i dont know if the film NO SMOKING is ahead of times or wot, but wat i understand is the film failed to communicate with the audience. film is a medium of communication in audio visual form & if it does not communicate a story or its idea than somewhere there is a flaw in storytelling by the director.
lets be very honest about it & not get carried away by the fear of not being so called intellectuals. i adore anurag. he is a genius. but if he fails to communicate an idea lets accept it.
u see when earlier shyam benegal etc started making films decades ago people laughed at their films. so wat happened is we got 2 tribes in cinema making, commercial films & art films. its the same now. they failed with the masses. now may be satyajit ray is an icon to be worshipped but than way back when his films were released they were not mass appeal films. but as times changed the group of people increased who identified with satyjit ray, shyam benegal kind of cinema. so may be we can say these filmmakers were ahead of times & today after so many years they hav got some audience in public domain.
same is the case of anurag & his films. his films r on the wierd wild side of filmmaking. he tells his story in a very high intelectual fashion. its like a complex puzzle & requires lots of brain to be used. his films r the genre of 'modern art'. like modern art is understood (or shown to be understood!) by only intelectuals this genre of films r understood by very few.
this style of films work on one basic concept of INTERPRETATION. there can be 'n' number of interpretations of his films bcause every individual will hav his own perspective on the film. i may interpret something dark but u may interpret it as a philosphical film. these type of film, uses a lot of metaphor in terms of narration of its idea.
so may be if not today, slowly we will hav a handful of audience, i mean intelectual audience who can crack the stories & themes of a film. Anurag will be remembered as the pioneer in this genre of arrogant filmmaking!