Of Bhandarkar's Fashion and the 'fashionable' thing to do ....

For this blog, I thought I would shift focus on my other major interest which is off course movies diverting from the philosophical rants of the first 2 blogs. The movie I caught up recently was Madhur Bhandarkar's Fashion, I cannot say I was very eagerly looking forward to it.

What can you expect when the promos pretty much summed up the movie, "you have to loose more than just your morales", really in Bhandarkar's view nothing comes easy especially success !

Several movie critics gave this movie a must watch and 3 star ratings considering the good reputation Mr. Bhandarkar has made for making 'realistic' movies.

The reasons the movie didn't work for me ......

• the predictable plot, a small town girl has dreams , she tastes success early, she brushes off her good friends and loving boy friend, has an affair with a powerful business man and then fails professionally and personally and in the end makes a fairytale comeback.
  
• Kangana Ranagaut's perfected melancholic alcoholic girl gone bad act after Gangster, Life in a Metro does not cut much ice either and its really repetitive
  
• You really don't feel any sympathy for Priyanka's character because she succeeds without any compromises and picks up all the bad habits and short comings after she becomes the supermodel .... the saying "how you treat people who cannot hurt you tells a lot about you applies here"
  
• The usual stereotypes galore all designers are gay and all rich media tycoons hit on women .and many more supportive mom , strict dad etc
  
• finally the length of 3 hours more makes the ordeal seem much longer.
  

Apart from what I thought about the movie itself , there are two points to ponder .....

Why do people want to get into the glamour industry if its so bad and evil ??

The most basic aspect of humanity is the ego and the degree of inherent narcissism. I mean if you cannot stop checking your self out in a mirror daily, then imagine the high you can get to be featured on a magazine cover or a billboard.

Secondly a bit of attention in college or a beauty pageant perhaps accentuates that feeling/craving for attention which drives people to a field with such a small window for success.
In cases, people do end up rationalizing the means does justifies the end.

Why do the common folks deride the glamour industry vehemently and do follow the gossip columns even more religiously ??

The outsider view of the fashion industry ... how tough can it get to sway down the ramp in fancy clothes which you cannot wear on most occasions and have a hazzar flashbulbs and give a 100 watt smile and appear in page 3 dos, perhaps a inherent tinge of jealous fuels this feeling.

The second aspect is the holier than thou attitude to look down at the glamour industry, that they indulge in drinks, drugs and sleep around, basically to stereotype people and run them down.

The reason why the two questions are relavent to this discussion, so what must have prompted Madhur Bhandarkar to make this movie 'Fashion'? I really wished it was the exploration of the first question, unfortunately the movie plays to the gallery and doesn't rise beyond the obvious.

Perhaps Fashion as a standalone movie would have been refreshing, but as a follow up to Corporate, Satta and Page 3 , it seems more like a standard Bhandarkar formula and definitely not the reality.

Atleast in Chandini bar you can sympathize with the characters considering the poverty and situations, for urban educated characters in the other movies who know what they are getting into, I cannot shed a tear...