The November Rain was a surprise. I heard some pattering which sounded like heavy rain as I was finishing work last evening. But I didn't take much notice. When I walked out of my window-less office, the black and yellow streets was glistening with fresh rain. It was dark and wet. The city was caught unawares, and people huddled below bus-stop shelters or shop window roofs, waiting for the rain to stop.
The freak downpour was a good appetizer for the movie No Smoking by Anurag Kashyap, a delightful dark comedy. It stars John Abraham as K, Praesh Raval as Baba Bengali, and AyeshaTakia as K's wife. K, a relentless smoker, is on a rehab program run by Baba Bengali. The strategy is simple, if K smokes, a loved one will be killed.
The movie does a great job of showing the breakdown of K from a macho, over-confident asshole to a psychological wreck, who ultimately sheds a tear. The scenes are surreal, and fresh. However, it is vaguely reminiscent of Naked Lunch based on William Burrough's book of the same name. Reality, dreams, and imagination are fantastically inter-vowen with well edited and enhanced images of Mumbai's congested roads and slums. Add to that moments of madness, and pseudo-drug-induced perceptions (No Smoking seems metaphor for drug use, especially for hard drugs like cocaine and heroin). There's a great scene in which K is looking for the rehab program in a slum area and he goes through a path that even Escher would have been proud of. The burkha-clad call-center employees were another superb invention.
Baba Bengali is fascinating mix of a north-Indian dacoit, comedian, and saviour; almost a god-like, cult figure. He puts Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now to shame.
No comments:
Post a Comment