No Smoking (2007) :
Brief Review -
Stephen King's novel gets Over-confusing and Soulless narrative but the advanced structure of storytelling is still worth watching. No Smoking might be the most advanced narrative told in Bollywood for its time because of futuristic storytelling and unrealistic labyrinth designing. One must understand the basic motive of it before coming to any conclusion which is far simpler than what it looks. Yes, it looks confusing the way it ends and force you to think about it from other point of view and that's where the victory of director awaits but if you don't really find yourself in a maze which certainly has sideway to the destination then there is nothing much that can confuse you. It's a surreal story about a man, his addiction of smoking, and a mysterious and powerful organisation, which claims to cure such addictions, though through very unusual ways. First you don't have to believe it much because of its fictional values, two is you have to feel it in human ways and third is you don't have to lose you basic cinematic sense for the sake of intricate structure in which the narrative is bulit. There are some things in the film which have been over-visualised, over-conceptualized and over-fantasized, for instance take The Secretary's character. You don't know her but you get to hear about her and you're left with several unanswered questions about her and at last you don't even care about her. That's quite unnecessarily built-up which doesn't get any justification to prove its value towards the main narrative. Rest, it has a gripping screenplay, terrific performance, amazing direction and highly situational music with meaningful Lyrics. On the negative side it has few loopes that weren't covered well or should I say were not used properly which hurts. King's original novel still seems more accurate, more simple and more attractive than this and that's the only defeat of this film otherwise it's a great head-spinner.
RATING - 7/10*
By - #samthebestest
Stephen King's novel gets Over-confusing and Soulless narrative but the advanced structure of storytelling is still worth watching. No Smoking might be the most advanced narrative told in Bollywood for its time because of futuristic storytelling and unrealistic labyrinth designing. One must understand the basic motive of it before coming to any conclusion which is far simpler than what it looks. Yes, it looks confusing the way it ends and force you to think about it from other point of view and that's where the victory of director awaits but if you don't really find yourself in a maze which certainly has sideway to the destination then there is nothing much that can confuse you. It's a surreal story about a man, his addiction of smoking, and a mysterious and powerful organisation, which claims to cure such addictions, though through very unusual ways. First you don't have to believe it much because of its fictional values, two is you have to feel it in human ways and third is you don't have to lose you basic cinematic sense for the sake of intricate structure in which the narrative is bulit. There are some things in the film which have been over-visualised, over-conceptualized and over-fantasized, for instance take The Secretary's character. You don't know her but you get to hear about her and you're left with several unanswered questions about her and at last you don't even care about her. That's quite unnecessarily built-up which doesn't get any justification to prove its value towards the main narrative. Rest, it has a gripping screenplay, terrific performance, amazing direction and highly situational music with meaningful Lyrics. On the negative side it has few loopes that weren't covered well or should I say were not used properly which hurts. King's original novel still seems more accurate, more simple and more attractive than this and that's the only defeat of this film otherwise it's a great head-spinner.
RATING - 7/10*
By - #samthebestest