‘No Smoking’ was way ahead of its time: ‘Drishyam 2’ director Abhishek Pathak

By Akshay Acharya

Mumbai, Nov 19 (SocialNews.XYZ) Making a successful sequel is not an easy task but director Abhishek Pathak has managed to achieve the rare feat with 'Drishyam 2'. The film has managed to rake in close to Rs 16 crore on its opening day, as per trade experts.

The legacy of 'Drishyam' is so strong that the sequel has even left behind the first day collections of Ajay Devgn's pre-pandemic movie 'Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior' which collected Rs 15 crore on its first day.

Abhishek, who is the son of Bollywood producer Kumar Mangat Pathak, took over the reins as the director of 'Drishyam 2' after Nishikant Kamat, the director of 'Drishyam' passed away in 2020 due to cirrhosis.

Pathak spoke to IANS about the technicalities of his film and reminisced about the times when he was learning the ropes as a director back in 2006 from Anurag Kashyap.

'Drishyam 2' has quite an intriguing photography and imagery. The colour palette, the high contrast moving images and the temperatures accentuate the viewing experience. The reason behind such sharp imagery is the perfect sync between the director and the cinematographer Sudhir K. Chaudhary.

Abhishek told IANS: "Sudhir and I have known each other for a long time, over a decade now. He did the cinematography for 'Pyaar Ka Punchnama' (Abhishek was the producer of the film) and we share a very similar wavelength, our ideas are in sync. We worked around the photography of the film with a certain vision and everything right from the imagery, to its contrast and even the colour palette is a result of hours of brainstorming."

Detailing is of essence as Pathak said: "Even the colour of the cushions that you see in the film was decided after putting a lot of thought into it."

In a similar vein, he talked about the music of the film and his experience working with music composer Devi Sri Prasad (DSP), whose songs from 'Pushpa: The Rise' swayed the nation earlier.

The director mentioned: "DSP is a master composer. He has an acute sense of what will work sonically for a film or a scene. We jammed along with him in his Chennai studio and he was always on top of his game. The sounds and textures that he uses are simply unparalleled."

He then walked down the memory lane and recollected his experience working with Indian auteur Anurag Kashyap on his 2007 release 'No Smoking' which tanked severely at the box-office, but gained a cult status over the years.

Abhishek served as the first assistant director on the film, which built its narrative on the basis of a range of themes and allegory.

Abhishek shared: "We were shooting for a part of 'Omkara' in Juhu when my father told me that Anurag Kashyap was coming down to our residence for a narration. I was very happy because I was a big fan of Anurag having seen his earlier works. When I heard the narration, I was completely blown away and felt like this film had the tone of David Fincher's movies."

He went on to mention that the film was truly a masterpiece that could not attract the audience back in the day simply because it was way ahead of its time, adding that: "During its making, I learnt a lot from Anurag and the whole team. 'No Smoking' is a film that deserves a lot more love but sadly the audience weren't ready for a film of that kind, it was quite ahead of its time and perhaps still is."

'Drishyam 2', which stars Ajay Devgn in the lead, is currently playing in cinemas.

Source: IANS