Fashion
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Bhandarkar Entertainment
UTV Pictures
I walked in to see the film expecting to see another typical Madhur Bhandarkar film and it was just that. No Different. Another piece of work which aims to showcase all the negatives of a specific industry. Madhur Bhandarkar always tries to make a realistic movie but by putting all negatives into one film and so his films always turn into extreme reality, taking a lot of sincerity and authenticity away from the film. It was disappointing that he was not able to surprise you as a viewer at all. Nothing in this movie showed us something we did not already know. Alcohol, cigarettes, sex, cocaine, gay guys, we expected all of these going into the film, so what has she shown us that we don’t already know? Seemed as if not a lot of research was done and thus in a way as a viewer I felt cheated.
Fashion is the story about a small town girl (Priyanka Chopra) who wants to make it big in the bad and evil world of fashion. She comes to Mumbai to peruse her dreams. She makes it big, then success gets the better of her, she hits rock bottom, takes time out to think about life and then tries to get back onto her feet. As I said this film had no surprises and that itself surprised me!
I think Priyanka Chopra did quite a good job. Inspite of her character having some flaws according to me, she pulled off a convincing performance. Though I kept thinking that Bipasha Basu could have also been an interesting choice instead of Priyanka Chopra in the film. A lot of the supporting cast were the same people you find in all of Madhur Bhandarkar’s film. I that Kangana Ranaut acted brilliantly. She did not have a lot of dialogues in her film (which was good in a way cause you dint have to hear here weird accent). Though her on screen presence was brilliant. I felt her character and look was inspired from the female in Fight Club (The Brad Pitt one).
The music of the film was also very interesting. The Music CD of this film has some exciting remixes which can give likes of Infected Mushroom, GMS and Skazi a run for their money. Unfortunately one of the better songs Mar Java is a rip of a song by Khalid called Aicha.
Inspite of the name of the film being fashion, and it being based on the fashion world I felt the movie lacked gloss and glamour. Yes it did have glamour but it could have had so much more. Most of the fashion shows in the film were shot in such a way that they looked like an interschool competition. And that was disappointing to see.
Overall I felt that Fashion was a very convenient film. Everytime there was a complex situation in the film, Madhur Bhandarkar seemed to take the easy way out and do something convenient. For example initially when Priyanka Chopra came to the Mumbai when he wanted to portray her as being confident he did so and when he wanted to portray her as being scared, unsure he did so. So how was she both confident and unsure at the same time? The fashion designer with the lisp, when needed he had a lisp and when not his lisp disappeared! Priyanka Chopra’s father was always against her being a model and he suddenly changes and sends her back to Bombay. The parents angle comes into the film whenever convenient for the director.
This film felt like an amateurish attempt to reveal the evils of the fashion world. I felt this film promised to deliver so much more but could only do that much. I could’nt help but look at my watch multiple times in the film as time seemed to be going by very slowly. Watch this film if you have the time. I’d give it 1.5 on 5.