Thank you John, Kumar Mangat & SIGUR ROS!
So Anurag smokes Classic Milds. So Anurag things Khalid is a chutiya. So Anurag doesn’t give a fuck. So Anurag IS K. So Anurag is our god(Acc. to KhalidJI). Big Deal! We all knew that already. Why all this fuss? Are we THAT surprised with NO SMOKING? Didn’t we expect him to mindfuck with us anyways? In all this hooplahoo we forgot to thank two people who deserve to be hailed for making NO SMOKING happen. Two unlikely people who backed Anurag the most. Kumar Mangat & John Abraham.
John not only backed this project. He infact refused a regular masala script that Anurag narrated to him & told Anurag that he expected something more intelligent than that crap from Anurag. Thats something that doesn’t happen in Bollywood. Its usually the other way around. I wonder how Anurag’s face reacted when he heard that from John. Thats something every writer dreams of in every corner of the world.
And Kumar Mangat to back the project. He has backed a very very ‘Lambi Race ka Ghoda‘. He has no idea how much money he is gonna make out of this. 50 years from now when his Son would have squandered all his wealth & his grandkid will be searching every corner of the house for money to buy his/her drugs, there will arrive a check from the DVD(or whatever the technology is gonna be then) sales of No Smoking. It is going to be a cult film like Vijay somewhere mentioned. It might not made changed everyone’s life overnight financially but its gonna pay them bit by bit, month after month.
As far as the movie is concerned, I liked it overall. I loved the comic book thoughts. I loved the subtitles. I think its the first film in history where the subtitle was sometimes better than the film itself. I mean everytime someone is pissed in the film no matter what they said in Hindi, the subtitle managed to drop the F-Bomb in it. Awesome. There are just two things that I think could be cut from the film. In the 1st half the scene where John looks at himself(AGAIN!!!!) & says “Nobody tells me what to do”. I think we know that about K. In the second half even though I totally enjoyed the Bob Fosse Song & Dance, it could easily do away from the final cut.
Did anyway wish Irfan Khan had played K or was it just me?
Now, when I read NAZ theater in Artesia yesterday, the man in the Box Office looked at me, smiled & asked me “Are you Sure?”. I was quite stumped. I mean this must be a 1st in Bollywood too. When the theaterwallahs are discouraging me from watching the film. I buy 2 tickets for me & my friend Tammy. And as we enter the theater we realize why he was discouraging us. There was no one in the theater. They probably didn’t wanna play the movie. Well No Smoking also turned out to be very lucky for my friend. As the movie started Tammy got a email confirming that she got a job in the Marketing Section of PARAMOUNT VANTAGE. So our day already started with a Bang! My other friends also joined us in 10 minutes. All of us liked the movie. The editing was great. The photography beautiful. The framing perfect. I esp loved when Phook De plays in the movie for the 1st time. When John is driving I think. It was pretty weird to see that song as a item number in the end. I didn’t know that at all.
Did anyway wish Irfan Khan had played K or was it just me?
So THANK YOU for Smoking John Abraham.
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I went home to get ready for the MySpace Secret Show of my favorite band these days. SIGUR ROS. They are this amazing band from ICELAND. The Secret Show had the band play a set of 3 songs followed by the screening of the film HEIMA.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1094594/
Heima in Iceland means ‘At Home’. 
In 2006 after their World Tour, they did a series of free outdoor concerts throughout Iceland in July and August. They just went to small towns & played for the people. In some amazingly breathtaking places, I must add. The Director Dean DeBlois was there to introduce the band. And what a beautiful film he has made. The film starts with their song Untitled 4 & it literally shook me up. Juxtaposed with images of Waterfalls & streams its starts the film with amazing ferocity. Then we meet the 4 members of the band. They are such young and simple guys its almost hard to digest that these kids are making some of the most amazing music on earth these days. Then we follow the band to all the small villages. Its so nice to see the whole Village turn up for a concert. From grandparents to grandkids. And their music is such that everyone can enjoy. I think more bands should do this.
The film is mixed with some of the most beautiful images of Iceland I’ve ever seen(not that I’ve seen many). Their music is hard to describe.
Wikipedia says “Sigur Rós is an Icelandic post-rock band with melodic, classical, experimental, minimalist elements“.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigur_ros
Amazon says “Are Iceland’s Sigur Rós the saviors of 21st-century rock or true heirs to the silk-robed-and-platform-booted, pompous progressive rock of the ’70s? On their third album (first for a major label), they are a little bit of both. The group continues to mix the most interesting aspects of U2 (the anthem), Low (the maximalist slow-mo thing), Radiohead (the utter lack of irony in the quest to make meaningful art for stadium crowds), and My Bloody Valentine (guitar as texture), while not sounding like anyone else on this planet“.
http://www.amazon.com/Sigur-R%C3%B3s/dp/B00006LLNU
[youtube]RZYIfUdIyfs[/youtube]
I will say this much, if you think Radiohead’s OK COMPUTER is the most definitive album of our times & for some perhaps the best rock music since Pink Floyd, you are gonna love SIGUR ROS. They also are the most used band for soundtracks or other events. Its easy to understand why after you listen to them. Its one of the most visceral music I’ve ever heard. very very cinematic. And the movie ends with their song Untitled 8 which again shook me up. I’m so glad to have been part of this experience. The movie will be screened at AFI Fest also. I recommend everyone in LA to check it out.
To check out their music check out the links below.
http://www.myspace.com/sigurros
http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/media/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okLCurB1lJw
And yeah there were 2 shows last night. One for people who paid for it. And they gave away free posters of the band to everyone who came for the free show. So enjoy!
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
Sounds great, looks intriguing.
Amazon sums it up beautifully.
Floyd, REM, The Doors, Travis, U2, are just some rare few bands that gel so well with film.
I would now add Sigur Ros to the list, its more Floyd for me than anything else though. Need to dig them further. Though I don’t think I ll get anything of their stuff in here, I ll probably look outside.
A quick Wiki search tells me their music has been used in The Life Aquatic, Vanilla Sky, Children of Men, amongst some popular series like 24 & CSI.
Thanks for this.
i wanna hear what the story of “laapata” is.. that’s the story that anurag first narrated to john, before narrating NS.. and has the equation between anurag and his producers changed post-release? i saw vishal bharadwaj’s interview on IBN where he said he had his reservations about the film.. that makes me curious.. does he never want to make a movie like this ever again?
as much as i love irrfan and kay kay, i dunno if they would’ve done justice to K’s character.. it needed someone like john.. and i’m glad SRK didn’t say yes to this.. he would’ve sucked BIG TIME in this role. K needed to be someone very patrick bateman-like.. vain, yuppy, good-looking, narcissistic, egotistical.. and john embodied that in this film so well. irrfan and kay kay couldn’t have done that. so yes, three cheers to john, kumar and vishal!
Is No Smoking being released with subtitles in India? Are there subtitles only for hindi dialogues or for english as well.
Sorry, didn’t read the entire post as it seems to contain spoilers.:)
Glad ur back bro!
waiting for the DVD with extras!!!! surely its gonna be a cult film….
Kudos again to Vishal, Kumar Mangat and John for supporting the effort….n thanks to Anurag for showing us hope in the fucked-up hindi cinema world!!!!!!!!!!!
Abhijit – I don’t know about subtitles in the India release – my guess is not… although why not, I don’t know… releasing with subs in the South seems like a good idea for all Hindi films…
But in the international release, there are subtitles for both the Hindi and the English as well. For some (all? not sure) of the English dialog, the subs are in Hindi – which is smart and appropriate.
Congrats Tammy!!
admin note: Have the balls to say it as one person. please don’t comment as different people to pass your own personal agendas on PFC, Mr. John/Rahim/Ram anurag bhai…kya haal hain..kahan ho aajkal..film banatey ho india main india walon ke paisey aur mehnat ullu kheechtey ho audience or poor john ka…phir kahtey yeh film bahar waley ke liye hai…haha to tu bahar hi chal ja na…:d
admin note: Have the balls to say it as one person. please don’t comment as different people to pass your own personal agendas on PFC, Mr. John/Rahim/Ram R went to c an anti smoking film…”NO SMOKING”…came out SMOKING HEAVILY…EK IDEA KO JABARDASTI FILM BANA DIYA…when A writes for himself..he writes F….when he writes for M director..rgv mani sir he writes gr8!…so point s writer writer hi hota hai director nahi…suggestion for A…dont fuck producers money….Paanch, Black friday, No smoking…so quit smoking… i mean quit direction start taking up..writing job for other directors…
I want to congratulate Anurag for making a great movie. Although I think he couldve done away with the scene where John’s fingers are chopped too..There are certain places where Anurag loses his own truth. I mean if the entire movie was meant to be subtle and surreal, then the chopped fingers are way too obvious.
Secondly, the comic book dialogue things..it somewhat takes away from the spirit of the movie.
Other than that, the movie was great. I particularly loved the baritone given to the dwarf. Congrats K!
Nope!!..I dont agree that Irfan cud have done better or shud be considered. It certainly required a saleable face, not only for commercial aspect of film but also for the character to be identified by oneself. People cannot identify as much with Irfan as they have ( for those who liked it) with John. I cannot say abt SRK as pointed out by striker. He surely is a person people can identify with(most of them), but everyone can’t do all roles.
The article has no spoilers Abhijit.
Infact I didn’t review NS. Greater people have done it. It was more of a thank you to people who were almost forgotten in the circus that happened since the release of NS.
Infact I had no intention of writing on NS. But after watching the film I felt I must say this because no one else did thank them since the film has been released.
My original intention was to write just on SIGUR ROS. Which I doubt anyone checked out.
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Last Book – Old Man and the Sea – Hemmingway
Film – Heima(8/10)
thanks mainak for sigur ros ..
))
they are absolutely amazing .. i can now close my eyes and flow ….others need to check this too..
[youtube]okLCurB1lJw[/youtube]
btw I feel john fits with the movie’s slick feel.
this is the proper link .. embedding the vid didnt work..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okLCurB1lJw
Thanx for introducing Sigur Ros. Amazing track and stunning visuals.
Woo!! Sigur Ros on PFC!!
Ah, Mainak – we cross paths again after MS eh? I tried watching the movie – couldnt even sit through 10 mins of smokes!! I needed a smoke to releive myself hehehehe!
S
They are at the AFI, and yesterday the band played at the Arclight. t! and Nishi attended. Perhaps a post from t! coming shortly
John was the perfect choice because you don’t expect all this trama happening to someone that looks like they never had a problem in their life.
@DEV
Slight Spoiler ***** His fingers had to be missing so his character could be someone that would continue the trend of getting someone else to join and then he could get his fingers back one by one*****ENd of Spoiler
The movie not to be missed at AFI this year is SECRET SUNSHINE by Lee Chang-dong. He is not as famous as his comrades but he seems like the most interesting of them. He was a teacher, novelist & even the Minister of Culture of S.Korea.
For Vijay & Oz & t! there is MAD DETECTIVE by Johnnie TO.
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON also got a lot of buzz at Cannes…
And of course 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS.
Then theres DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY.
http://www.afi.com/onscreen/afifest/2007/
Supremus…
MS = Mouthshut.com?
Suchita …. Thanks…
My favourite hobby is to force people to watch my fav films & listen to my fav music.
Striker named me Cinema Terrorist or something like that.
@Mainak
I am your Cinema Terrorist Brother, because I do the same thing :d
Mainak
‘heard Sepulchura played at B’lore yesterday and that it was a fabulous show and sold out.
thanx for Sigur Ros…….
K-3
Kavita
Did you mean Sepultura?
Thats a good band! Infact I used to wear their T Shirt. But I’m out of that kinda music.
Good for Bangalore. Almost everyone in B’lore loves Sepultura.
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Last Film – The Good German.
Ohh mann…missed ot in Delhi as well as Bangalore..feeling really bad..anyway waiting fr Iron Maiden in Mumbai….Sorry for the digression Mainak.:d
Mainak, SIGUR ROS is playing at AFI FEST. sold out screenings, and we’added a 3rd screening on Fri night. They performed 3-4 songs before the film. A PFC favorite was there with me that night and listened to them for the first time!
yeah Sepul’tu’ra…..spelt my style
……… Iron Maiden also played in B’lore a few months ago…..Sourav, u shd move to B’lore!
Sigur Ros was really a find Mainak, saw the youtube link that was posted in this thread, exciting, to say the least. Would like to see Heima [?] ….on DVD?
k-3
Kavita
It will be on DVD soon. Concert films are made for DVD market. It gets released in theaters to get some publicity. So wait a month & it will be on amazon.com
Christina
I know its sold out. Thats why i waited in 2 lines for an hour each to be at the VISTA show.
I’m coming to see SECRET SUNSHINE right now. Infact i’m trying to buy the tickets online & it says RUSH LINE. Damn! I think its sold out.
Sigur Ros huh? Cool, will check them out. Sound very Radiohead-ish in that song. Going back to the 60s and 70s now, so they probably will have to wait.
Sigur Ros is more Uplifted music than Radiohead, Radiohead makes me dipressed while Sigur Ros makes me Happy
mainak, i nicknamed you film nazi.. i can picture you working in a video store and offering (read, forcing) people suggestions on what to watch.. and if they reject your choice, you’d say “NO FILM FOR YOU!” (a la soup nazi on seinfeld) and kick them outta the store :D
Also not to be missed at AFI – ‘Tracey In Fragments’,'Look’, ‘Used Parts’,'Lynch’,'Elvis Pelvis’,'Noise’,'The Aerial’,'Cyrano Fernandez’,'It’s Better If Gabriela Doesn’t Die’.All fresh, intelligent and strikingly original specimens of new world cinema.
Shekhar Shimpi…
I agree with you Sigur Ros is less uplifting compared to Radiohead. BTW did you buy the new Radiohead album? They have showed their middle finger to the music industry & are selling their music on their website directly. There is no price. It whatever you feel is the right price for their album. And the album is good. Very minimalistic.
Qwerty
Have you seen all these films?
I wanna see The Tracey Fragments & Noise.
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Last Film – The Passenger
Book – Farewell to Arms – Hemmingway
Hey check these guys out
Avial..”alternative Malayali rock”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kjsBZQO8NI
There is another one “nada nada”
cool video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADD7ga9Bs_k
The last ppl to appreciate an intelligent movie are desis in US,which are the dumbest .And i hardly expect much from artesia crowd either.
Its a very harsh statement, but i have to agree with you desi.
They are really confused people.
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“The P comes after the One”
@desi@LA, you are too close the mark. :D :D
Travis
Thanks for that youtube link. The ADUPAMBE track is fuckin awesome. I have to say its the best Indian rock music i have heard in ages.
The music video
of Nada Nada is cool. But the song is not as kick ass as Adupambe.
Thanks for sharing.
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Oh
yeah
Adupambe is clearly very DREAMTHEATERish. By the end of the song i can totally feel the influence. Its awesome.
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Mainak,if you liked “adupambe”, you will like “Karukara’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OMdZgZRuEs
this song is about the monsoon in Kerala.
I think this is just brilliant….yeah it’s got all the prog rock thing going..back to the roots sound ala sepultura etc….and folklore melodies..
This what i’ve been hoping for in Indian cinema…original and regional… redefining traditinonal story telling..
Anyway I’m glad you liked it … go forth and spread the word..AVIAL…. b-)
This rocks too :d
“Chekele”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTMJY0rrZI
Travis
Chekele is ok. Not as great as the other two. The male vocalist can sometime sound like any other background singer from South Indian movies. Infact that song feels like a Tamil movie song with the music replaced from Rahman’s heavy pop with very good progressive rock.
The band is awesome. I liked Karukara also.
Any other such hidden diamonds from our country?
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