Get Your "Fash" On!

Priyanka Chopra has been releasing a slew of movies that display none of her talent, save for her fighting skills (God Tussi Great Ho, Chamku, Love Story 2050, Drona). But, finally--finally!--we get to see the Piggy Chops we saw in Aitraaz and Aap Ki Khatir and Bluffmaster and Salaam-e-Ishq.

Fashion is directed by Madhur Bhandakar, best known for his gritty exposes on different parts of Indian life. Three of his most popular films also served as a vehicle for a certain actress: Chandni Bar for Tabu; Page 3 for Konkona Sensharma; and Corporate for Bipasha Basu. Corporate and Page 3 had the opposite effect: Page 3 turned an actress into a star and Corporate turned a star into an actress. Bhandarkar does the same favor he did for those girls for Priyanka Chopra. Supported by Kangana Ranaut, newcomer Mughda Godse, Arbaaz Khan, Samir Soni, Ashwin Mushran, Kitu Godwani and Arjan Bajwa, Chopra confidently leads this cast and the viewer is in a for a bumpy ride.

The story begins on Wall Street where Meghna Mathur toils daily. She lives on the Upper East Side where she is only a central park away from her favorite cousin, who lives on the Upper West Side...WAIT. Wrong Meghna Mathur...The Meghna Mathur in FashFash is played by Priyanka Chopra. This Meghna lives in Chandigarh and dreams of being a big model. Against her parents' wishes, she moves to Bombay and meets up with designer Rahul (Soni). He introduces her to Anisha Roy (Godwani) who scores her a contract with Panache, headed by Abhijeet Sarin (Khan). She starts dating Manav (Bajwa), a struggling model. As Meghna climbs the ladder of success, supermodel Shonali (Ranaut) is on the decline with an abusive boyfriend, a drug addiction and a bad reputation at fashion show rehearsals. Janet (Godse), another struggling model, marries Rohit (Mushran), who is a gay designer pressured to get married by his family. Theirs is a marriage of convenience. Slowly, Meghna's success gets to her head and she reaches to the top of modeling world. How Meghna slowly falls until she hits rock bottom and has to redeem herself forms this tale of greed, ambition, glory and, of course, the world of FASHION.

This movie brings together two of my many passions: Priyanka Chopra and high-end fashion. Ah, yes, nothing makes me happier than looking at outfits that are so ugly and unwearable yet ridiculously overpriced and overdesired. It makes me feel better about my own clothing choices (thanks Hennes & Mauritz!). I guess I never figured that India would have their own Oscar de la Renta or Donna Karan, though now that seems obvious. I can't help but wonder: does each designer or label have a counterpart in another country? I have to say that the clothes in the movie are abso fabulous. I liked Priyanka's second fashion show the best, the one with the Thai-styled Indian clothing.

The fashion of Fashion aside, this movie really belongs to Priyanka, though there are no surprises there. Bhandakar really knows how to exact a strong performance from his lead. The reason why his films work is that he makes character studies fooling themselves into thinking they're industry studies. I'll be a little more clear: Fashion thinks it's an expose on the world of fashion, and to an extent it is, but in reality we are seeing the world of fashion as experienced by Meghna Mathur. It's more how she deals with the obstacles and victories than how it deals with her.

I wrote a poem describing my thoughts on Priyanka's performance. "Nindiyaan se jaagi Priyanka/Aisa acting dekha pehli baar (in 2008)." Yes, 2008 has not been a great year for Piggy Chops and that's okay...every great actress has that period where she is underused (or whole careers in Raima Sen's case). But the important thing is, like every great actress, she bounced back with a thunderous, full-bodied performance. Ms. Chopra gloriously embodies Meghna Mathur and just everything about her performance is stellar. As God as my witness (lol Scarlett O'Hara), I promise you Priyanka will be not ignored come awards season.

The other performances are not so stellar. Samir Soni is a riot as a stereotypically gay designer/confidant. "Spare me the horror" is his catchphrase which is hilarious! Mughda Godse is indeed God se since she gives the best performance of the supporting cast. Hers and Ashwin Mushran's subplot gives some heart to the proceedings. He also gives a natural performance. Kitu Godwani and Arjan Baswa are fine. Baswa shines in the breakup scene and Godwani gets points for being named Anisha. Arbaaz Khan is strictly okay. Was that Kashmira Shah playing his wife? Kashmira Shah...man, oh, man.

This brings me to Kangana Ranaut. Her career is filled with strong performances of women who are really falooda'd up: Gangster, Woh Lamhe, Life in a... Metro, Shakalaka Boom Boom). And she is a good actress. But her dialogue delivery negates everything good about the physicality of her acting. If she could just play a mute, everything would be good. Her body language is stellar but the language coming out of her mouth is not.

The music fits the fashion theme, with beats that suit the runway. You don't really take the songs home with you, though. But that's been true for all of Bhandakar's films. Except for "O Sikandhar" from Corporate. That was a fantastic qawaali...

Also, the writer is stalking our family (there was a Meghna, an Anisha, a Riya, my namesake, and Isaac Mizrahi's alter ego, Manish Malhotra did a cameo). Priyanka Chopra and the fashion of Fashion are the real stars. If you don't care about fashion, see it for Priyanka. If you don't care about Priyanka, see it for the fashion. If you don't care about either, see it anyway since it is an exceptionally well-made film. Fashion rates an 8.5/10.

PS - Konkona Sensharma and Ranvir Shorey have a surprisingly good cameo. Get those two in a movie RIGHT NOW.