Andhra Pradesh

It keeps you hooked

Film: Fashion

Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut, Mugdha Godse

Direction: Madhur Bhandarkar

Madhur Bhandarkar is a good storyteller. The only problem he has is that he narrates the story in the same way. And that often leads to monotony. And within that monotony, he has the skill to sustain your interest. This director’s much-talked about Fashion is made exactly the way Chandni Bar, Page 3 and Corporate have been, and yet, it keeps you hooked as the director exposes yet another reality – the gri me behind the glitz and glamour of the fashion world, the sweat behind the sweet success.

As Meghan Mathur (Priyanka Chopra) reaches Mumbai from Chandigarh to make it as the super model and replace the reigning supermodel Shonali (Kangana Ranaut). She does so with a few predictable compromises. Its about her first revealing dresses for modelling, the first drink, the first puff, the first acceptance and the first rejection, the first under-eye circle, the first fall from the grace and the first realisation. Then, there is everything that you read in tabloids – the gay models and designers, the use of foreign street garments as ones’ label, the big brands that break or make a supermodel’s career, the filthy-mouthed, uncouth and illiterate model coordinators, the expensive fashion photographers, the fashion magazine editors and the perfect tailors and drapers who are the actual heroes. Its hints at models Gitanjali Nagpal and Carol Gracias too.

And we thought it was Meghna, who finally emerges as the winner in both moral and fashion terms, but it is someone else. It is Kangana Ranaut, who takes the cake. Debutante Mugdha Godse and others too deserve kudos for their natural acting skills. It’s clearly a film for the classes, and all of those who would want to have a green room view of the world of fashion.

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Rana Siddiqui Zaman

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