Desicritics Author: Abhishek Bandekar

Movie Review: No Smoking - Get High On This

Abhishek Bandekar — Fri, 2 Nov 2007 00:13:56 EDT

'To Do Is To Be’

‘To Be Is To Do’

‘Dobe Dobe Do!’

Bollywood films don’t begin with quotes by Plato and Socrates and follow it up with Frank Sinatra. No Smoking does. And it’s not because the film’s trying to be different and cool. It’s for a reason. Anurag Kashyap, at the very outset, warns you of the existential nature of the film to follow. If you are too dense to grasp that, it’s your fault. Maybe you’re in the wrong movie hall. Or maybe I’m being arrogant and No Smoking has been made in the wrong industry and wrong country. Or maybe, Anurag Kashyap has slyly gestured his critics and the tame Bollywood industry a massive ‘up-yours!’ disguised as a film.

Whatever it is, No Smoking surely grabs your attention and doesn’t let go for its entire running time. At the end of it though(as an insanely sexy Bipasha Basu gyrates to the impossibly sexier Phoonkh De, it seems that ‘attention’ is merely what Anurag Kashyap is after. But is that a bad thing when you’ve been treated to such a mind-bending experience? Not since Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem For A Dream have I seen such a ‘rush’ of hallucinatory imagery.

Most critics have complained about not understanding what No Smoking is all about. It’s certainly not a public service message against smoking, although it’s clever how Kashyap has led the censors to believe so and get them to pass excessive amounts of smoking minus any cuts. So what is it about? It has John Abraham as Just K- a chain smoker who, at the insistence of his wife Anjali(Ayesha Takia) and friend Abbas(Ranvir Shorey) enlists the services offered by a Guru Ghantaal Shri Shri Shri Baba Bengali Sealdeh Waala( played with menacing glee by Paresh Rawal) to rid him of his smoking habit. Would it have made any difference though if it had been porn, alcohol or tele-tubbies instead of cigarettes that Just K was addicted to? Cigarettes are only a red herring, a placebo pill that enables the bizarre script a base around which the narrative gleefully freewheels. Ridding K of his smoking is the least of the film’s concerns. What the film is concerned about is the cost he will have to pay for it. And therein lays the film’s existential dilemma.

Although the film’s basic premise is loosely based on Stephen King’s Quitters Inc.(which was adapted to the screen as a short in Cat’s Eye), No Smoking has more similarities to Franz Kafka’s The Trial. Not very unlike the protagonist of The Trial, Josef K., Just K is made to pay for his inability to accept his guilt. The question then is- does that inability make one less of a human being? Are we supposed to conform to society’s laws to be accepted as human beings?

The price K pays for quitting his social deviance(smoking) is much more grave than an otherwise death from smoking. Baba Bengali cuts off the fingers of his clients, fills the lungs of their relatives with cigarette smoke till they die and hacks their spouses to death. What then is bizarre? The world you live in or the world you create? As Jean Paul Sartre said of Josef K., and by extension of all conforming humanity- ‘He does not know his judges, scarcely even his lawyers; he does not know what he is charged with, yet he knows that he is considered guilty; judgment is continually put off. His external situation may appear brilliant, but the interminable trial invisibly wastes him away, and it happens eventually … that men seize him, carry him off on the pretense that he has lost his case, and murder him.’

No Smoking is at its heart an anarchist film. It wants you to question the established conventions and the compromises you’ve made to follow them. Are they worth it? Is it worth dying an old man with a life behind you full of compromises or die an early one doing always exactly what you wanted. The bargain is simple if you’ve attained clarity. What’s the harm in doing what you want? This is where Kashyap’s Just K goes from being Josef K. to Kashyap himself. If you take away the cigarettes, No Smoking is an autobiographical film. Kashyap is Just K, trying to make his kind of films in a world that makes him feel guilty for doing that. But if he chooses to make the compromise, what’s the price gonna be? A dead existence, minus the self- the soul. “Aatma hai to shareer eeshwar hai, warna sab nashwar hai!”

By merging the personal with the public, Kashyap commits the mistake that most surrealists did(leading to the movement’s death)- allowing private and personal visions to colour your work. But then what work isn’t personal at some subconscious level? Is it coincidence that Just K’s friend who initiates him into smoking is an Abbas Tyrewala who proclaims, “Maqbool, Main Hoon Na!”? Is it coincidence that Just K’s wife and secretary are the same(Kashyap’s wife is also his editor)? This merging however stops the film from being completely Kafkaesque as Kafka never let his characters be refletions of his life.

Even if one were to dismiss all the events as rubbish(Kafka and surrealism aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, especially when served together), there is still so much cinematic genuis at work here that is being criminally overlooked. Apart from the superlative cinematography(sepia has never looked this good before), the film employs Godard’s jump cuts and Welles’ lightning mix sound editing techniques. As if that weren’t enough, Kashyap indulges in comic book bubbles even.

Yes, the film has pacing issues. Yes, it does go off on unnecessary tangents at times(the Joy Fernandes sequence is a chore to sit through). But which Indian movie in recent memory has mixed Kafka with King, surrealism with existentialism, Lost with The Departed, Adnan Sami with Bob Fosse, Dil Se’s Ae Ajnabi with Dean Martin’s L’ Amore and so on? That’s one heady mix to get high on. Indulgent? You bet it is. But oh, what would I not give for such indulgence. Perhaps my soul even! Now, ain’t that a bargain Baba Bengali would love to oversee.

- Abhishek Bandekar

No Smoking (Dir- Anurag Kashyap, Written by- Raja Chaudhary and Anurag Kashyap, Cast- John Abraham, Ayesha Takia, Ranvir Shorey, Vineet Kumar and Paresh Rawal.)

Rating- ****

*Poor, **Average, ***Good, ****Very Good, *****Excellent

Movie Review: Martin Scorsese's The Departed

Abhishek Bandekar — Sun, 5 Nov 2006 09:34:30 EST

Of rats and men!

My bearings are not quite with me as I write this, but that is simply because I'm gushing more, thumbing my nose to poise and structure. Gushing- for I truly believe that I've just seen one of the most beautifully layered pieces of modern cinema, that deftly and effortlessly sieves together the best of literature & cinema, pop culture & politics, action & emotion. Martin Scorsese's The Departed does the unthinkable and then goes a step or two further until finally galloping away to instant classic status! Not only does The Departed live up to it's source of inspiration(the Hong Kong trilogy Infernal Affairs), it significantly finds its own unique voice and gets to insurmountable heights with its intelligence and well-earned arrogance that the original never even reached for.

Infernal Affairs was a big hit and received international cult status for its novel storyline of undercover agents on opposite sides, swift pace and psychological insight. In fact, the triumph of the trilogy was it's unnatural but fulfilling psychological approach to a material that in less ambitious hands would've been suffice at just being a good, taut thriller. It was the moral and ethical dilemma of the central characters that was so appealing about the Infernal Affairs trilogy, made all the more riveting with amazing performances from the two leads - Andy Lau and Tony Leung. Scorsese and his writer William Monahan cleverly use this dilemma, but add unique touches of their own, making the film exclusive.

The central dilemma in both films is based on the Nathaniel Hawthorne quote -
"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which one is true."

Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), both from the Irish American community of Boston are cops with the Massachusetts State Police in different means. Billy, owing to his checkered past and family history, is assigned to undercover duty while Colin's 'impeccable' record allows him to not only be assimilated easily into the official ranks but also steadily rise in ascendancy. The quirk of fate is that Colin is actually a 'rat' working for Irish mob boss Frank Costello(Jack Nicholson) while Billy is the mole in Costello's gang. Things get trickier when both sides realize that they have a mole amidst them. In an ironic twist, Colin is asked to find out Costello's mole in the department by Special Investigation Unit head Captain Ellerby (Alec Baldwin) while Frank Costello gets increasingly anxious to find out the 'rat' amongst his men. Billy and Colin both lead two lives as they struggle with their self-deception, nevertheless putting up a brave face at all times, and trying to find out their counterpart. This paradox is made more complex as Billy and Colin get involved with the same woman, Madolyn Madden(Vera Farmiga). Madolyn, a psychiatrist, becomes Colin's girlfriend after a whirlwind affair and also happens to be Billy's psychological counselor. Billy and Colin's emotional crisis are made evident vis-�-vis their ability to communicate with Madolyn. Colin is more closed, more rigid, afraid of the masculine father prototype while Billy is more vulnerable and open. A childhood picture of Madolyn plays an important role in bringing this out, as Colin avoids the picture while Billy in another scene puts it up higher on a wall. Billy's vulnerability and subsequent ability to deal with his dilemma is made clear in his discussions on lies and deception with Madolyn, subjects that Colin always evades.

The problem is one of identity. And Scorsese and Monahan amplify this concern by adding subtle but definite references and allusions that hint at the story and subject's overreaching focus. The Departed is not merely a thriller; it is a wonderful study of identity and one's quest for it. That this quest is set in the United States of America, a land of no authentic history, is all the more poignant as it addresses the travails of the minority in a heterogeneous culture. The Departed is more about acceptance, about assimilation into the American way of life, the American Dream so to speak. Scorsese once again proves that he is the poet laureate of the urban underclass.

Billy and Colin are both representatives of their subtypes. Billy will always be the outsider, the misfit as he is labeled by Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg). Billy will never be judged for himself, but always by his fathers. The same is the case with Colin. But while Billy's quest is that of his own identity in a mass of confused personalities, Colin's aspiration is to claim an assumed identity. Colin's fascination with the Massachusetts State House, a replacement for the Old State House, is a wonderful allegory. Billy and his thirst for the rooted contrasted with Colin's desire for the new is a damning argument, as it essentially seals the fate of the individuals with the nation. In the looming shadow of one of America's most imposing structures, a proxy structure for the one where the Declaration of Independence was once read, is a gloomy reminder of another Nathaniel Hawthorne quote -

"Once in every half-century, at least, a family should be merged into the great, obscure mass of humanity, and forget about its ancestors."

This is just the tip of the sub-textual richness of The Departed. Colin's dream of the perfect American life is at odds with his shady role as a 'rat'. Without giving away any spoilers, allow me to insert yet another Hawthorne quote that perfectly captures the incidents of the final reels-

"A hero cannot be a hero unless in an heroic world."

The above quote holds true for every character that is deceiving someone, even one's own self. Literary references abound in The Departed. James Joyce's Non Serviam is fittingly mouthed by the personification of Satan, Costello...who gallingly quotes Shakespeare as well, "Heavy lies the crown". There's one more Hawthorne quote explicitly quoted in the film that I'll leave you to experience fresh.

Then of course there are the cinematic references. Everything from the masking effect of Luis Bunuel's Un Chien Andolou to Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows and more are incorporated respectfully into the narrative. The climax actually is a smart tongue-in-cheek nod to Sirk's above-mentioned film, except that a 'rat' replaces the deer!

The performances are uniformly excellent with everyone from DiCaprio to Damon, Nicholson to Sheen and Baldwin to Wahlberg putting in everything into their parts, with Nicholson and Wahlberg sharing the best lines. This is Scorsese's picture though. And the master is in complete command of his craft here. None of my above exposition even manages to barely scratch the surface of this intricately patterned and deeply layered film. And I've not even mentioned the soundtrack, which is typically Scorsese and oh so good.

The Departed is one of the most astounding movies I've seen that indicts America for its exhibition of insensitivity and xenophobia. That it does so in an entertaining fashion, no pedantic in-your-face Crash this, is even more commendable. The closing line that Scorsese is perhaps trying to make is this, 'We are a nation of 'rats' and we all are bound by sin and suffering...so why deny anyone their identity.'

In the ambiguous paternity of Madolyn's baby and the peripheral references to minorities(a gracious acknowledgement of Indians as well) and in the eventual fate of his characters, Scorsese has probably made his most personal film. After years of still being the outsider in Hollywood, would you expect anything else?

Rating- *****

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The Departed
Dir- Martin Scorsese
Cast- Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Vera Farmiga and Jack Nicholson.
Written by- William Monahan (based on a screenplay by Felix Chong and Siu Fai Mak)
Rating- *****