Fashion - The Movie Experience

Madhur Bhandarkar has always had a flair for subjects with dark shades that brings out the cruelty and shocking facts prevalent in our society, a subject least attempted by many a directors. After giving us Satta, Chandni Bar, Page 3, Corporate and Traffic Signal, Madhur Bhandarkar is back with yet another realistic film, Fashion.

The common point in all the above films are strong women protagonists; focus on one particular aspect of the society; good research and then creating entertaining stories that move the critics, the audiences and the box office together. His films never compromise on the Entertainment quotient despite being preachy sometimes. It’s a formula that has clicked so far for Madhur and Fashion promises that the successful run will continue.

Produced by Ronnie Screwvala of UTV Motion Pictures, the film stars Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut, Mugdha Ghodse and Arjan Bajwa.

Priyanka Chopra plays Meghna Mathur, a starry-eyed girl from Chandigarh who comes to Mumbai and struggles to get a break in the modeling industry and attains stardom.
Kangana Ranaut plays a supermodel. She is the one who walks with full confidence and attitude on the ramp. I totally loved it. Moreover, the wardrobe malfunction scene was brilliantly performed by her.
Debutant Arjan Bajwa plays a struggling model and also the love interest of Priyanka Chopra.

The newcomer in the movie, Mugdha Godse, who is playing a role of an unsuccessful model, is a nice surprise. She is confident and can give a run for money to any actress out there. Mugdha Godse plays an unsuccessful model who doesn't make it to the top. She does odd jobs and is a funky and carefree woman. With a great figure and face that registers a spectrum of emotions, she gives a compelling consistency to her goodhearted model's character. She sported awesome looks and I totally loved her attitude.

Fashion is all about realism and Madhur doesn’t shy away from anything. One thing I liked about the movie is the portrayal of gay designers. Conundrum of male models to sleep with gay designers in order to get a show and condition of a mother whose son is a gay fashion designer and doesn’t want to marry are brilliantly shown. Drugs and booze are added bonus to the movie.

I know many male fashion designers are gays, but seriously, in Fashion, every male designer is being depicted as gay, which I found to be a bit unfair.

Jitna kam sochogi utna zyada kamaogi…… (The less you think, the more you earn) is the one line killer dialogue which yells all about Fashion in full volume!

Fashion ain’t without flaws though. The one thing that could go against it at the box-office is the pace of the film, which is dreadfully slow. It’s so slow that it takes a good amount of sheen away from the movie. Especially when a tired me starts a 10:30 movie at 11pm due to inefficiencies at ‘Priya’ Movie hall.

Priyanka could have done better, Whether it’s telling her parents that she’s decided to go to Mumbai to pursue a career in modelling, her tantrums or her confrontations with Manav (Arjan Bajwa), Abhijit Sarin (Arbaaz Khan), Anisha (Kitu Gidwani), Shonali (Kangana Ranaut) in the rest room or dress designer Vinay Khosla,

Priyanka Chopra shows no life in her acting and utterly fails to bring any drama to the screen. While Priyanka Chopra is not upto expectation in Fashion, Kitu Gidwani (as the modeling agency owner Anisha), Arjan Bajwa (as the struggling male model Manav), Mughda Godse (as the model Janet) and Sameer Soni (as a gay dress designer Rahul Arora) throw in decent performances. Harsh Chaya's 'gay lisp' was the only annoying appendage (as vinay )

The movie had less than impressive costumes and makeup. Priyanka’s makeup was quite terrible.

I think there is more to fashion industry than this. He forgets to talk about anorexia and how what all weird things models do to keep themselves fit and what about the much hyped size zero?? Apart from the dark side, why can’t we ever see the positive side of any industry? Every character in a Bhandarkar movie is either black or white…but are there no grey characters in real life. I believe in his urge to expose the fashion industry, he forgets to bring out a true and unbiased picture.

Despite the fact that it has got an 'A Certificate' from the censor board, the movie hall 'Priya' had so many kids watching it. The 'A Certificate' didn't seem to deter the parents from bringing the kids to the theatre. The only unreal aspect about Madhur Bhandarkar movies are the disclaimer tag before the opening credits ;-)

To sum up, immense amount of hard work has gone into making Fashion and it clearly shows in the final product.

Watch it!

Last laugh...... there's a scene in the movie which talks about women being 'eye-candy' in parties.... The men were the 'eye-candy' in this movie...... ;-)