Fashion

Bollywood movie industry has started making realistic films. This movie explores the world of fashion and all those who wish to be model won't get inspired after watching this film. "In the world of fashion you have to compromise more than just your morals." Models here are alcoholics and drug addicts.

Meghna Mathur (Priyanka Chopra) is a small town middle class girl who wants to be a model, especially after winning a beauty contest. After many procedures she becomes one and many problems starts to occur.

Movie is directed well with lots of effort from the cast and the crew. Costumes are all nice showing the present day fashion. Priyanka Chopra surprisingly delivered a good performance. She has taken a lot of effort for role. Kangna Ranaut's role was more challenging and she pulled it off easily. The newcomer Mugda Godse also did her part well.

The songs are good and the background score is excellent. The title music of fashion is stupendous. Overall it is a good movie especially towards the end. The last one hour is the best in this film.

7/10

The glamorous world of fashion gets put under the spotlight with Madhur Bhandarakar's Fashion, a story which tells of the rise and fall of a fictional Indian supermodel Meghna Mathur, played by ex Miss World Priyanka Chopra, who holds court with her performance as the phoenix finding her own standing in an industry known for ruthlessness and fickleness that comes with changing its representative face with the seasons.

As Meghna, Chopra brings to life the wide-eyed small town girl who dreams of making it big on the catwalks of Mumbai, and thereafter the world, and we journey with her through this long and arduous road to modelling. Given that a typical Bollywood movie comes in two parts after an intermission, each part serves its intent well, acting as a separation of attitudes adopted, of the transformation of Meghna from aspiring model, to one at her peak, bad attitude notwithstanding.

You'd come to expect a story that's almost mirroring that of The Devil Wears Prada, where good natured girl gets caught up with all the bright lights and glamour, that she loses her humanity quite consciously, looking at herself change from angel to demon, yet powerless in the grip of fame and money to find the moral courage to do anything about it. It tells of pitfalls, not only in this particular industry, but in general the kind of negative person we are susceptible to turn into, should we lose touch with reality, and let success get into our heads.

Priyanka Chopra is quite perfect in the role and believable both as the girl next door, and a supermodel as well, given her beautiful looks and height to carry the role of a clothes horse. She brings to the screen some steely resolve in that it's not enough to be just a part of the industry, but to be #1 through any methods and means. During production of course there was talk about her going on a crash diet for her role, and I guess such rumours get spun because the industry favours pencil thin (read: unhealthy looking) models who grace the catwalks. However, Chopra brings about a healthy glow to her role as Meghna, though I thought toward the end she looked a little more svelte in her figure than to begin with.

It's good to see that at least she's not quite obsessed into being yet another waif looking character, as there might be some pressure given the production did feature real models, some even from Elite, gracing the screen as background eye candy. And this film was really quite encompassing with its portrayal of the industry, what with all the power players from agents to agencies, from designers (including fashion labels like Jimmy Choo) to magazines (Vogue India), from genuine friends to those looking to feel up skirts. I particularly liked how the film introduced us to all the key players and characters in one fell swoop, and what more through a fashion show, listening in to who's who and rivalries that exist, before observing just how hypocritical everyone can be toward one another.

Granted there were some lapses into character stereotypes like the gay designer and the married modelling agency boss (played by Arbaaz Khan) who has no qualms about sleeping with his top model, and with some moments in the plot being quite predictable, especially with relationships both personal and professional, Fashion still comes through unscathed as it's delivered in a slick package, sashaying to the cool seductive moves of catwalk modelling, of showing off its best side to the audience.

Since this is a film from Bollywood, you can expect many sleazy bits to be toned down and self-censored, with one scene involving a wardrobe malfunction actually being mosaic-ed off. And besides Priyanka Chopra, Mugdha Godse also held her own as Meghna's best friend Janet, who shows her the ropes and also bearing witness to her meteoric rise and fall. But I thought Kangna Ranaut's show-stopper role as top supermodel Shonali was something to sit up and take notice, with her pitch-perfect arrogance on the catwalk being quite a sight to behold, and her character being a parallel to that of Meghna, as a pre-cursor and warning of what one's life would be if you'd throw it to the wind, given her indulgence in drugs, drink, smoke and a choice of the wrong partner.

I haven't seen a lot of movies about the fashion industry, but I suppose this one form India serves as a catalyst to begin, even if it's a work of fiction. Eye candy galore and a simple storyline to follow, it's houte couture on display, everything good and nasty about it. As close to front row seats to a fashion show I can get.

I hate when a good story line is stretched out to a point where it starts feeling painful. Sadly, Fashion is one of those films. It starts out well, absorbs you for one and a half hour , but after that the story gets far too complicated and loses it's charm.

Madhur Bhandarkar films have a lot of sadness attached to it. This one starts on a positive note but when the real Madhur Bhandarkar wakes up, it becomes a true sadist film. Meghna's life becomes more and more sad with each passing minute. I know it's about exploring the dark sides of modeling industry, but there was too much of sadness here. There was a comeback part as well, though.

I would have loved it if it ended under 2 hours and there was no need of dragging it to three more quarters.

Madhur Bhandarkar is known for his seemingly realistic, dramatic, often shocking and often women-oriented films. He always takes a medium and tries to expose the reality behind it on film. This time he chose to depict the world of fashion in a film called... well, Fashion. And yes, it's a partly interesting film that might work for the audience. However, it has one main problem: It is stereotypical and overly pessimistic to be called realistic, and in that aspect falls flat. I don't say Bhandarkar's previous works were any different or were particularly optimistic as his films generally present the dark side of his subjects, but this one goes one step down. We learn from the film that everything, sorry, EVERYTHING is bad in the world of Fashion - it is a terrible world of sex (not that it's bad, but this movie is all about infidelity and promiscuity), alcohol, drugs, grief and loneliness. There's nothing good about it - and it is clearly a wrong presentation and far from reality. If you want to make an issue-based film, you should present both sides, and this is not done here. It is also mostly stereotypical in its general portrayal of gay men, which is amusingly exaggerated. Above all, Priyanka's character in the first portions of the film is annoying. She is not presented as an innocent girl, she is presented as a complete, ignorant idiot which is odd for someone who wants to enter the world of fashion and says she wants to be a "supermodel". I don't think a girl who wants to be a supermodel can be that shy. Some other flaws include the sudden way the director shows the girl smoking and drinking without any prior indication to it. This transformation was far too quick to be believable.

Anyway, the film is well executed from the technical point of view. Well, relatively. It's quite well shot, but even technically, there are huge faults, the biggest of them all being the terrible sound and the poor dubbing. Other than the problems mentioned above, however, the film moves at a steady pace. The script is decent, and although the dialogue is sometimes quite cliched, the drama is not completely overdone. At the end of it all, the ending provides a well-deserved sigh of relief, although it's not completely positive. That said, visually it is quite impressive, the music is outstanding ("Maar Jaawan" and "Kuch Khaas Hai" are two of my favourite Hindi songs in recent times), the costume design seems appropriate, the actors are well-cast, and the entire concept of following one model's way to the top, her rise and her fall, is interesting. Priyanka Chopra is impressive. One of her best, though considering her body of work it does not really mean much as of now. She acts with aplomb and looks very attractive which is very important in this kind of roles, and even does well emotionally although far from perfect. The real winner, the real show-stealer, however, is Kangana Ranaut who delivers a knock-out performance. Her confidence, hysterics, good looks, arrogance and confusion are superbly acted. This is not the first time she plays damsels in distress, but she is just too brilliant at it, so I salute it. 'Fashion' may show only one side throughout and may be a bit disturbing at some points, but towards the end it shows a brighter, more optimistic side, which was missing during the entire show and is reasonably worth the wait. Prepare yourself for an entertaining flick about a girl who tries to make her dream come true, but don't expect to see a fair representation or even a remotely correct depiction of the fashion world.

'Fashion' is consistently entertaining if not as hard-edged as Madhur Bhandarkar's earlier films. It's basically a star vehicle for Priyanka Chopra, who does well as a supermodel who makes an unlikely comeback. The film lacks inside information on the fashion industry and mostly restricts itself to catty remarks about designers stealing ideas. Most of the film deals with Priyankas's journey through the fashion world. Kangna Ranaut excels in her role as the reigning 'show-stopper' despite her awkward dialog delivery. The film does go on too long but remains watchable.

Overall 7/10