Tracing the Kafkaesque in neoliberal India: No Smoking (2007)

Abstract

This article looks at the film No Smoking (2007), as an example of a ‘Kafkaesque’ piece of art which, though a commercial failure, attempts an ingenious critique of the absurdity of the neoliberal order (and impending fascism). The article examines how the film explores the promises (and their non-fulfilment) of urban space and technology, surveillance, censorship, the rise of right-wing populism, and the negotiations of identity in the irrational neoliberal order.