Movie Review: Fashion

I wouldn’t call ‘Fashion’ a dud, but yeah, coming from Madhur Bhandarkar, the man who gave us stellar hits like Page 3 and Corporate, watching ‘Fashion’ was a tad disappointing.

What could have been an insightful glimpse into the fashion world, turns instead into a protracted catechism / moral science class.

It starts off well though. Predictable, but nice.

So you have the middle-class model-in-the-making, Meghna (Priyanka) who harbours a secret desire to escape from smothering Chandigarh to glitzy Mumbai, and at the end of the long ride, achieve supermodel stardom, complete with all the perks.

So she arrives bag and baggage at the doorstep of a distant relative in Mumbai, a gay friend, who is assistant to a fashion designer, having assured her that he would do all it takes to get her onto the fashion bandwagon.

So far, so good.

After this, the movie goes on a downslide.

In the almost 3 hour long torture, Madhur Bhandarkar introduces you, can by can of every possible vice one may encounter in the swanky fashion realm.

So you have the teetering-off-the-edges supermodel, Shonali (played by Kangana Ranaut) who is on a destructive journey of coke-overdose, nicotine, and arrogance; the fellow struggler (Arjun Bawa) – who shares her profession, and later her bed; an openly-gay designer who marries his school friend Janet (Mughda Godse) – the tough-but-good-hearted model – for the sake of pacifying a society which frowns upon homosexuality as a depraved disease; the grieving parents who moan about their daughter who has kicked off her flat sandals in favour of sky-high stilettos.

There is also the gory / murky side – the business tycoon (Arbaaz Khan) – who provides for her, expecting his pound of flesh in return; his wife (Suchitra Pillai) who turns a blind eye to his flagrant, amorous adventures with young, upcoming, petite models; the hard-as-nails modelling agency head (Kitu Gidwani), who is herself a pawn in the hands of the tycoon...

The movie also deals with fashion issues like a brilliantly handled wardrobe malfunction scene upon Kangana, existence of an evident casting couch, bohemian models whose lifestyles can be called anything but model, excessive forms of intoxication, including snorting, designers ripping off designs from one another, passing-off streetwear as avant-garde fashionwear, catty exchanges between models, promiscuity – the works.

In between, you see Priyanka Chopra, she of the swollen lips, exhibit a hugely-swollen ego and caustic tongue - success has clearly gone to her poker-straight haired head. While Kangana needs urgent voice modulation and dialogue delivery / diction / pronunciation classes, she has still brought the right level of unhinged-ness to her character portrayal. Mughda is bound to go far, the way she has breathed confidence and spontaneity to her character.

As far as Madhur Bhandarkar goes – what can I say – he definitely has a little black book which numbers all the ‘sins’ of the fashion world.

A book which he needs to toss in favour of some much-needed designer scissors.

To trim his next realistic movie.