Fashion

Are all male fashion designers gay ? YES, if you go with Madhur Bhandarkar's latest movie about the fashion world. A world where instead of females, male models face the casting couch - and where a single modelling agency has the ultimate power over all top models' careers.

The movie follows Madhur Bhandarkar's Page 3, Corporate and Traffic Signal - movies which purportedly give the viewer an insider view into the subject. But somehow, maybe because of the preponderance with Priyanka Chopra, the movie seems to be more about the models themselves and should probably have been named Models.

This movie is completely around Priyanka Chopra and she does justify the director's faith in her. However quite a few of the highlights come from the other characters. Kangana Ranaut is literally a show stopper as a supermodel on the decline. She has amazing screen presence on the ramp - and an exaggerated style of walking which is almost like a gallop - when she comes onto the ramp at the beginning of the movie, she literally sizzles !! Ironic that an actress (Kangana) looks more impressive on the ramp than Priyanka, who is a former Miss World.

Also impressive are Mugdha Ghodse - who plays a model with realistic ambitions - and Kitu Gidwani, who plays the head of the modelling agency who has seen it all. Harsh Chhaya's potrayal of a stuttering fashion designer was very refreshing - the sequence with Konkona and Ranbir especially so.

The movie is about Meghna Mathur's (Priyanka Chopra) rise from a Chandigarh girl to a supermodel - and then her downfall and what happens next. Dont kick me for telling you this - barely 20 min into the movie, Kangana tells Priyanka the same thing and so you know what the movie is all about right then - which robs the movie of all its curiosity value.

And this brings me to the couple of grouses I have with this movie. First, we all have heard how difficult - and sometimes dirty - the industry is. The expression often used is 'dog-eat-dog world'. The promos of the movie also seemed to highlight the fact that here you have to lose so much to succeed.

Yet in the movie, there is hardly any dirty linen washed !! Meghna Mathur had to face almost no struggle to make it big - her 'struggling' days are shown drinking coffee at CCD or strolling on the beach (looking quite dapper - no trace of any small-townism). The only compromise she had to do was a lingerie ad - that too, a nightwear ad and not proper lingerie-lingerie ! (Infact, I guess today's models would LOVE to do one - as a way to add to their portfolio as well as showing their glamorous side).

And just in case you are interested, there was no casting couch either - she is properly seduced by Arbaaz Khan and she doesnt do it to bag any contract or something. Looking at her growth, you cant help but think about the stories you have read about this industry - are they not true ? Of ill-treatment of models on foreign shoots, accomodating 4-5 girls in a single room - or the bad working hours - or the alternate jobs people do to make ends meet. kind of things. You would think that getting success in this industry wouldnt be so easy ....

Secondly, did you know the fashion industry is such a nice place where the friends you make will keep helping you forever - irrespective of whether you treat them nicely - even taking professionally suicidal risks for you ? That is how nice Meghna Mathur's friends are !

Really Mr. Director? In this industry ?

And ofcourse, they could have definitely made the ending a little less dragged.
There are potshots taken throughout the movie - from plagiarism among designers to using of bollywood stars on the ramp to the director making a joke at himself - but they are just two lines each and one wishes they could have been involved in the script a bit more. The much discussed wardrobe malfunction is filmed nicely, but is depicted as a pure accident, so nothing new there.

On the positive side, the movie has a great soundtrack and the theme music is just perfect.

The movie is technically competent with no obvious shortcomings apart from a slightly stretched ending. But the movie fails to involve the viewer - partly because the story is so evident from the beginning - and partly because of the way Meghna Mathur behaves. Her downfall is her own doing and she doesnt get any sympathy at all.

Additionally, instead of a look into the real workings of the industry and the struggle faced by newcomers, this is story of a girl somewhat superficially set in the modelling world. While its not a bad thing in itself, its not exactly what you expected - or atleast what I was expecting.