Ranvir Shorey and John Abraham in No Smoking

I’m K, just K! Well that’s no desi version of James Bond but the introduction scene of John Abraham in Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking. The longish first trailer of the movie begins with that. In an obvious tribute to Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, a bare-bodied John faces the mirror in high-contrast black-and-white, very much like Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle, and sets the ball rolling for the Kafkaesque thriller from the maker of Black Friday.

What follows in a swift montage of how badly K is addicted to smoking. In fact, he is so obsessed that he has even alienated his wife, played by Ayesha Takia, looking very much the girl next door. “Is baar anniversary pe kya chahiye tumhein?” “Divorce,” fires Ayesha. “Itna budget nahin hai mera,” fires back John. Sharp, slick, witty, No Smoking has a very matter-of-fact tongue-in-cheek feel to the proceedings.

But then things get scary! A haunting cabaret sung by Adnan Sami and picturised on model Jesse Randhawa (!) delivers a trailer mein twist. Jab bhi cigarette jalta hai, main bhi jalta hoon has been composed by No Smoking’s producer Vishal Bharadwaj and written by Gulzar. Other characters whom we see flitting in and out during this inner turmoil of K are Ranvir Shorey and Kiku Sharda, all trying to get him to quit smoking.

And then, in the last lap of the trailer, enter Baba Bangali played by Paresh Rawal, whom Anurag calls his Gabbar Singh. “Cigarette beedi tambaku sab ka ilaaj hai uske paas… It’s here that the film goes into complete surreal mode with chopped fingers and scampering rodents filling up the screen. And we even land up in Russia where John is being chased down by the military. Why? He is still smoking. And even at gun point all he can ask for is a “maachis”!

Anurag’s idea of a man trying to quit smoking had given birth to the Saif-Boman episode in the Ram Gopal Varma-produced Darna Mana Hai. But then he fleshed his idea out and made into a full-length feature. While everybody from Shah Rukh Khan to Hrithik Roshan were approached by Anurag, the film finally got made with John who was more than eager to do something hatke.

No Smoking releases on October 26.

Trivia: No Smoking’s storyline “has similarities with Stephen King’s short story Quitters, Inc. The story released in the Night Shift anthology was adapted as one of three films called Cat’s Eye starring James Woods and Alan King.