even before Anurag wrote his first email to me, confirming he would like to start blogging on PFC.
I’ve met him twice in one year, many PFC readers and writers have met him often, in the last one year.
Logically, if in one year PFC could influence Anurag to make No Smoking, then those he has known for 15 years or could easily influence him to make a reality show in a Mental Hospital (bad example, but you know what I’m trying to get to
)
“Only 2% of the audience I would like to target is at PFC” – this is something Anurag has mentioned in the past to cinephiles who were visiting him.
With that kind of an understanding about the facts he views as, how can a small tiny website influence Anurag to make No Smoking? It would mean Tehelka, Mumbai Mirror, Midday and IndiaFm should be influencing him to make his next which I hope sees the light of the day called Bombay Velvet.
It isn’t the case. Cause Anurag is making DevD. You can judge how happy many on PFC are with his next subject after the fact that we started calling him GuruD. Of course some of us arent’ that excited. But there was no push or influence on him to not make DevD and instead start Bombay Velvet.
Lastly on this point, it would be disrespectful to say this, but if Anurag was this weak and undecisive, I would not be sharing the same platform to express my views on cinema.
Please do give him the credit that he is far more mature and knowing of the ways of the world, than what you mention. If he was this easily influenced by “jee hazoori” he would have a long queue of producers and financers who try to please him with sweet talk at film festivals that I’ve myself been witness to.
To you and all who are looking for Black Friday in Anurag… here is what I’ve understood about the man… which leads to the question:
3. Who the hell is Anurag Kashyap as a filmmaker?
a. This I told him after Paanch: You should only direct movies that are written by others.
b. This I told him after Black Friday: Your strength lies in current events, issues, history. (that’s the reason I would love to see Bombay Velvet made asap)
c. This after No Smoking, which I got to see before many: it is an ok film.
But this I believe:
If given a choice, a lot of money to make movies for the rest of his life, no pressures, no nothing…
Anurag will love to keep making films on the lines of No Smoking.
There it seems is this thirst, this drive to bring in this new genre of cinema rarely ever seen in India and which has hardly been experienced so far. That to me seems to be his life goal, his reason to live, eat and breathe cinema.
But with every statement that says make Black Friday again or something similar to it, we as the passionate people of cinema, unintentionally are controlling or attempting to control a creative person by saying, “Hey make what I like”
It should not be the case. It comes out of the love for him as a filmmaker, but it should be the case. Let the filmmaker learn himself. Let the filmmaker, if has the strength, drive and destiny on his side, find his niche audience.
With telling him that “we were looking for Black Friday in No Smoking” – you are telling him out of love – “We want to be your niche audience”
The reality is, most of us aren’t. The followers of Lynch are. And THAT is the tragedy. Anurag is at the wrong place and at the wrong time. His aspirations lie to be on the same level as Lynch, I think. Unfortunately for him, there isn’t much of a Lynch fan following in India. Though with the comments at PFC, I see they finding their way to each other.
4. And the biggest misguided view of all. Anurag Kashyap is not Black Friday.
He is Paanch. Which I’m sure you will have a similar reaction as mine. Tragically your post would have been entirely different had you seen it.
He is No Smoking. Which you have and for the first time are exposed to the “real” Anurag.
He is Gulaal. – The next time you meet him, ask him to show you the rushes of Gulaal. If you thought No Smoking is this bad, you are gonna start shooting everyone after you see Gulaal and praying everyday that it never gets released.
And Gulaal was made much before the original concept of PFC was even dreamt about. Hence I disagree with your quote that he made No Smoking for PFC.
Because Pratim, that is Anuraag the writer and director. Black Friday happened before Gulaal and Paanch got a release. Had it not been the case, the view of who Anurag is would have been quite different.
Equating Anurag to just Black Friday is a misconception.
To be vastly successful commercially – he should not direct his own written scripts, he should only direct movies originally written by others.
But to be a happy creative person for the rest of his life – he would like to keep making such ‘mind fuck’ movies along with some on the lines of Black Friday and Bombay Velvet.
Clicked submit too fast. Continuing from #26 – There were glaring examples in PFC all over the place in the past one year of the kind of subjects that drive him.
One such example was the Ken Bruen conversation, where Ken came in and conversed with Anurag here. Anurag is madly in love with Ken’s novels.
Have you read any of Ken’s novels Pratim? Because I think most of those who are saying Anurag should not make films like No Smoking, will most likely be the ones who will not like Ken Bruen’s novels and the dark subjects he writes on.
Such incidents on PFC pointing to what Anurag really loves to make, were ignored by you and many others who are shocked on seeing No Smoking.
Dear PratimDa
I was quite taken aback by your post. It takes a real fan, and when I say real, I mean a guy who can call a spade a spade, if HE BELIEVES so. PratimDa, I respect your views and realise why you filed that disclaimer right at the beginning. It’s an insightful post in the least and an emotionally draining one at the best. While I perceived the film in a completely different light, I can fully appreciate your point of view because I began feeling that with Mani’s films a couple of years ago. A brave post, and thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.
Dear Oz SPECIFICALLY, and Honhaar, and other PFC Karta Dhartas in general,
What are you doing except taking it personally when you say you’d want to shut down PFC? It’s a forum where we beat the crap out of each other with words… it’s great. It might get unhealthy at times, but the fact that it provides a platform where one can call another an Asshole and get away with it is an achievement in itself.
This is probably the most overstated cliche on the PFC platform and that is, ‘it’s SOMEONE’s PERSONAL OPINION’ and since we’re a platform that encourages personal opinions, WHY would you suggest such a drastic measure Oz?
At times, i feel sick we start getting way too personal on this platform and what SHOULD be an intelligent debate degenerates into a derogatory name-calling mud-slinging filth. But I guess we have to take the good with the bad, and we go on from there…
This is a great platform. Let’s keep it that way guys… I have a very selfish interest in saying this. I LOVE coming here to read and comment at times. And I’m sure more than a few people are going AMEN with me right now, so let us KEEP that…
That said – on my blog, I put up a communique TO Anurag Kashyap after No Smoking.
If anyone finds the time and inclination, I’d like to hear from you…
http://kartickslongroad.blogspot.com/2007/10/anurag-kashyap-goddamn-man.html
- Katick, My bad about the one liner. I’ve discussed in length Pratim’s post in #26 and 27 above
Pratim, agree with u. Guys chill…chill.!! lets not crucify pratim. he wrote what he felt n he has all the rite to do so. even i also felt the same. similar thoughts just after i came out of the film. me,vasan,ashish…all of us. so, please lets have some breathing space.why we all need to agree Goonda. n dont dissect the post word by word. just c the larger picture.
No Offense,but i have to admit,Anuragbhai reminds me of Andy Kaufman for some reason.Both men were geniuses.Both men to an extent changed the face of their respective fields in showbiz.Both truly made path breaking changes.However both made the same mistakes.They never worked to entertain the audience but,instead tried to quench their thirst for creative satisfaction.But whatever you say,In the end you end up respecting both of them for the fact that they made an effort to change the conventional way of thinking.But their methods were a little too radical and way ahead of the times.
I would like to end this by saying that Anuragbhai is still one of the better film-makers of this era and there is still a huge load of untapped potential inside him.I hope that next time,he’s able to strike a balance between his own creative satisfaction and what the audience wants
Oz, let me try to rephrase what I say in short because I don’t think I could reach out to you totally… He didn’t make No Smoking for PFC the website… I felt somehow unknowingly and instinctively when he was translating his “ready” script on to celluloid, he was thinking of flaunting his craft and understanding of cinema to BRAND PFC – anybody and everybody who is exposed to world cinema, knows his Fincher from his Lynch, knows one Kaufman from another… Any film, Oz, and this part I am totally sure about is a reflection of what is going on in the mind of the director at that point of time, the time when he is making it… As everybody who’s worked with Anurag has said that he doesn’t care for the script, no matter if he’s written it himself, he keeps changing it till the very last minute, keeps innovating… And all those innovations in No Smoking reek of that come-on-let-me-show-you-friends attitude.
I don’t know who the real Anurag Kashyap is. I have seen his first released film and that was Black Friday. And then I saw his second released film called No Smoking. I repeat, I repeat, I repeat I was not looking for Black Friday in No Smoking. I was looking for that invisible hand which has nothing to do with the genre of the movie. I saw the same Vishal Bhardwaj hand in Makdee and Maqbool, even though they were very different films. You see Jab We Met and you blindly can say it’s made by the guy who made Socha Na Tha. And that has nothing to do with the story. Just the treatment. No Smoking doesn’t have that Anuragish feel about it… his human touch is not there which you can sniff in Abhishek’s dialogues in Yuva… This was someone else, a whole new man…
Phoenixnu, I can’t tell you brother how I was feeling during the screening of No Smoking… I have seen Lynch, I have seen Kaufman, I have read Kafka… ota just hoyni re… puro ghente geche lokta… I felt so helpless and restless, I felt like rewinding the film till the time when Joy Fernandes comes in and pausing it there and walking off… Kauke bojhate parchi na ki bolte chai…
I haven’t seen NS as yet so I’m reserving my comments for now. On the account of Ken Bruen , it is the only author that I’ve read in succession starting with guards and ending with the preist. Its just a matter of time when someone translates Ken Bruen’s work to celluloid.
Pratim…bhujte prachi re. keo jodi bhujte na chai, ki aar bhujabi.
PRATIM DA, i was surprised why you didnt review the film in TELEGRAPH, anyways i respect your views and i understand what you are trying to say.
but i disagree with you on the point that PFC was the reason anurag kashyap made the film like this, i think as he writes in one of his posts it was his own ego, own mental struggle through which he was going at that moment made him make the film the way he did.
p.s- being a fan of the director myself i dont think too much was wrong with the film except for the last 20 mins. what do u say?
Pratim , just taking clue from your post, I can see Anurag kashyap in three different forms ;( I might be totally wrong but that
pratim… keoo kano bujhche na shetai aami bujhchi na…its so simple. youre looking for the author…the auteur as anurag kashyap established he is with his first two films. LUCKILY…i have seen paanch…and i have loved it. it is self indulgent and arrogant…the ‘khuda’ is infact the director and thats abundantly clear. from the moment the opening credits burst on to the screen (which are as they should be ‘big’) you know youre in the grasp of a man…not a story…not characters….not situations…but one man(this man lets you move around freely but just as youre about to bend one way he yanks you the other way reminding you that for the 2 odd hours you and he share this darkness he’s at the steering wheel. thats what i felt lacking in johny gaddar….there were some great moments but one too many times…i leaned one way and the director let me…he lets go of that steering wheel and he loses me. i thought ek hasina thi was way better…almost brilliance (the closest i saw a hindi film in recent times come to brilliance….urmila ofcourse is key component in the ‘almost’ factor)
an auteur director is one whose presence you feel in an unobtrusive but definitive way in all his works and arrogance is the virtue that gives him the strength to tell his story his way and we only respcet it when it is in some way ours too…i ahvent seen NS but im hoping that even if it isnt in any way my story (though i had no trouble relating to kafka or enjoying quitters inc)…i will be able to respect the arrogance that compels the director to tell this story…like i respect kurosawa’s bravado in telling his stories his way though they often fail to drive me HOME…i hope Anurag Kashyap’s arrogance has not been replaced with the need to live upto ‘the anurag kashyap you saw in black friday’…for anything that is conscious is not genius now is it! and most great works are hard to live upto…imagine tarantino TRYING to live upto Pulp, or Bono trying to live upto Joshua Tree or Kieslowski to the 3 colours…
finally….look how smart iam…i can mix castro with sealdah with….whoever the other influences youve named. i think its only natural that a work of art express things that have impressed deeply…the clay soft sub consious! however if they havent impressed deeply (and not the artists ’sub’conscious anyway…influences the artist has known and heard but not FELT) then i guess good chance their expression will fail to impress in turn…for they will be contrived and fake..and dishonest. but if they have been felt and loved passionately and honestly their portrayal will impress – as do tarantino’s references and allusions (tarantino’s douglas sirk steak or cap n crunch cereal…love em…you feel his adulation for em – for most often he is bigger than those he loves and adores and depicts in his films). to quote eliot(not verbatim- smoking is fast destroying those brain cells that are supposed to keep a record of things past): poetry is about telling people teh state of your mind not about telling people that youve read the right books…he said this around the same time that he wrote his absolute classic and my all time favorite : the wasteland : a long list of all the books he’s read, the plays he’s seen, the music he’s heard etc…basically a long poem with allusions in every line! so…we are human and we can not escape those that have touched us and by confronting them in our expressions we convert them from memory to art…sub C to C…superego to ego and from ‘me’to ‘us’…guess thats when we form what they call a ‘cult’. when that is done you will never be objective about him or her again for he has spoken to the dark side of your mind – the side that is largely wordless and sans articulation and seldom touches base even wth you. the subconscious with all its fears, its twists and turns, its dark recesses, its narrow bends, its sharp curves, its steep falls and its distortions and distinctions….a director is not obliged to tell the story you want to hear…he must tell the story he wants you to hear(unless ofcourse he’s sajid khan or ekta kapoor…i cringe at the mention of them)…so in its essence telling a story is an arrogant art to start with….so’s any art for that matter…the rest is commerce…trade…vidhu vinod chopra ( youre right the man who amde parinda died with teh protagonist)…vanished with the shadows on the wall when the lights came on!
david dhawan in his shamelss, mindless, meaningless way is more of an auteur than vidhu vinod chopra…more than most of those ‘big’ cash in and sell out directors. i do respect him and have unabashedly laughed in and loved some of his earlies…
arrogance to me is the wealth of an artist the minute he loses it he is a sell out and soon after…a cop out! i hope anurag kashyap, almodavar, tarantino, murakami, makhmalbalf, majidi, cohen, bono…and the greatest of them all CASTRO never lose their arrogance…as bergamn, ray, kieslowski, billy wilder, howard hawks, truffaut, antonioni, kurosawa et al never did. woe was me the day bergman died…i wasnt sad cos there wouldnt be another persona or autumn sonata i was sad becaus BERGMAN was dead. i did feel pain for a man i have never met but who recognised and spoke to me more freely and beautifully than i myself can….without arrogance these artistic geniuses are just me and my sweet but disturbingly normal neighbor!!
a director mustnt try to please….he doesnt ahve orders to be liked… bergaman’s persona’s self indulgent and i dnt think he gave a f*** about those queing up outside to watch it (as someone mentioned in a blog)….but hell that film is so honestly individualistic that it is universal and timess and stateless and bindless and sans all boundaries of culture, country, cuisine and sexual orientation. can not imagine the world without ‘persona’…its a warped world the disturbed mind inhabits and when honestly expressed it connects with anyone who is not scared to confront his or her own distortions…we are all human…we are all incomplete…we are all broken and distorted in our own universally and helplessly human way…read tennesse williams…im sure you do!we are all in search…in describable and in secure… only some are in acceptance of it. i think tarantino’s films are thoroughly self indulgent and thank god for it. so are murakami’s writings and thank god for that too and as a friend once put it ‘we live in a murakami world’- one line that explains the murakaminess that inhabits all his works ….i also love in the same vein the word ‘kafkaesque’
so guess what im trying to say is that if he is looking for the anurag kashyap of BF in NS…he is absoltely inviolably in the right to be doing so…to look for AK of BF in NS is not to expect BF in NS…thats a silly thing to say…and obviously you are only superficially reading pratim’s words without trying to make ’sense’ of them…to ’sense them’ better describes what i mean…for if you ahvent felt kafka in all his books or kieslowski in all his films then…erm…i dnt know perhaps youve watched them the same way you read pratim’s words…without ’sensing’ them.
so pratim i dnt think auteurness is the seasoning or the stamp…both sound too superficial…i think its more…erm…the soul???….perhaps…theres a good chance im wrong… correct me…gently…people around here seem fairly aggressive…this is my first…be kind…have to admit im scared!
Pratim da
It was not an insult to me, I loved every frame, every second, It was arbit in parts but who cares.
If there is some logic behind all the mindfuckery I,m sure sooner or later i’ll find out. The longer it stays with me the better because No Smoking is a FUCKIN beautiful movie..wait till it becomes a cult and a must on DVD collections.
and try putting the logic of easter eggs and cryptic clues to people like me feeding on LOST, this is hat makes these things special. If it bothers you then the movie was not for you simply . I’m new to PFC and don’t claim to “KNOW” anurag as you and lots of other people here claim to do..I havent seen Black Friday and I dont think seeing it would have made any difference cos No smoking is a different genre altogether..BF was procedural and NS is surreal, wait a few weeks and see american gangster by ridley scott and compare it with Gladiator.
AK is just two movies old..what stamp are you looking for, I din expect a Andaz apna apna from Santoshi after Ghayal. I expected a Ghatak.
PratimDa – slightly incorrections here and there .. but i LOVED ur post ….
^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^
I finally saw “No Smoking” and I am stunned!! Its superb. So disturbing, so haunting. John Abraham deserves a pat on the back, for having the guts to do this film and for his performace.
Ok, so my iView article was not good enough to be published so I will just post my thoughts here since I think it’s relevant to the discussion here…
Recently I have seen many comments and of course a notable article by Suparn where they happen to criticize PFC and what they think PFC stands for. Immediately Oz and other very fine people do take a lot of pain to stress that PFC doesn
@dazed and confused,
u basically jumped the gun mate.
ur article was kept on hold lest it be lost in the No smoking mania which has gripped this site.
we felt it needed to be read and heard out LOUD…
it was RELEVANT and it STILL IS RELEVANT…
just to let u know!
oh thanks DPac! I didn’t know since i didn’t get any feedback from you guys…
Please feel free to delete my comment and post the original article whenever you want.
D&C
amio sob kichhu bujhte parchi. ei jaygatar jotosob mathamota “mosha”-der ebong onanyonder niye ki ba kora jaye? sompurno sohomot.
This is my first comment, No Smoking was it, technical and dark, we have entered the age of alternate and experimental cinema without fear.
@ dazed and confused
we dont reply to every email as you would have known by now and correct me if i am wrong here- i do detect a lack of faith when u jump the gun and post the whole article as a comment- faith in PFC and its admin.
whatever be the reasons for your action, kindly think twice before jumping the gun
thankz
Well, No Smoking is Anurags Kagaz ke Phool, 30 years ahead of its time.
per anurag hai kahan? uski itni tareef ho rahee hai, per GOD filmmaker ke comment nai aarahe….. kahin Syberia ke paani ke tub main tho nai kood gaya? utho mere A, jaaago, sab ke moon pe taale lagao. ham tho samaaj hain, ugte sooraj ko salaam aur dhalte sooraj per mitti daalne waale aam insaan. sab anurag per keechad uchaal rahe hain socha main bhi behtee ganga main haath dho loon, aisa mauka fir kahan milega, GULAAL rangane ka mauka sirf holi per hee tho milta hai. per afsos ye GULAAAL laal nahin KAALA hai. ya kee youn kahoun…. anurag ki next film GUKAALA ka main besabri se intezaar kar raha hoon.
per anurag hai kahan? uski itni tareef ho rahee hai, per GOD filmmaker ke comment nai aarahe….. kahin Syberia ke paani ke tub main tho nai kood gaya? utho mere A, jaaago, sab ke moon pe taale lagao. ham tho samaaj hain, ugte sooraj ko salaam aur dhalte sooraj per mitti daalne waale aam insaan. sab anurag per keechad uchaal rahe hain socha main bhi behtee ganga main haath dho loon, aisa mauka fir kahan milega, GULAAL rangane ka mauka sirf holi per hee tho milta hai. per afsos ye GULAAAL laal nahin KAALA hai. ya kee youn kahoun…. anurag ki next film GUKAALA ka main besabri se intezaar kar raha hoon.
DPac,
Hey, I did wait a few days man. And my previous iView article didn’t get a response and neither did it get published.
So when the same happened this time around, I assume it wasn’t good enough to be published. What else am I supposed to think? Don’t treat me like a kid.
What lack of faith are you talking about? Faith that my article will get published even when 10 other articles come on the site post the date when I sent mine in and I don’t get any response from you guys?
By the way, am an atheist and this place is anyways no temple.
thanks
D&C
This is my second comment and ur right manufacturer, Anurag, RGV and others are trying to take the art to a different level. There is much more than what meets the eye, layers upon layers, hidden worlds, daily human adventures real and unreal, what better media than the cinema?, Vibrant and amazing are the adjectives of the future for cinema and Anurag man don`t draw any lines, we are born to explore.
@dazed and confused:)
u really seem to be high strung today. Dunno whether you will see any reason in my replies.
I didnt categorically state that u didnt have faith, that was just the feeling i had.
i was not telling you what to do and what not to do…
anyway thats besides the point. there has been instances where different pfc editors have sent you feedback for your articles and if i am not mistaken 2 instances of your iView articles being published.
in view of that, if i were in ur place, i would have sent and email asking the status before jumping the gun. but then thats me.
you are free to do what u want to do.
cheers mate.
DPac
Sorry, but I work in a professinal envioronment in my day job and am unfortunately used to a certain style of work behavior.
I would definitely have asked for a status if I had received an acknowledgement/response (that the article was on hold) in the first place.
thanks
D&C
Sompurno sohomot.
Ei jaygatar murkhoder mathat bolte kichu nei. tai na?
Soory. I meant ‘matha’. Ami jodi ekhon Bangla-y kotha na boli tahole amake mosha-machhi kamrate shuru kore debe.
Sotyi kotha bolte ki ami konodino oi ‘porichalok’-tike bhogoban bole mone korini. Emonki sadharon Bollywood standard-eo amar seta mone hoyni. jogyota chhilo bole mone hoyechhilo. seta boleochhi age (in your t2 blog). that’s it.
pore kotha hobe.
Okay, I’m not gonna mention any names. I saw someone here commenting that Anurag should be forgiven because it’s just his second or third film.
If the “number of films/experience” is the factor to decide a filmmaker’s/film’s credibilty, I’d definitely cite a few examples. The following films have received unending animosity from many here on PFC (I’m strictly NOT generalising).
1)Laaga Chunari was Pradeep Sarkar’s 2nd film. Yet it received animus (including me). How?
2)Neal ‘n’ Nikki was Arjun Sablok’s 2nd film.
3)JBJ and Buntuy-aur-Babli were Shaad’s 2nd/3rd films.
3)KANK/K3G were Karan’s 2nd/3rd films.
4)Ta Ra Rum Pum was Siddharth Anand’s 2nd film.
5)Mohabbatein was Aditya Chopra’s second film.
6)Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai/Dhoom/ Dhoom:2 were Sanjay Gadhvi’s 2nd/3rd/4th films.
The list just goes on.
You may have understood that I’m, in no way, defending those films. I AM NOT GOING TO PASS MY PERSONAL VERDICTS ON THE AFOREMENTIONED FILM. But these films were criticized universally. Did anyone say that let them go since they are 2nd/3rd efforts? NO! So, why judge a film by the number of films in the filmography of the director? Shouldn’t we judge them by the STANDARDS of the filmmaker or as an INDIVIDUAL film?
Yaar! It’s clear some people here just can’t take CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM…The way Pratim is being badgered is not healthy.
I feel Anurag should be clear about WHO his target audience is? Not 2% of PFC, not those who could not understand the film, not critics, then WHO???
HAI ROME! KOI TO BATAO NAAA!!!
Sudhir Mishra is saying exactly what I am trying to say
Thank you guys for bashing up Pratim D. Gupta.I am so glad that pfc keeps its word that this site is going to be a platform to voice one’s personal opinions regarding cinema.I am so glad that pfc still encourages to call a spade a spade.I am so glad that SOME pfc users have not started to act as a bunch of emotional fools just because their opinions didn’t match that of others.Cheers!
=d>=d>=d>=d>=d
Pratimda I take my hat off to you because you always stick to what you think and not influenced by others.:)
So finally I got someone who dared to write truth on PFC. Stop worshiooinh anuraag here and let him prove his calibre in the world he lives. There are plenty of geniuses like mani Sir, Vishal who clicks with their work on thier terms. So let anuraag proves it.
Adi
“NO SMOKING” I SAW IT ONCE TILL YET WHEN I AM IN THEATRE THE MOVIE IS INTERESTING IN SCREENPLAY & I AM ENJOYING IT BUT DIDN’T KNOW WHERE IT WAS GOING I WAS IT VERY CAREFULLY TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON AND AT THE END I STAND UP ALMOST BLANK BUT THE SCENES WERE STILL IN MY MIND & I AM TRYING TO GET WHAT WAS THERE AFTER 2-3 HRS I GOT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN 1st SCENE WHERE JOHN IS RUNNING FOR CIGRETTE DUE TO FEAR & LAST SCENE WHERE WHERE HE CROSSED STICKS TO REACH & SEE WHAT’S IN BATH TUB THE CHANGE OF UNINTENTIONAL MIND DUE TO INTENTIONAL MIND. I GOT SOMETHING TO KNOW AT LAST.THEN SLOWLY THE LAYERS ARE OPENING. I WANT TO WATCH IT AGAIN & AGAIN BUT DON’T HAVE TIME,LYRICS: I NEVER & ACTUALL CAN’T IGNORE THE WORK OF GULZAR ,BUT I DONOT PRAISE HIM AS IT MAKES HIM AS OTHERS .