Movie reviews

Telling his story through a starry-eyed small-town beauty queen is a clever stroke — he makes it a strong hook for a million girls like Meghna Mathur (Priyanka), all of whom want to head to Mumbai to become, as the character says, a supermodel. But again, like in Bhandarkar’s others, the semblance of a plot is just an excuse to string together a series of scenes in which People like Us think happen to People like Them — the director kowtows to public perception, adding just the right amount of ‘masala’ to whet appetites. Models smoke, drink and sleep their way up. The only successful designers are gay. Coke is the ultimate accessory of the beautiful people, and that’s not something that comes out of a bottle.

But Fashion is a more sophisticated film than, say, Page 3 — the director is no longer shocked at salaciousness and sleaze, and that matter-of-factness of the taking is what makes the film so seductive.

Little about his film is new or unknown but Bhandarkar is not here to give us fresh takes. He wants to give us a bird’s eye view or, in this case, a fly on the wall, of cat fights in the green room, bitter rivalries, behind-the-scenes chaos in frenetic fashion shows. Leggy models sashaying on the ramp are daily fodder for our TV screens. Despite the disclaimer, Gitanjali Nagpal’s ravaged face is clearly the inspiration for Kangana’s self-destructive character. The wardrobe malfunction — the bustier that fell off, exposing the model’s torso, which ran endlessly on 24-hour news channels — is in the movie too. And the blond designer who will sit only in the front row, boyfriend in tow, can only be, okay, we’re not telling.

Cleavage is king here, so should we say queen, given the profusion of gay people in this movie, all of whom are ‘oh-so-creative’. Followed by a procession of never-ending legs, tight midriffs and toned butts. Bhandarkar adds a few individual quirks to his stereotypes, so that a limp-wristed designer becomes Samir Soni, a hard-headed celebrity handler becomes Kitu Gidwani, a millionaire playboy preying upon ambitious young girls becomes Arbaaz Khan.

The super-attractive trio that holds it together is topped by Priyanka, with the criminally short-changed Kangana and the vivacious first-timer Mugdha, kept firmly below.

Priyanka’s heavyweight presence makes sure that much of the focus in on her, and she’s good, but bland. Who knows what the movie would have been like if Kangana’s character had been given more play — I would take the edgy Kangana any day over the surface smart but ultimately prissy Priyanka.

It could also have done with being shorter. Like its characters, it gets played out in long loops. Fashion is interesting, without being particularly insightful.

Golmaal returns
CAST: Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Vrajesh Hirjee, Shreyas Talpade, Amrita Arora, Celina Jaitley, Anjana Sukhani
DIRECTOR: Rohit Shetty
The Golmaal gang is back. This time around, they are running around Goa, trying to be as silly as the last time, but they can’t quite hack it. It’s hard being foolish and funny at the same time.

The first Golmaal wasn’t scintillating, and this follow-up suffers from what most sequels do: the male leads, barring one, are the same but it’s not even the same-old, same-old. You have seen the gags before, and the lines are risqué ¿ some, in fact, are in plain bad taste — without being smart.

Kareena, who is supposed to be the star of this show, turns out to be a big factor in this flick being the way it is. There’s nothing particularly new about a suspicious wife keeping tabs on her husband, and there’s nothing particularly new in the way Kareena plays it: because it’s a Balaji production, she’s called Ekta, and all she seems to do is to watch soppy ‘saas-bahu’ serials which come from the stable.

Her spouse, played by Ajay, matches her step by step: he can’t muster up enough enthusiasm to give anything novel to his role, other than show off his size-zero waist, just like his heroine’s. Only, unlike her, he doesn’t bare it all the time.

The rest struggle to rise above the script.

Arshad Warsi, playing a hysterical cop, laughs like a hyena. Vrajesh does some bungee jumping in a kiddie plastic pool. Celina, Amrita and Anjana could be interchangeable. Only Shreyas Talpade, sliding in and out of a slippery character called Anthony Gonsalves, creates some mirth. As well as Tusshar, who plays dumb here, with a great deal of expression. Not much else happens. What else can you expect from a movie which has lines like ‘shaque, what the f***’?

Shucks.

shubhra.guptagmail.com