Fashion

Fashion did not surprise me. It kept me interested & engaged, yes, but it did not show me anything I didn’t already know about the fashion/modeling world thanks to my ex-roommates in Bombay who were in PR and were closely associated with the glamour industry, and by the sheer dint of having lived in Bombay where Bollywood & glamour are by default an integral part of everyone’s life.

Priyanka Chopra was definitely a revelation. The movie was about her, with support from other characters, and she made the most of it. She sunk her teeth into the role. At some places I felt her face lacked the attitude of a model (unlike Kangana Ranaut who had it down to the T) though she had the right body language.

Coming to Kangana Ranaut, I think she SERIOUSLY needs to work on her diction. Her Hindi is terrible!! She’s been around for a while, done quite a few movies…so it’s about time she took some Hindi speaking classes. I thought she rocked in the ramp walk scenes, where she’d switch from a drugged-out waste to a ramp model with the attitude that can freeze a million people on their spots, in a second!!

Mugdha Godse was good for a first-timer but I think she got slightly short-changed in terms of character development. There were a lot of things with her character that were left unexplained. For instance, why did she agree to marry a gay guy? He wanted the marriage for convenience but what was in it for her? What about HER needs from a life-partner? And not that he gave her the biggest break of her life. He made her the show-stopper for one of his shows, but that certainly couldn’t have overshadowed the life-long need for a companion who loves you truly?

Secondly, why was she okay with him not making her the show-stopper for the biggest show of his life at the fashion week given that she was his wife? She didn’t even purr about it, leave alone make an issue out of it.

Another issue I had with the movie was why Meghna’s father would encourage her to go back to the world of glamour after all the drama he did in the beginning? And especially after seeing that his girl came back from that world in ruins. The point that your family & a handful of true friends are the ones that stick by you through thick & thin could have been made in other ways too!

To Madhur Bhandarkar’s credit, the wardrobe malfunction scene was brilliantly done!

Overall, Fashion is a “realistic” movie with cinematic liberties taken in good measure, but I’m not complaining because every Madhur Bhandarkar movie need not be an expose. And it was heartening to see actors such as Harsh Chhaya & Samir Soni play the role of gay men with such aplomb and not shy away from it, unlike most Bollywood actors. Way to go, guys!!