Absolutely Fantastic

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Since Madhur Bhandarkar made the critically acclaimed movie 'chandni bar', one after another he has been making movies on exposing the negative side of different societies. His previous works such as 'corporate' and 'page 3' I regard are his best movies. They had a engaging synopsis and depicted the business and celebrity world in an authentic manner without any over exaggeration. 'Fashion' is in a league of its own. The movie charts the rise and downfall of a super model. After the 2 hour 45 minute duration we can see how much investment had been put in the production of this picture. Madhur has clearly put a lot of time and research behind making this movie however if more attention was given to the plot, the movie would have become a more solid product. From his point of view he has given a very biased one sided perception of the fashion and modelling world. He depicts to us a negative view and that there is nothing positive. Why ? is what I ask. There surely has to be something positive in this world.This is a feminist movie and in my opinion many men and woman who are / or aspire to be a model will find it interesting. However a few people who have no interest or knowledge about the fashion world will most probably need to give the movie a second viewing to give their honest judgement.SPOILERS AHEAD We are introduced to meghna mathur (priyanka chopra) who is a small town girl from Punjab who aspires to become a super model. Against her fathers wishes she is persistent so she leaves for Mumbai and stays at a relatives residence. Initially she goes through a struggling phase from giving auditions, photo shoots as well as attending hotel parties so she can get noticed. At this point Janet (mugda godse) becomes her friend and guides her along the way. Meghna agrees to pay 50,000 for a high class photo shoot which leads her being put forward to the agency panache. At this moment she meets the owner Mr sareen (arbaaz khan), who makes her the brand model as well acquainting himself romantically with meghna. From that moment onwards her career takes a downfall due to having an abortion and later having a one night stand with a stranger. However after a year or two she is still mentally obsessed with the profession and decides to make a comeback. In the end she becomes a positive person and realises that to become successful in life it is not always correct to take the short cuts. END OF SPOILERSWithout a doubt this is Priyanka's finest performance to date. She has groomed herself in to the role well and really sunk her teeth in to the character. She displayed the grey shades with ease as well. Her portrayal of a model was realistic. The full potential in her acting talent was unleashed before us. The movie contained many shades of 'page 3' and was very reminiscent. Many people made cameo appearances. Just as I mentioned earlier the movies length in duration goes against the movie. As it can often make the viewer loose interest and concentration at times. The main plot does not begin until after the first hour. Maybe a few minor editing and cuts would have helped the movie. There are many ramp walk show and good looking bodies at display in every moment in the movie, which certainly raises a few eyebrows. The brand endorsements and product placements are endless and in your face. These portions actually add to the movie's duration. I feel that special mention has to be given to the cinematography department. The quality of many scenes and moments were enhanced by wonderfully capturing it. Salim Suleiman's background score has its hear in the right place. However a few moments did not require music, this eradicated the feeling at certain turning moments. Afew scenes would have had a good enough impact even without the use of music. Many fashion designers have been shown to be gay in the movie. Madhur fails to interpret the reason behind this. It was not an assumption that I could swallow. I was impressed by Mugda Godse's acting debut. Keeping in mind that she was previously a model, she has proved that she has great potential to be an actress. I could not understand why her character had no involvement in the plot or even in Priyanka's story. There was no intervention on behalf of her, neither from Samir Soni. Kangana Ranaut overshadowed Priyanka on many occasions. It was a shame that she did not have much scope. It would have been a pleasure to have seen more of her. However she is beginning to become type-casted in the 'woman in distress' roles. Arbaaz Khan was the wrong choice for the role. He did not display any emotion or expressions through the character. Someone more established would have fitted the role better.Overall this is an enjoyable movie which can attract much attention from the female audiences. Plus there is a good in-depth insight in to different routes that are taken in to becoming a model. Priyanka's performance is another plus aspect. The 2 negative aspects such as a shallow plot and long running time of the movie might possibly deter viewer from giving their two thumbs up.

In 1957, the livind legend of bollywood, Manoj Kumar debuted through a movie titled as Fashion. More than five decades later, the self-proclaimed realistic filmmaker of Hindi cinema, Madhur Bhandarkar who is habituated of showing the dark side of every phenomena in his movies, has presented a movie under the same title. The movie has not only got accolades for realistic (!) portrayal of the fashion world, but also is a box office hit and the leading ladies' winning prestigious awards for their performances in the movie, is certainly the icing on the cake. Now, should we believe anything picturised as reality, only because the storyteller has earned a reputation for himself as a realistic filmmaker ? Let's examine.Fashion is the story of a small town middle class girl who made it big in the modelling world of Mumbai. After watching the whole movie, what I felt is that the movie should have been appropriately titled as 'Model' instead of 'Fashion' because it is filled with the experiences of the (female) models throughout. It does not touch any other aspect of the fashion world or the fashion industry. Do a few ramp-walking models and ad-agencies are the whole fashion world, excluding the dress designers, their marketing, canvassing and cut-through competition; the tailors doing the real job, the changing fashion trends and the condemnable sexual exploitation of the newcomer models ? Madhur Bhandarkar wants us to believe that fashion world is just an aggregate of catwalk, big fashion shows, renowned showstopper supermodels, ad agency owners mighty enough to make or break any model's career and of course, drug abuse, all night parties, drunken driving, wayward one-night stands and gay fashion designers ? No Mr. Bhandarkar ! Fashion world is too big to be just the sum total of whatever you have shown. Howsoever intelligent a filmmaker might be, he cannot be allowed to take his audience for a ride.By incorporating the real life story of a ruined model - Geetanjali Nagpal through the character of Kangana Ranaut, Madhur Bhandarkar has tried to prove his plot as authentic. But everything portrayed by him - irresponsible and unprofessional behaviour, drug addiction, carefree sexual life etc. on the part of the successful models is too exaggerated to be true in general. The reality for a few cannot be generalised for all. If success goes to the head of a successful model and she starts behaving irresponsibly in her personal and professional life, inviting her doom; it is her problem and the fashion industry has nothing to do with it.Madhur's research work is also poor. He has depicted Adarsh Nagar in Mumbai as the big centre of struggler models. This is an outdated fact. Now the real centre for auditions of new models is Link Plaza at Oshivera, Mumbai.Madhur Bhandarkar has shown Priyanka, a small town girl with middle class morality, first living-in with another model, Arjan Bajwa and then getting sexually involved with any known-unknown person anytime without any hitch. Is it reality ? Come on Madhur ! The big reality is not an ambitious model's trading her sexual favours with an ad agency owner for stardom, the big reality is the forced sexual exploitation of thousands of aspiring newcomer girls by model coordinators and ad agency owners which has been very conveniently skipped by you. Why ? Because it is easy to expose anybody outside your fraternity but very difficult to expose your own fraternity people. A sign of hypocrisy. Isn't it ?By default perhaps, the good thing portrayed by Madhur Bhandarkar is how success goes to a person's head showing its ugly colour in his (in this film, her) behaviour, snatching the virtue of modesty and politeness, neglecting own well-wishers and creeping in of non-professional element in professional life. He has also shown the depression which is manifested when the life of the protagonist undergoes a lean patch. This is the bright side of the movie. It is also exemplary to show that one should strive hard to come out of depression and if fortunately life gives him (or her) another chance, he (or she) should exploit it to the fullest, avoiding earlier mistakes and transforming own personality in own interest.The movie is fast-paced and engrossing. And had Madhur termed this movie as an entertaining one instead of a realistic one, he would have been perfectly correct. The sets, the costumes and the technical aspects are good. The music has one or two chartbusters to its credit. Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut have deservingly won the national as well as the Filmfare awards for best actress and best supporting actress respectively for their performances. Kangana, though seems to have found herself typed as a ditched, lonely, melancholous girl which may not be good for her in the long run. Full supporting cast playing the characters that keep coming in and going out of the life of the main protagonist, i.e., Priyanka Chopra, has done a good job. The actress not winning any award but the hearts of the viewers with her debut performance itself, is Mugdha Godse.Madhur Bhandarkar's appearing in a scene of the movie and calling himself a realistic filmmaker through the mouth of another character in the scene, is ridiculous. Don't do this job yourself Madhur. Let others do it for you.My concluding comments upon this so-called realistic movie - it is not a movie about fashion; it is, in fact, a collection of dos and don'ts (especially don'ts) in times of unexpectedly received huge success and hard-hitting failure. And the message is to keep your cool in both the life-situations. As Lord Krishna advises us in Bhagvad-Geeta to be a STHIT-PRAGYA (a man maintaining his mental-balance in all times whether good or bad). And this is the real strength of Fashion.

Madhur Bhandarkar's all earlier films, were no doubt based on realistic themes, but with "Fashion", he dives more deep into the human psyche of ambition and greed. Unexpectedly, "Fashion" comes out to be a more emotional and psychological experience along with being hard hitting on the fashion fraternity.Everyone was expecting that "Fashion" will target the designer world and would try to reveal its hidden secrets like we had seen in "Page3". As expected everything is there in it, the casting couch, the gay world, wardrobe malfunction, women jealousy, professional rivalry, one night stand, all is in there. But "Fashion" goes beyond these commercial inserts and comes out to be a more powerful movie with some great shocks and performances. Truly speaking I was not expecting the strong philosophical and emotional angle in the second half from Madhur Bhandarkar.In business sense, "Fashion" may not be a huge successful movie as many viewers can find it too emotional, slow and preachy. It can also be said that Indian audiences are not used to this kind of cinema as in the west. Indian viewers believe in more glossy and imaginative world of movies, so I have my doubts on "Fashion" being accepted by them. But since we are all developing our tastes with World Cinema in our home TV channels, so let's hope for the best.Coming to the movie content, it has beautiful ladies with gorgeous looks, delivering best performances of their entire careers. The top most performer is the girl with the minimum scenes and dialogues in the movie but she still manages to burn the screen with her hot talent. She is "Kangna Ranaut". The Bhatt camp has a great sense of talent discovery, this is a proved fact again as Kangna was introduced by them. Kangna undoubtedly gives the best of her career after "Woh Lamhe". In one way the role is an extension of what she did in her debut movie. But here she says it with her eyes and on the ramp, she just gives shivers to all real life ramp walkers.Priyanka Chopra too scores on the performance chart and after "Aitbaar" this is her best movie till date. She is expressive, especially in the second half. The scene when she wakes up and finds a Negro sleeping next to her is mind blowing and one can just imagine the state in which a girl would be after experiencing that unwanted tragedy. We see her best when she loses his confidence and freezes on the ramp and also in the scene when she is given the news about Kangna just before she is going to step on to the ramp. Another actress who wins your heart is Mugdha Godse, as Priyanka's close friend who introduces her to the city and its lifestyle. She really acts and acts well. A great find by Madhur, who once again proves that models can be actors.All others in the supporting cast have also contributed their best. Arbaaz Khan however seems to be stiff. Suchitra Pillai, Harsh Chhaya, Samir Soni and Kittu Gidwani get full marks. Raj Babbar and Kiran Juneja don't do anything new as Priyanka's parents. But one more performer stays in your mind, and he is the bald gay friend of Priyanka, who later also takes her back in his show with open arms. You must have seen him in many TV comedy shows. He gives a superb performance and his contribution must not be forgotten under the shadow of big names.Musically, the film has one great song, "Fashion Ka Hai Yeh Jalwa", which should have been used as the theme music with repeated play at times in the background. But Madhur, opts using it only once in the ramp show. No other song was needed anywhere in the narration.Now, onto some weak points I felt needed attention. First in a movie called "Fashion" there are no major talks, discussions or display of designer clothes. Instead there are more talks of advertising agencies and their top models. There are only indications to the rivalry in fashion designers but the story revolves more around the models and their agencies. Secondly, its hard to digest that a small time girl coming to Mumbai, bags the supermodel tag with only minor struggle in the city and manages to meet the right persons with luck. And lastly, post interval, the movie becomes a bit lengthy and heavy which leads to loss of interest.Madhur did his extensive research before writing the script and he adds all the real life incidents in the story innovatively. It's really impressive how he uses the wardrobe malfunction and the mentally disabled Delhi model references in the movie with dignity. But it's not all glossy, shining and fashion all the way. The long awaited movie has its moments to enjoy but at the same time it is also slow and dragging in its last hour.So if you want to see a sensitive movie along with entertainment, then "Fashion" is a must watch, but I think instead of "Fashion", it should have been titled "Models".

"Page 3", "Corporate", "Chandni Bar", "Traffic Signal", the previous efforts of Madhur Bhandarkar, wore their ragged production values as a badge of honor: the grainy film stock, the tatty wardrobes, the casts that appeared to be recruited right off the streets were meant to indicate a seriousness of purpose and a defiance of the accepted Hindi film aesthetic. These films were gritty, unlovely, a tad too earnest, and somewhat salacious, for, in their quest to expose societal filth, they had much in common with tabloid journalism and trash TV. What elevated them, however, was Bhandarkar's knack for drawing out strong performances from his actors. "Page 3" exposed, without any discernible glee, and more's the pity, the tawdry lives of socialites but gave film-viewers a vivacious Konkana Sen Sharma and a hard-as-nails Atul Kulkarni, while "Chandni Bar", a gloomy look at the lives of bar dancers, offered a piece de resistance performance from Tabu. I haven't seen "Corporate" or "Traffic Signal", but suspect they are similarly plodding and humorless.Bhandarkar's production budget was certainly quadrupled for his newest opus, "Fashion" to depict the glitz and glamor of the latest industry to come under his gimlet-eyed scrutiny. "Fashion" boasts slick production values, a thumping techno soundtrack, but unfortunately, not a lot of fun. Fashion, a worldwide multi-billion dollar industry, is certainly a serious business, but to be entertainment, it shouldn't take itself unduly seriously, because—let's face it—astrophysics and neuro-surgery, it ain't. Sure, the business has always attracted the pretty and none-too-bright, as also the predatory and disreputable, but if Bhandarkar's take on it is as accurate as touted, it has lost the all-important aspect of fun, which is what makes it attractive to millions the world over.Shobha Dé documents the infancy of the Indian fashion scene in her vastly entertaining memoir "Selective Memory". In one amusing anecdote, an industry lech proposes that the three young models Shobha, Zeenat Aman, and Asha Puthli perform a striptease for him. While the naïve Shobha and Zeenat are horrified, Asha Puthli giggles her readiness and darts off to her room to prepare. She emerges wrapped in shredded newspaper, does a saucy little dance, and says to the creep, "You got your striptease: here are the strips"—pointing to her newspaper costume; "and I am the tease." In the ensuing laughter, the man loses the nerve to pursue them further. It was this crucial element of light-heartedness that is missing from "Fashion". Sadly, Puthli, who also acted in the early Merchant-Ivory film "The Savages", vanished a long time ago, a rumored victim of drug addiction. I wonder if it is because fashion is now big business in India, as it always was elsewhere, that Bhandarkar doesn't find much levity in his enterprise."Fashion" tells the story of three fashion models at different stages in their careers: dewy fresh, somewhat plump Meghna (Priyanka Chopra) is the small-town girl recently arrived in Mumbai with a ferocious drive to succeed; Shonali (Kangna Ranaut) is the fine-boned, wild-maned reigning queen of the ramp, while Janet (sprightly newcomer Mugdha Godse) is the worldly long-time model who's never struck it big. Right off the bat, Meghna acquires a fairy (of course, he's gay) godmother Rohan, fashion industry small fry with some tenuous access to the bigwigs. Predictably, we witness Meghna's ascendancy even as Shonali's star is on the wane. The race is on, and it seems the one who can look more sullen who will emerge triumphant. Sensible Janet, ever on the sidelines, proffers nuggets of wisdom to upwardly-mobile Meghna, and settles for a marriage of convenience with a successful closeted gay designer. Shonali turns increasingly erratic, suffering drug addiction and much degradation from a parasitic lover, while Meghna, newly svelte, hardened and callous, nimbly steps into the top position, despite some dangerously high heels.If "Fashion" works as a cautionary tale, it is due to Kangna Ranaut and Priyanka Chopra, who rise above a rudimentary script, devoid of subtlety or nuance, and deliver haunting performances. Both have taken on daring (by Indian standards) roles depicting drug abuse, along with some truly scary scenes requiring them to appear without makeup. While not exactly bimbos, they do appear to confuse hubris with confidence and throw hissy fits that underscore their pettiness. But the girls succeed in bringing out the human frailties, ambitions, and hopes of the characters.Despite Madhur Bhandarkar's insistence that "Fashion" is the result of diligent research, the characters are stereotypical. The models are relentlessly vapid and all the gay characters (save one—the closeted one) flounce and lisp. Is this Bhandarkar's idea of humor? Stanley Tucci in "The Devil Wears Prada" is frighteningly efficient, clever, funny, and long-suffering, and one perceives immediately why he is the Meryl Streep character's right-hand man. He is gay, but that is never belabored.Smart writing would have punched up the proceedings, and made "Fashion" more watchable. Reality isn't all it's cracked up to be, and we're usually at the movies to escape it. Realistic cinema doesn't have to be as boring as real life; that's where artistic license comes in. I did like Kittu Gidwani, a model from the 'eighties who graduated to movie roles, looking remarkably fit and fine, playing the morally ambiguous fixer at the fictitious agency named Panache, where our model heroines futilely battle for supremacy. Panache is owned by one Abhijit Sarin—played with reptilian sang-froid by Arbaaz Khan—with Gidwani, stubbing out one cigarette after another with her long elegant fingers, as his prime enabler. The married Sarin routinely beds "the Face of Panache", whoever she might be at a given moment, and heartlessly inserts anti-pregnancy clauses into modeling contracts. They could have been cartoonish villains, but the pair possesses too much chic and—let's say—panache, to let their characters become laughable."Fashion" aspires to be serious cinema, but given its theme and scope, should have opted to be light as a soufflé, the better to get its point across.