No Smoking Ideology Explained
No Smoking is a 2007 Indian neo-noir surreal psychological thriller film written and directed by Anurag Kashyap.The film stars John Abraham, Ayesha Takia, Ranvir Shorey and Paresh Rawal in the lead roles, while Bipasha Basu appears in an Item number.The film is loosely based upon the 1978 short story "Quitters, Inc." by Stephen King, which was previously adapted as one of three segments featured in Hollywood anthology film Cat' s eye.
The film released worldwide on 26 October 2007, but was met with a lukewarm response from Indian critics and mixed response from overseas critics.The film did not perform well at the box office either, becoming one of the major disasters of the year.
According to Kashyap, the film failed because, it was considered much ahead of its time, courtesy of its dark and unusual storyline comprising with elements of surrealism, fantasy, dream, reality,horror and dark humour which left critics and the cinema-goers baffled, this was frowned upon by Indian audiences, as it was unconventional, pretentious and they had never seen anything like it. But in later years, the film received positive reviews and has become a cult film.
Brief description and context of movie:-
The film begins with a man waking up in decrepit old house in an unknown area. He gets a call from his wife inquiring where he is. Unaware of his location, he searches the house for a cigarette. He accidentally opens a room and finds it filled with Russian soldiers. One of them starts chasing him and opens fire at him. He gets shot in the leg and jumps into a bathtub he finds in the snow. The man wakes up in a bathtub. He is revealed to be K (John Abraham), a wealthy businessman in his 30s. He is confident, narcissistic and very arrogant, and also completely addicted to smoking. He smokes almost constantly - at work, at home, even in the bath and while having sex. His friends and family beg him to quit, but to no avail. K's friend Abbas (Ranvir Shorey) and his doctor (Kiku Sharda), offer to set up an appointment at a rehabilitation centre called 'Prayogshaala' ('The Laboratory'), which they claim will surely rid K of his habit. K finally relents after his wife Anjali (Ayesha Takia) leaves him, unable to take the strain K's smoking addiction places on their relationship.
K decides to check out Prayogshaala, and meets Shri Shri Prakash Guru Ghantal Baba Bengali Sealdahwale (Paresh Rawal). The centre operates behind the front of another business, 'Kalkatta Karpets'. K finds the building to be unconventional and confusing, similar to a Labyrinth. The method Prayogshaala uses to cure their patients of their addiction is based on fear and psychological manipulation. Each time a patient gives in to their vice, Baba makes sure that something shocking happens to them.
Offense #1 : Almost killing a loved one, by keeping him / her in a chamber full of cigarette smoke the person has smoked in his entire life, for a duration of 5 minutes.
Offense #2 : Losing a finger.
Offense #3 : Death of a loved one.
Offense #4 : Taking the soul of the person from his body, although this offense is described very loosely.
K initially refuses to sign the contract and pay the fee of ₹21,11,110 for his treatment but is forced to do so by Baba and his disciples. Baba then tells K that he is free to leave, but he must abide by the rules or he will suffer the consequences. K witnesses other members of the group as they try to quit smoking. Many end up losing fingers as they cannot resist the urge to smoke. K tries to keep to the terms but fails twice and is punished. He is now very conscious about the third time.
After some time, K meets an old friend, Alex, who is now a Cuban cigar seller. At an event, K is forced to place a cigar in his mouth, in order to appease his friend. Seconds later, he receives a phone call from the police, who inform him that his wife is missing and possibly dead. He calls Baba and is told that for smoking, his wife will be killed, as per the rules. He protests that he did not actually smoke and Baba apologizes for the mistake, but says it is too late. K asks Baba to tell the police about this, but the line goes dead and the phone number is non-existent on dialling. K's protests are ignored and the police believe that he is delusional. Trying to prove his story, he seeks out Abbas, who had lost a finger at the rehabilitation centre, only to find that the man has all fingers intact. Mocking him, the police force K to smoke. Shortly afterwards, K gets a phone call that his brother committed suicide due to his smoking habit. K raves angrily at the police and is thrown in the jail.
K is eventually bailed out. Soon, he learns that Baba permits sins and vices to be done during a period known as 'Zero Minute'. He attends an event, where he sees Baba, but is unable to reach him. K decides to light a cigarette. Suddenly, K wakes up in a Russian army base, with a call from his wife. She asks him why he believes she is dead. K is confused, but escapes from the base by jumping into water and ends up in a ragged room, from which he sees himself staring out from a hospital room. He also sees his wife and Baba. He calls out but no one can hear him, and he is told that it is because his body no longer hears his inner soul. The final punishment is complete.
In a series of haphazard events, the twisted path of K's soul is shown, until it finally reaches his body once again. K wakes up in his home to find his wife sleeping near him. He also discovers that he is missing two fingers. Later, K is seen recommending the "Prayogshala" centre to a friend.
The Possible Interpretation and Ideology of movie:-
To do is to be – Socrates.
To be is to do – Plato.
Do be do be do – Sinatra.
When K falls into the water in the police station his soul and body go on two separate journeys. The soul is confused, tortured, doesn’t know what’s going on and then is burnt in hell. What wakes up is the body, finally calm because the internal torture has ended realises his fingers are cut, signifying the separation of his soul.” So the crux of ‘No Smoking’ is a journey of the subconscious, but not all of it is K’s imagination, as many theories online suggest.
Well, duh, of course not. While on the surface, the film just deals with a man’s obsession with the smoke, it can be considered a commentary on any kind of addiction and a man’s fight with it, conscious as well as subconscious. But even that is pretty evident isn’t it?
But on a deeper level, the film can be perceived as the fight between the arrogant and the super-arrogant. Anurag Kashyap answered this very question, saying, “The story is actually between the freedom to choose and censorship. Smoking is bad but the motto is ‘Give me the freedom to choose’. The genesis was a Stehen King story, but my experiences with the two other films changed it to what it is”. While smoking (or making violent films) is injurious, is taking these measures to make people stop doing it moral? That is the question ‘No Smoking’ seeks to ask. Kashyap’s previous films ‘Paanch’ and ‘Black Friday’ had run into a truckload of trouble with the CBFC, which is what brought forth the idea of this film.
So, in a nutshell, ‘No Smoking’ is a commentary on the incessant censorship throttling the freedom of expression, wrapped in a smoking analogy.
Symbolism in the movie:-
No Smoking’ is littered with motifs which seem random at first but convey a deep meaning when mulled upon. Let’s shed some light on the symbolic meaning of some of the film’s recurring patterns:
The Two Missing Fingers – The two fingers which the Praypgshala chops off aren’t random; they’re your ‘smoking’ fingers. Literally cutting them signifies the extreme measure taken to cut one off. Kashyap explains in context to the theme we earlier discussed “Have you realised that the fingers we use to hold a cigarette is also used to hold a pen.. holding a pen symbolises writing that is freedom of expression, which is why Abbas, having lost his fingers had lost his soul.” Thus the fingers being cut are a strong allusion to the cutting off of the freedom of speech (another jab at censorship)
The Bathtub – The bathtub (or any water body) signifies the calm centre of K’s universe. It is the one place where he feels calm, and therefore is the place where his conscious and subconscious merge. As Kashyap explained, K’s journey becomes subconscious once he is submerged into the water at the police station. Except the end, where he emerges in a bed, K always emerges in a bathtub at the end of his subconscious trips.
The Siberian Army Base – The heavily-guarded Siberian army base, which troubles K in nightmares even before the encounter with Prayogshala, signifies an isolated, oppressive regime of control with the bathtub and a box of cigs, his two calming agents, visible in the distance.
Prayogshala being underground – This one’s pretty clear, as Paresh Rawal himself says it during the film. The lab being underground, at the end of a labyrinth-like path, signifies it being a kind of hell (or pataal lok) which, according to Hindu mythology, is under the ground we live upon.
The Hearing Aid – Everyone undergoing treatment with Prayogshala is seen wearing hearing aids. It signals ans that the patients, who were unwilling listeners at first to the detractors of their habit, were now listening clearly.
The ‘One Rupee Fees’ – According to Kashyap, the meagre fees is the is his version of ‘my two cents’ or the opinion put forth by the baba, as well as the significance of a small amount of effort.
Ideology of Characters:-
K is a self-obsessed, smart aleck, narcissist, chain smoker who agrees to quit smoking for his wife, but is caught up in the game of Baba Bengali in the process, after he refuses to co-operate.
Anjali / Annie is the wife of K, who is fed up of his habit and forcefully tries to make him quit by threatening to leave him.Annie is the secretary of K, who seems to have a crush on him and looks exactly the same as Anjali. Throughout the movie, it is implied she happens to be both Annie and Anjali as K liked spreading rumors in the office about their affairs.
Shri Shri Prakash Guru Ghantal Baba Bengali Sealdahwale is the film's main antagonist, who is extremely mysterious, yet very clever and powerful. He forcefully makes people quit smoking, otherwise bad things keep on happening in their lives. He knows at all times if someone is breaking his agreement, even if they are in another country, or no man's land.
Shri Shri Baba Bengali
Abbas Tyerwalla is the friend of K, who was also the one to introduce him to smoking. He recommends the Prayogshala (Laboratory) to K, as he himself had to learn to quit smoking from Baba Bengali.
Doctor and another friend of K, who learnt to quit smoking from Baba Bengali.
In this movie ‘Anurag Kashyap’ clearly highlight how a person in their teen picks up smoking just for the sake of experimentation and how it turns into a habit .Also through this movie he highlight the exact problems a smoker faces in his life and the impact of smoking on their family life.The best part is that the movie doesn't pass a value judgement on smoking as an act itself;
it's left up to the viewer to decide .
For example someone might view smoking as an act of liberation and the consequence as merely a small negative impact or you could view it as a activity which is picked up in adolescent years , which becomes very difficult to quit after few year.
2)The movie also has a very dominant fascist theme .
This idea that K(John Abraham ) was forced into the program ; similar to way people are coerced into a fascist regime , they never to be choose to part of .This idea is reinforced by the few scenes where K wakes in a Siberia and tries hard really hard to run but is shoot down by the army individuals.
The 4 Stage of punishment instituted by Baba Bengali .
Each time a patient gives in to their vice, Baba makes sure that something shocking happens to them.
a)The first offence is almost killing a loved one by keeping him/her in a chamber full of cigarette smoke the person has smoked in his entire life for a duration of 5 minutes. (Attack the people closest to you – psychologically hampering you state of mind)
b)The second offence leads to lose of a finger(Trying to deter you from what you do by , hindering your ability to do it ).
c)The third offence leads to the death of a loved one.(death of someone closest to you which impacts your life in a permanent manner )
d)The last offence leads to separation of the soul from the body ,soul is then imprisoned for eternity-this punishment is described very vaguely in the movie .( Torturing the person in question so much that they end up being an empty shell inside , i.e. that they loose their individuality and ability to think for themselves and end up being a robot which follows the rule made by the fascist institution.)
3.Satire
This a satire by Anurag Kashyap on the censor board and the state , which had stalled two of his movie; Paanch and Black Friday. This movie is him showing his frustration with the state which doesn’t allow him to express himself via his movies.
- Baba Bengali mentions that Democracy is only on earth and once you come down to this hell you do not have democracy.
We can see a spirit like thing around Baba Bengali showing he is surrounded by souls.
- Also behind Baba Bangali there is a portrait depicting someone holding to lot of souls.
- In many western concepts, it is depicted that the Devil picks on your weakness and induces you (actually trick you) into signing a contract ultimately leading to to give away your soul to the Devil by way of the pact. There is a huge contract in the movie which has lot of hidden information, only left for the imagination of the audience.
- It is also depicted that usually gates to Hell are weird entrances which are not eazily accessible but only by a special technique. In the particular case by a guard (Carpet seller) who scans the hand.
- It all also connects back in the end when the prisoners are shown in the process of giving away their souls.
- Siberia is shown twice once in the dream (starting) and once in reality (at the end) this indicates that it was probably John’s fate to land up in hell as the devil’s planning might have started much before Aisha forces him to go to rehab (Laboratory)
- The Eunuch, Taxi driver, security guard, Interview person, person who kills John’s brother, person with Ranvir, all are the same and is a special person of baba bengali who can roam around on earth freely.
Great content and quite informative
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