Review: No Smoking

Dreaming of Zihuatanejo reviews No Smoking, a film that a lot of people appear to loathe or love with equal intensity.

It is not often that a Hindi movie reminds you of a Murakami short story*. Make that never ever. But that is precisely what director Anurag Kashyap accomplishes with No Smoking. This phantasmagorical allegory explores the idea of addiction, and by extension of non-conformity. It takes a dark and cynical view of the the price one has to pay – to kick the habit, to survive, in fact to do both, as one can’t be accomplished without the other. The explicit addiction in this case is smoking, but replace it with a compulsion of your choice (â€?viceâ€? according to the rest of the word) and the movie would work just as well.