Fashion - Movie Review
Published: September 27, 2010
Starring Priyanka Chopra, Kangna Ranaut, Mugdha Godse, Arjan Bajwa, Samir Soni, Ashwin Mushran, Kitu Gidwani, Arbaaz Khan
It's an old story—a small-town girl with big dreams of supermodel stardom. And it's no revelation that there's a dark side to fashion. Sexually-degraded, drug-addled models have been depicted in film plenty—but not so much in India. The 2008 release of Fashion—an exposé-like cautionary tale about the industry there—was well-timed. Indian models have been emerging on the world stage as never before—globally, they've become de rigueur on catwalks and commercials in recent years. And the two leads in Fashion—actresses Priyanka Chopra and Kangna Ranaut—produce forceful, renewed insight into just how ugly the beauty industry is with performances that swept all the major film awards.
The director, Madhur Bhandarkar, is known for hard-hitting realism and gritty topics. Marginalized figures, such as women and gay men, populate his films, and in fact, most of his stories are told from the perspective of a female protagonist. The main character in Fashion is Meghna, played by Chopra, a middle-class girl who quickly compromises her middle-class values as soon as she lands in Mumbai with a chaste, cheesy portfolio that gets her nowhere. She's no wide-eyed wimp—she was tough enough to tell off her unsupportive parents and leave home, and it's her aggressive confidence that gets her attention—but she's not comfortable when she has to get risqué to get ahead. Nor does it sit well with her when she has no choice but to move in with a male roommate, fellow struggling model Manav (Arjan Bajwa). He's a true friend, though, and they end up in love.
Meghna's also got an aspiring fashion designer, Rohit (Ashwin Mushran), in her corner, along with another wannabe model, Janet (Mugdha Godse). Janet doesn't have what it takes to make it big, but she has a big heart, and when her kind, gay college buddy, Rahul (Samir Soni), a top fashion designer, asks her to marry him for appearances, she accepts the comfortable life he offers.
Meghna aligns herself with the wrong people, however—Anisha (Kitu Gidwani) and Sarin (Arbaaz Khan), who head a top modeling agency. As Meghna starts rising to the top, she plants the seeds of her eventual fall—sleeping with her married boss, drinking heavily, becoming cruel and cocky, burning bridges left and right.
Chopra's deft emotional handling of a character on an identity roller-coaster ride is matched only by Ranaut's explosive portrayal of Shonali, a supermodel already on her way out and an unbearable, abrasive drug addict in an abusive relationship. Ranaut has made a name for herself playing trainwrecks—in Gangster (2006) and Life in a…Metro (2007), for example. Ranaut does unhinged with such skill that she's in danger of becoming typecast. For the purposes of this movie—in which she plays an unstable showstopper—she is the showstopper.
Fashion is rated Must See.
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