Amateur movie with Big budget

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The first must-see film of the year.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

No Smoking is made with good intentions and the filmmaker is desperately trying to do something completely out of the box in this movie. However, the movie which has several themes such as surrealism, fantasies and dream sequences, makes the viewer completely distant from the underlying meaning of it all. It is frustrating to watch a movie and not comprehend the whole point of the story. The cinematography is good and John Abraham does a decent job in the lead role. The movie seems to be inspired by Mulholland Drive which is another movie that can drive the viewer insane with its ambiguous storyline. Even though Anurag Kashyap must be praised for trying to make experimental movies, the movie must give the viewer some clue as to what the truth is. The movie will be frustrating and disappointing for most of the people. Hence, stay away from it unless you are looking for something completely different from the usual crap.

Bad remake of Stephen King's Cat's Eye (1985). Perhaps people have not seen Cat's Eye. And Anurag K. never mentions it in all his interviews as well. Come on Bollywood directors, come up with some original ideas. Your stealing from movies that are not popular amongst today's audience does not make you genius. There are hundreds of stories of Indian soil, which you can pick up for adaptation. Coming back to the movie. The movie is lifted from the aforementioned English movie, and made it more gory to the extent of being boring. Direction was below average, screenplay was dark, acting of Paresh, John and Ayesha were average, music was dull. Anurag is overrated as a director, just because his so called realistic choice of movie selection. He decorates the movie with skilled actors and gets all the accolades. I would any day prefer a Thigmanshu movie over Kashyap's.

Simply a masterpiece of abstract concept.I did not get the meaning in my first watch but interlinking all the events together I could get the idea behind the movie in the subsequent times. The set, the story line, the cast everything was so fascinating that each time I watch I find it something out of this world,something really new. It is evident that none can bet on box office success of such kind of movies in India but these movies are not made for box-office.These movies are made for the tiny number of viewers who can think beyond their imagination.The film was heavily panned by Indian critics.It was criticized as "one big puzzle that refuses to get solved".And so it was stated as "Very disappointing". But my question for them is "Are our lives not some unsolved big puzzles??" And all unsolved puzzles do have solutions.

Inspired by movies made by auteurs like Kaufman, Lynch etc, Anurag Kashyap makes 'No Smoking'. Given the premise, which is very interesting, one would expect something stunning, especially since Kashyap has assumed director's seat. However, 'No Smoking' fails to meet up expectations. Kashyap's style of making, which is inspired by Kaufman's works, is impressive on the technical side. The editing, cinematography, lighting and special effects are very well done. Vishal Bhardwaj's score is terrific. Kashyap also succeeds in creating a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere but the main problem's are with the script and performances. The basic skeleton of the story treads the path of a traditional thriller where the writers later added elements of surrealism and symbolism. At the same time Kashyap tries to tackle too many themes but they all end up half-baked. John Abraham turns up with a truly abysmal performance. He is wooden to the core and wears one expression almost through the entire film. While Paresh Rawal's Baba Bangali lacks mystery and intrigue. Rawal repeats his hyperactive-chatterbox act. Ayesha Takia isn't given much scope. With movies like 'Black Friday', Anurag Kashyap has proved to be a more than capable film director. However, 'No Smoking' does not meet up with the standards.