White noise is a random signal (or process) with a flat power spectral density. In other words, the signal's power spectral density has equal power in any band, at any center frequency, having a given bandwidth. White noise is considered analogous to white light which contains all frequencies.

Who am I?

Neo-hippie cinephile. Follower of the great Jim Morrison who once said "If the doors of perception are cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is, infinite."

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

No Smoking

Just got back from the theater after watching it. It is a fantastic film. Indian cinema has finally grown up. I am so glad films like these are being made in India. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea though, which explains the horrible reviews. Recently read somewhere Karan Johar feels that Anuraag Kashyap needs psychiatric help. As they say, there is a fine line between genius and madness, and not knowing Kashyap personally, I do not know if he is on both sides of the line or not. This surrealistic Alician journey through the Wonderland of one's psyche is punctuated with indigenous humor and bouts of lousy acting by John Abraham, but Ayesha Takia in her bit role is good and Paresh Rawal is just about right. The editing is abrupt, but that may very well have been intentional to capture the true state of the protagonist's mind. The many significant yet little things are subtly showcased to make this a true film connoisseur's delight.

I remember reading an interview of a very frustrated Kashyap some time back. He was saying things like Yash Raj Films are a bully and talking of the double standards in Indian cinema, after Black Friday was given an R rating, releasing after months of squabbling with the Censor Board and Dhoom II with all its semi-nudity spared the label. He concluded the interview saying that he might give up making movies if this continues. I just hope he doesn't give up so easily and deny the 3% or so of the Indian audience that are fans of his work such creative ecstasy.

PS: To add to the whole surrealistic feel, a mini-earthquake shook all the seats in the theater I was watching it in at a critical juncture in the movie and the other eight people in the theater were momentarily shaken, literally.

PPS: The promos of Ashutosh Gowariker's Jodha-Akbar look promising enough to be Indian Cinema's first modern war movie with believable yet exhilarating action sequences. Ash, with a mellow look, portraying the Rajput princess looked less glamorous (effectively) than the hip handlebar mustached Hrithik playing the Shehnshah.

8 comments:

What's In A Name ? said...

Being a film-enthusiast myself...I feel encouraged at the news of Jodha-Akbar and the recent trends in Bollywood film-making. But, please, Dear Arsenik, Don't tell me that hodge-podge/ hideous hybrid between realism and fantasy(believing you )i.e 'NO SMOKING' is a step towards maturity of the Indian film industry. I may consider conceding that it was a brave film, the bravery being of the same vein as that of two youths who tried garlanding a tiger in Calcutta some years back.

ArSENik said...

Lol. I guess it appealed to my still maturing film enthusiastic mind. In my defense, I did not recommend the film to anyone even once in the post. All I am saying is that I loved it. Maybe maturity to me in cinema starts with experimentation.

What's In A Name ? said...

"Maybe maturity to me in cinema starts with experimentation.". wow! Good take, fellow blogger.

ArSENik said...

Ouch...rolling on the floor after being stabbed with the sarcasm dagger.

What's In A Name ? said...

nahi rey! That was genuine. No sarcasm there. I liked the honesty of that statement. :)

ArSENik said...

Lol...in that case, thanks.

Anonymous said...

I saw No Smoking today. The idea of the film was great. Screenplay was superb but it never attained the status of a feature film or an art film. Editing was superb. Three central characters only but it is unidirectional anti-smoking. Most of the time John was heavily super dressed up. OK. Great idea. Very bold director. Expect to get something good in future. Commercialization is zero. I read your post. It was too short.

ArSENik said...

This was not meant to be a review. It was more like random musings after the movie. Thus the brevity.