Take a bow, Mr. B!
Rating: 4.5/5
Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut, Mugdha Godse, Samir Soni, Arbaaz Khan, Arjan Bajwa, Harsh Chhaya, Suchitra Pillai, Kitu Gidwani
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
When you have a film like Fashion that has so much hype around it – from the cast to the director – you walk in with a whole lot of expectations. And if the National Award winner Madhur Bhandarkar wasn't going to deliver, then his head was definitely going to be on the chopping block.
So did he deliver? Read on to find out…
Meghna Mathur (Priyanka Chopra) is a simple girl from Chandigarh who wants to be a supermodel. With big dreams and even bigger ambitions she packs her bags and heads to Mumbai only to be hit by the fashion and entertainment world smack on! Already ruling the fashion world is Shonali (Kangana Ranaut) – model on top and the fashion circuit's current toast. Meghna wants to be her. She wants to be model number one and the show stopper in every fashion show. Starting right at the bottom she makes her way to the top and takes over from Shonali who thanks to her drug and alcohol habit finds herself on the way out. Completely dependent on coke and booze, Shonali is thrown out as the face of Panache – the company belonging to Abhijeet Sareen (Arbaaz Khan) who is the big guy in this fashion world. He decides to make Meghna the new face of Panache and soon enough everything else comes her way – the fame, the adulation, the money and inevitably the arrogance.
Despite being sure of herself when she started out in this enticing world of glitz and glamour, Meghna begins to go off the rails. It's all about the parties, the designers, the good clothes and the high life. She gets together with Abhijeet and soon enough becomes pregnant with his child. When he makes it clear it won't go any further she has no choice to terminate her pregnancy. That leaves her scarred and she heads down the same route as Shonali did – in the world of even more alcohol. She becomes unreliable, fails to land up at her shoots and finally just like Shonali before her, she finds herself being replaced as the face of Panache. Her career heads downhill as does she.
Seeing Meghna though all this, right from day one, is Janet (Mugdha Godse). Janet has been in the fashion world for the longest time but not ready to compromise on her values she hasn't made it to the big league. When Janet tries to help Meghna, the two get into a fight and Meghna walks out of her home and into a party where this time she goes a step further and tries some coke. The next morning she wakes up to find herself in bed with a man she doesn't know, in a hotel room where she doesn't know how she got to. Completely taken aback with what her life has become, Meghna heads home in a trance. And that's when it hits her that she has become Shonali – the same model who had warned her when she was on her way out that this very place that is giving Meghna her fame will also be the cause of her downfall.
Disillusioned with herself and what her life has become, Meghna heads back to her parents in Chandigarh. She doesn't talk to anyone nor go out any more. Her parents take her to a psychologist which doesn't help her either. Meghna has lost complete confidence in herself. Finally her father (Raj Babbar) convinces her that although he may not have wanted her to become model initially, he thinks she should go back to Mumbai and give it another try. He silently hopes that maybe that will help his daughter become her original happy self.
And so Meghna heads back to Mumbai. But this time she realizes that all those who were with her when was at the top are not there for her anymore. She only has Janet whom she had parted ways on rude terms. However, realizing her mistake she goes to Janet's home to apologise and slowly begins to piece her life together. On the other hand Shonali who has been in rehab for a while re-surfaces. Still struggling with her addiction she is found on the streets of Mumbai. Meghna runs to her rescue and helps her rehabilitate and she does that as much for Shonali as for herself.
But the problem arises when Meghna goes back to the ramp. On her first show back, she freezes and has a panic attack. Will she be able to get over it or has she lost it all? That's what the rest of the film is all about.
After having given Tabu her Chandni Bar, Konkona Sen Sharma her Page 3, Madhur has given Priyanka Chopra her Fashion. For the actress who has had a very dismal 2008, this film will definitely turn the tide around for her. Bhandarkar has managed to extract a performance which will go down as one of her best. Kangana Ranaut has done a great job too. But since we have so much of her screaming, drunken acts already that this one didn't feel as different. Having said that her command on the ramp almost make you think why isn't she a full time model already? Mugdha Godse has done a great job and manages to stand out despite having Priyanka and Kangana for company. She will definitely go a long way in this industry. Arbaaz Khan as the businessman does a cool suave job. Samir Soni and Arjan Bajwa are lovable in their own ways. Kitu Gidwani makes a great comeback too!
More than as a director Madhur Bhandarkar deserves accolades for his in depth research of the fashion world. As a viewer you can almost guess and pick who the persona he is talk about in the film. And while most may not want to openly acknowledge it, those who are a part of this glitzy world of glamour know that almost 90% of what Madhur has depicted is true and correct. As a director he has managed to extract stellar performances from all three of his actresses and for once irrespective of their time on screen, they have pulled off equally engrossing, enticing and moving performances.
And so to answer the question did Bhandarkar deliver on the much hyped Fashion, the answer is a resounding yes!
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