Fashion is all style, and no substance

Fashion
Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut, Mugdha Godse
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Rating: ** 1/2

The question one asks when exiting the cinema after watching Fashion — a testing three hours later — is are we really this interested in the lives of models? If so, and since that is what this film is about, maybe the movie should have been called ‘Models’ because the fashion industry, designs and designers, textiles and garments are missing and touched upon merely in a disapproving way. Fashion is about ramps, vamps and is a little camp.

Chandigarh girl Meghna Mathur (Priyanka Chopra) comes to Mumbai with supermodel dreams. With scant struggle, some handy handshakes and with a little help from her friends (a gay fashion assistant, fellow model Janet played by Mugdha Godse and the head of a fashion house, played by Arbaaz Khan, who takes a fancy to her), she gets a big break.

At the time Shonali (Kangana Ranaut) is the reigning rani of the ramp, but when an abusive relationship, drugs, alcohol and success get the better of her, she ends up on the streets. The space vacated is neatly filled by Meghna who sheds her small-time inhibitions almost as quickly as she sheds her clothes, and embraces the hedonistic and cut-throat world of a fashion model. Until life comes a full circle and she too hits rock bottom.

Story and research flaws aside, the styling is intriguing (though none of the clothes jump off the catwalk into your consciousness) and for sequences within the green room, the ramp shows, Meghna’s meltdown and Shonali’s wardrobe malfunction are well executed.

Mahesh Limaye’s cinematography, Nitin Desai’s production design and Salim-Sulaiman’s background score transport you to the adrenaline pumping world of fashion shows. However, for a film-maker branded as fervently ‘realistic’, Bhandarkar and Desai got one thing quite wrong.

The apartment occupied by struggling models looks more like a four star hotel and not the modest 1BHK rentals most are known to inhabit.

A change from his earlier gloss-free films, Bhandarkar adds veneer to Fashion and crafts three strong characters in Meghna, Janet and Shonali played with conviction by the three actors. Godse makes a very respectful big screen transition.

Ranaut adds spunk as a catwalk model and is indeed a convincing showstopper but seems to be typecast and reprises her performances from Gangster and Woh Lamhe. She needs to break away from dysfunctional girl interrupted roles.

Priyanka Chopra dominates the film in screen time and in performance. She convinces you of her optimism, vulnerability and blind ambition, making you alternately sympathise with her and despise her.

The writers have laboriously included every headline-making story, green room gossip, front row faux pas and cocktail party innuendo into the film, finally making Meghna a do-gooder — a twist which simply does not work.

It’s a contrived effort at taking this character beyond the hackneyed. The climax is arduously long. Further, the ancillary characters are two-dimensional and tracks like Janet’s marriage to a gay designer are treated far too casually. While Page 3 offered some pertinent insights and touched a nerve on celebrity journalism, Fashion merely scratches the surface.