FASHION (2008) Hindi Movie Review By kalcha

Audience Rating For FASHION

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FILM: Fashion
LANGUAGE: Hindi
RELEASE DATE: October 29, 2008
STAR CAST: Priyanka Chopra, Mugdha Godse, Kangana Ranaut, Arbaaz Khan, Arjan Bajwa, Sameer Soni, Kitu Gidwani, Ashwin Mushran, Chitrashi Rawat, Harsh Chhaya, Madhur Bhandarkar, Karan Johar & Others
DIALOGUES: Niranjan Iyengar
LYRICS: Sandeep Nath, Irfan Siddique
SINGERS: Sukhwinder Singh, Satya Hinduja, Shruti Pathak, Salim Merchant, Mohit Chauhan, Neha Bhasin, DJ Amyth
MUSIC: Salim - Sulaiman
EDITING: Devendra A Murdeshwar
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mahesh Limaye
ART: Nitin Desai
STORY: Ajay Monga
SCREENPLAY: Madhur Bhandarkar, Anuradha Tiwari & Ajay Monga
DIRECTION: Madhur Bhandarkar
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Ram Mirchandani
PRODUCERS: Madhur Bhandarkar, Deven Khote, Ronnie Screwvala, Zarina Mehta
BANNER: Bhandarkar Entertainment & UTV Motion Pictures
CASSETTES & CDs: T-Series

FASHION is undoubtedly one of the most awaited films this year being based on a subject that is still almost untouched in Indian Cinema. But I had my doubts on the outcome of this movie as MADHUR BHANDARKAR never made a truly authentic and realistic movie till date, although he is tagged as one of the most realistic filmmakers of Bollywood. He has just been a pseudo-realistic film maker all through PAGE 3, CORPORATE & CHANDNI BAR. The closest he got to good cinema is via CORPORATE & SATTA amply supported by a brilliant performances by BIPASHA BASU & RAVEENA TANDON. So, I was very curious… what FASHION cooks up. Also, I was wishing that PRIYANKA CHOPRA finds luck after a horrid time lately at the Box Office. More than all of the reasons above… I was really curious about the much publicised research that Madhur put in this movie about the Fashion Industry as a whole and the people involved in it in particular.

In FASHION, Madhur finds the most easiest shoes… to fill in. It is a run of the mill story written by AJAY MONGA that has been running through the veins of Indian Cinema since its childhood. A middle class girl who is ambitious to become a Super Model heads to the fashion capital of India, Mumbai. And then surprisingly, she becomes successful and also the victim of success at the same time. And the rest of the movie is all about how she gets back on her feet all through her hardships.

• The most impressive acting performances of the movie are rendered by ASHWIN MUSHRAN as Rohit and KITU GIDWANI as Anisha Roy. Kitu Gidwani as the Agency head and the mentor who grooms the signed up models of her company is really commendable with her underplay and to-the-point-expressions which highlights the situation and at the same time doesn’t go over board with histrionics. Absolutely delightful acting performance. And then Ashwin did a tremendous job as the do gooder and upcoming fashion designer who is a homosexual. He did his job devoid of the overtures (though Madhur seems to have pinned him into some) that are an unwritten norm in the industry for these stereo typed roles.
• After the above, the most impressive performances are by KANGANA RANAUT, PRIYANKA CHOPRA & MUGDHA GODSE. Kangana Ranaut has been absolutely perfectly cast as the super diva who is a drug addict and on the verge of a mental breakdown. She has given a commendable performance all through the film but Madhur seriously loses grip on her characterisation in the second half as she looks more chubby and sexy as a mental patient who is almost begging on the streets. I think it was a serious mistake directorially. Priyanka Chopra finally finds a film that has an ample scope to showcase her talent as an actress and find some luck at the box office. She has expectedly delivered a powerful performance… especially in the scenes where she is vulnerable as a Super Model on the wane. But above all… the most impressive and commendable job by her has been the gradual loss of weight as the movie progresses (also as she becomes a Super Model by the end of the film). In the scene at the dinner table with her father, she seems quite plump to become a model… and in the end… she poses as a Super Model in Paris with her collar bones out. Mugdha Godse has also stood her ground amidst these powerful performances as another model who gives up her career to marry her best friend (who is gay and a designer). She never over acts and gives her best in the scene where she is proposed by her best friend.

• I would say… there are a lot of disappointments in this movie as the expectations were very high. The first and primary one being the length of the movie in excess of 2:45 hours… despite the lack of usual 5-6 songs in a Bollywood movie. A movie which lacks tempo should never be ssssooooo long. Editor DEVENDRA MURDESHWAR must have slept through editing task as he skipped at least 30-45 minutes of editing. And to top that… the editing pattern of the movie is as old as Bollywood itself with no inputs from him that would tie us to the seat.
• Dialogues by NIRANJAN IYENGAR have mostly been mundane. They neither shock us with their wittiness nor are crispy enough to speed up the movie.
• Story by Ajay Monga and the screenplay by Madhur Bhandarkar, Anuradha Tiwari & Ajay Monga leave no scope for any show case performances by the male counterparts. But still Arjan Bajwa & Arbaaz Khan have been commendable with their surprising restraint. But the Chak De girl CHITRASHI RAWAT has delivered an over-the-top performance.
• But the most serious flaw I found in the script was the way the lead protagonist Meghna Mathur’s (Priyanka Chopra) character mends through. Earlier, she accepts a Live-In relationship with Arjan Bajwa and then turns in to a mistress of her boss Arbaaz Khan quite easily and as a matter of fact. By then we can easily understand that she is too ambitious to care for sex as a moral ground… but then she turns in to a weeping roll of tissue as soon as she realises that she slept with an AFRICAN dude. The way she reacts after she sleeps with a black man and the way the camera moves with a couple of close-ups of the dude… reeks of racism. I mean the director could have used any Indian guy in that situation. I know some of you might not care this… but it is inexcusable. And then she returns to her home just-like-that and her family takes her back just-like-that and then her father sends her back to Mumbai just-like-that. How intelligent is this cinematic narration?
• The biggest culprit of the movie which makes it an ordinary one is the DIRECTION. Madhur failed to bring out any novelty in the narration of this mundane, predictable and bubble gum saga. He seems to have remained a mute spectator to the proceedings. There is no sign of the much publicised research by him to bring out the shocking facts of the FASHION INDUSTRY. His research is laughably limited to the much publicised episodes of WARDROBE MALFUNCTION and a Super-Model turned Mental-Patient apart from passing references to the real life prominent personalities of Fashion Industry. There is absolutely no insight in to Fashion as a phenomenon and its relevance in today’s society. All that the movie deals is the RISE, FALL & RISE of a Super Model. But it never peeks into the fashion industry beyond the usual cliches associated with the industry which are Drugs, Gays, Sex and Chics. The movie’s title is very misleading and should have been SUPER MODEL or DIVA or FASHION MODEL and not FASHION itself.

FASHION is not what I have expected. It is at best a lazy and long afternoon movie. Watch it for the stunning performances and nothing else. Madhur Bhandarkar is definitely not a realistic film maker. But he can still be commended for being at least a bit different from the BORING stuff that Bollywood delivers everyday.