Fashion
Welcome to a peek into the world of fashion. We saw glimpses of characters from this world in Page 3. Madhur Bhandarkar now takes us further into this world, and to communicate to us that he’s researched extensively on this subject, he’s there in a scene where during a fashion show an onlooker points to him and says ‘ That’s Madhur Bhandarkar, the maker of realistic movies, he’s here to research for a movie’
He’s certainly done his research very well. Fashion is another addition to his series of realistic movies.
Fashion takes us into the backstage of this very glamorous world. The fashion Industry has grown tremendously in India and we’ve recently witnessed three fashion weeks. We are familiar with the designers who rock these shows, the models who swish down the ramps, the buyers who fill up the front rows, the modeling agencies honchos, the media and the marginal male models. You’ll find all these characters in fashion.
It tells the story of three models. Meghna Mathur ( Priyanka Chopra), is an aspiring model who’s arrived in Mumbai from Chandigarh. Shonali (Kangana Ranaut) is an established supermodel and Janet ( Mughda Godse) is another struggling model.
Meghna’s transformation from a small town girl to a very confident super model is swift, but a bit too sudden on screen. Her mentor is a wannabe designer named Rohit Khanna , played by Ashwin Mushran and is one of the first gay characters to be introduced in the movie. Sameer Soni plays Rahul Arora, another gay designer and Hiren Paintal plays yet another gay designer. His flamboyant attire doesn’t leave us guessing which real life designer is his character inspired by. Harish Chaya gives a likable performance as Vinay Khosla, a ‘filmstar’ designer. Remix these names and you’ll come up with the original one’s!
Fashion tells us about the irresistible lure of the glamour world. The rise to the top is swift, so is the fall. Kangana is a supermodel on the slide, Priyanka is on her way up, but she doesn’t learn from Kangana’s experiences. She takes you on a fascinating, yet shocking ride through the world of ramp models and their short, but eventful lives.
Somewhere along this trip we realise we are witnessing one of Priyanka’s best ever performances. It’s what you can call in a cliched sort of way, an author backed role. Rivaling her in performance is Kangana. We’ve seen her in similar roles( remember Gangster?), but here she puts in a restrained performance. Mugda is another talented and confident actress.
Amongst the men, newcomer Arjan Bajwa does well in a role as a struggling male model and Priyanka’s lover. Arbaz Khan gives a fine performance as a man who calls the shots in the world of fashion. There’s an actress who plays the role of a casting agent. Watch her speak, she’s amazing!
The film’s styling is very contemporary, the fashion show scenes are outstanding. We get a feel of what goes on backstage in a show and how absolutely critical are these shows for a designer. Madhur has taken the help of established designers and it shows in the execution. The dresses worn are classical, they’re deliberately not season specific.
The movie seems a bit long, it could have been trimmed, but the screenplay moves at a brisk pace and the dialogues, written by Niranjan Iyengar, keep you engrossed. You have to give credit to the editing and the background score for this too.
The storyline sounds simple, but the treatment is what keeps you hooked on. There’s not much more to write without putting in a spoiler alert and I hate spoilers, like everyone.
Watch Fashion, it’ll surprise you. It may even shock you, a wee bit.
Tags: Fashion, Fashion-the movie review, Madhur Bhandarkar, Priyanka Chopra
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Even though Madhur Bhandarkar’s gimmicky style of filmmaking does’nt shock me any more the way it did in Chandni bar and Page 3 fact is that he is still far better that those filmmakers in the industry who depend on the neighbourhood dvd stores for stories.And even though the lead protagonist in his film(all female) always give their career best performance in his films, the supporting actors are well casted and have strong presence.
I like MB’s movies. Whatever the critics may say, about his style of movie making, i just admire him. It takes guts to make a dark movie on Bar Dancers, without any songs, when NRI romances were in vogue, and make that a hit. And it takes even more guts to release your movie, right along with a big budget movie,with not very well known stars and make that a surprise hit( Page 3). Call him sensationalist or gimmicky or whatever, i would any day prefer to watch his flawed movies, rather than some soppy designer romances in Switzerland or Australia.
I thought Corporate was a really good movie, though the ending seemed pretty forced to me. I have not seen Traffic Signal. For me MB is like Michael Moore, you may not agree with his narration, but you can’t deny that he shocks the hell out of you.
@Ratnakar – Yeah, you gotta give it to him. He builds decently researched movies with these edgy things around us. Chandni Bar for me remains his best effort, but Page 3, Corporate were really good too. I even enjoyed Aan. The guy showed his talent in a few scenes in that movie. The Suneil Shetty scene in his climax is very well shot with the Ganapati Visarjan thing in the background. Not a novel thing but very well executed. It remains one of my favorite action scenes from Bollywood movies!
@Arun Prakash
The Model Co-ordinator is ACTRESS Chitrashi Rawat (Chak De Fame)!!!
GK
Satta was also a pretty good movie on politics, though it flopped. He could manage to get a good performance from Raveena Tandon, and that is something.
i saw fashion few hours ago and must say it was not only disappointing but very boring…..
This is MB’s worst movie….
Bhandarkar sells reality in the most tacky way..in your face..unncessary shock and awe..He surprised us with Chandni Bar to an extent and sustained it with Page 3.He cant do it all the time.The narration is very typical.Waiting to watch Fashion.I hope he does something different.
@ravi – The action scene which u r reffering to is almost a straight lift from the climax sction scene from Sean Penn starrer ‘State of Grace’
Aan could have been a superb ’so bad its good’ film, in fact it was to an extent…. courtesy Akshay’s entry sequence (ridiculously entertaining) and Shatrus quick fire one-liners (eg. “tumhare neeche ki zameen itni garam kar doonga, ki joote tak mein chaale pad jaayenge” lol). Shetty is in his usual ’saliva draining’ form.
@Garang
Very true !!! The Action sequence copy/lift is due to the courtesy of Marlon Rordrigues of “c u @ 9″ disaster,Firoz Nadiadwala got him on board, when the shooting was taking place I and Madhur were watching “CHOKHER BALI” at Fame,Andheri !!!
GK
@also Ratnakar
Very true !!! The Action sequence copy/lift is due to the courtesy of Marlon Rordrigues of “c u @ 9″ disaster,Firoz Nadiadwala got him on board, when the shooting was taking place I and Madhur were watching “CHOKHER BALI” at Fame,Andheri !!!
GK
@gaurang,”Shetty is in his usual ’saliva draining’ form”…I am in the office and laughed out so loud that my collegues are wondering what hapenned to me.
I’ve not watched any of MB films – I feel over the top portrayal of so called reality is his style. (I saw the ending of Chandni Bar though. Tabu was the good thing I felt). Its wrong for me to comment without watching but I see the promos or snippets of his films and I feel this way.
When Fashion promos started making its rounds on TV, the tagline stumped me : ‘In the Fashion world, you have to give up much more than just your morals’
What is this. I tried to get it but somehow not happening. What does this mean. Sounds fundu but the meaning….not quite..
You are partially true, though you shouldn’t really comment without seeing his films. Watch Chandni Bar, it’s his best, and I think Page 3 is worth a watch too, despite flaws and tacky, OTT treatment. The Fashion tagline is unintentionally funny.
@Arthi: Whoops- I mean you are partially correct…. am writing a piece on Fashion and Bhandarkar’s brand of cinema, though going by my laziness, track record and the fact that my passionate piece on Swades is still lying half written as a draft, it might be the time for Bhandarkkar’s next release by the time it’s up on PFC!
:P
@ 4 GK
Thanks. I was trying hard to place her while seeing the movie.
@ 12 Arthi V
The tag line is there because it sounds good. Even MB wouldn’t be able to explain it!
@ Jahan
Keep your draft pending till tonight. Lets discuss Fashion, amongst other things, when we meet up later today. Kartik Krishnan would have some interesting inputs too!
@ Anindya,
Have you noticed his female characters are always strong willed persons? Besides that, most of his characters have well defined roles.
@ Ratnakar, Ravi, Sourav,
His style is tacky…but improving now….Fashion is not over the top….some scenes return to haunt you after you’ve left the theatre….yes, he knows how to shock!
@ arthi- i think i understood whatevr that meant after seeing the movie, but i think; thats true in every industry.
my hurried review… more later for PFC
http://www.nowrunning.com/movie/reviews/moviereview.aspx?movie=5107&rid=1888
heylo heylo…havn’t seen the movie but I heard Dev D trailer is being shown with Fashion??????
is it true??
@Kshitij
Yes it is true !!! For me AK is a director par excellence and his trailer should be watched by as many people as they watch FASHION, also OYE LUCKY OYE trailer too is an add-on attraction , dont miss it !!!
GK
@Kshitij
Also it is DEV.D and not Dev D, the trailer looks pathbreaking cinema at it’s best, we all want in the end CINEMA should WIN !!!!
GK
hey man..are they really showing Dev.D trailer with it…i didnt see one. Damn it. Kuch toh paisa vasool hota. as it is the movie sucked…
They are showing the Dev D trailer! Well, at least some theatre’s are showing it.
It is more of a teaser…makes you want to see it again…and again. Very colourful, very kitschy, shots of Abhay Deol in various moods interspersed with neon lit hotel signage’s. Lovely music in the background….haave to see it again!
its still not on youtube right….?
Dev.D
Dev.D….come on AK…this time I hope with UTV promotion won’t be a problem!!
@kshitij
UTV guys are great in promotion , trust me on this !!!
GK
FASHION is at least watchable logic in times of no logic golmaal returns
I just read an article in the HT by Subhash k Jha in which he mentions that Priyanka’s role was initially offered to Kareena.
Hmmm…whereas Kareena’s acting would have been OTT, but in her size zero figure( remember Tashan)she would have looked good doing the catwalk.
I suppose it doesn’t matter now. Priyanka has performed well, and that’s what will be remembered.
Someone please put DEV.D trailer on youtube. They didn’t show it during fashion. I am so annoyed!!!
I think madhur along with RGV is a gutsy filmmaker who don’t run after superstars and make films on contemporary subjects.He may not be a pathbreaking filmmaker but he has been able to achieve commercial success by choosing unconventional subjects which our usual commercial filmmakers would never have touched
@Arun Prakash
Kareena was never offered the role in Fashion,but yes she was offered the role in Page 3 which Konkona played, Also Subhash K.Jha operates from Patna and visits Mumbai occasionally !!!
GK
just saw fashion and i liked it…. atleast it is better then senseless films usualy made. the scenes of ramp in fashion are outstanding with excellent background score. kangana looked stunning as super model.. and both priyanka and mughda are also very good. the lenth of the film is bit more but chalta hai…overall a good film but not up to the mark of chandni bar..