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Director: Madhur BhandarkarCast: Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut, Mughda Godse, Arbaaz Khan, Kitu Gidwani, Arjan BajwaFor all that hype around Madhur Bhandarkar exposing the Fashion Industry and its crude realities in this film, sorry to say – Fashion is not as hard-hitting as Chandni Bar or Page 3.The film is built around clichés and stereotypes, which were obviously not expected, not from Madhur at least.
The story revolves around Meghna Mathur (Priyanka Chopra), a middle-class girl from small-town Chandigarh who dreams of becoming a model after winning a local beauty contest. The story is about how she reaches the top and falls from there only bounce back and regain her stardom. Parallel to her is Shonali Gujral (Kangana Ranaut) who has a similar story, the only difference being, she is hit harder by her failure that leads to a complete mental and emotional breakdown.
The film could’ve been more realistic if there were slight changes in the storyline. Our heroine seems to meet too many good Samaritans in the industry who help her to get up there. She is shown to be a very nice girl who makes no compromises on a personal level (except for doing a lingerie advertisement) in her struggling days. She doesn’t manipulate, snatch, and carve her way up, things just happen for her… that feels a little ‘too-good-to-be-true’… especially in the big bad world of fashion where everyone looks towards their own benefit… as Madhur wants to show.
She meets Arjan Bajwa a fellow struggler who she falls in love with but loses him out because their egos clash. She meets Mugdha Godse, a nice hearted fellow struggling model, who doesn’t make it quite big because she is just not the leading lady of the film. She befriends business tycoon Arbaaz Khan who finally ‘makes’ her career only to end up in bed with her. Throughout the film, Madhur gives us reasons to sympathize with Meghna Mathur, he doesn’t leave it to us to decide whether she is worth sympathizing or not.
The movie is fairly predictable. Kangana Ranaut does an extension of her Wo Lamhe act. But she looks extremely professional when she walks the ramp. Looks awesome too. We are expected to sympathize with her too – abusive boyfriend, emotional instability etc etc. Her famous wardrobe malfunction scene is shown as an ‘accident’ that finally leads to her breakdown – positive disposition again – ruins the realism factor.
Gay stereotypes were a bit too many – Harsh Chhaya the best of them. But Sameer Soni deserves a pat for his performance. He breaks the stereotype of the effeminate gay fashion designer and comes across as a very normal, ordinary fashion designer who happens to be a gay. Wish his gay kissing scene was included in the film, would’ve added depth to his portrayal.
So basically Madhur wanted to tell us, through this movie, that Fashion world is all about - bad brutal competition, selfishness, wardrobe malfunction, design theft, drugs, promiscuity, homosexuality, incessant smoking and drinking. Good effort. But this reality could’ve been more real to be as hard-hitting as he’d wanted it to be. Worth a Watch! Rating - 3/5
