Fashion is a story of the rise and fall of an aspiring supermodel Meghna Mathur (Priyanka Chopra). Priyanka has come out with a strong performance finding her own standing in an industry known for ruthlessness and fickleness.
A smart aspiring model from Chandigarh, Meghna comes to Mumbai to pursue her dream of becoming a supermodel, against her dad’s wishes. She leaves her house with dreams to strike it big in the modeling world. However she experiences some major difficulties in her initial days in Mumbai, auditioning several times and getting rejected. Luckily, she gets a good helping hand from an old acquaintance, Rohit (Ashwin Mushran) an aspiring gay designer who assists big shot designer Vinay Khosla (Harsh Chhaya).
She keeps coming across another struggling male model, Maanav (Arjan Bajwa) who even helps her to share his accommodation.
Rohit takes Meghna to a top designer’s fashion show where she comes across the reigning supermodel Shonali Gujral (Kangana Ranaut). Meghna, while promoting her pics, is mocked by the show choreographer and is advised to visit a top model photographer Kartik (Rohit Roy) to do a professional portfolio of hers.
Meghna is mentored by another smalltime model Janet (Mugdha Godse). Finally, Kartik agrees to shoot her for a high fee for which she attends functions and even shoots for a lingerie shoot. While struggling and modeling for various designers as a side-by, she gets noticed by a top official Anisha Roy (Kitu Gidwani) of a major modeling agency Panache who introduces Meghna to her boss Abhijit Sarin (Arbaaz Khan) who is impressed by her ambitious nature and her achiever attitude.
The reigning Panache’s face is Shonali Gujral who with her drug abuse has become a problem for her and for the talent agency. Abhijit Sarin terminates Shonali’s contract and gives Meghna a break as Panache’s new face.
Dejected though, Shonali cautions Meghna that one day even she would just lose herself in all that glamour, like she did.
Now Meghna is an overnight success and her face is splashed everywhere. She is the new showstopper at the biggest fashion shows in town and the cover model in top fashion magazine covers, print ads and commercials.
As warned by Shonali, this overnight success spoils Meghna. It begins with an abrupt end to the budding love relationship between her and Manav.
Shonali’s career, on other hand, comes to an end and she gets into drugs and lands up at a rehab centre. Meghna riding high with her success and recklessness gets pregnant with Abhijit’s child and has to undergo an abortion due to the contract clause earlier added by Abhijit himself.
Dejected, Meghna resorts to alcohol to relieve herself. She even gets into a verbal fight with the agency’s manager and then recklessly living her life.
She then attends a rave party and from then onwards, she leads a reckless lifestyle. Her contracts get cancelled overnight, her career on a steep downhill, and she lands up at the bottom of her self esteem.
Meghna goes back to Chandigarh having lost her self-confidence. Living a dull life, this time it is her dad who encourages her to go back to Mumbai. She befriends her old friends and fights back to reach the top again in the modeling world.
Priyanka Chopra is excellent in this role of substance and she does a good job of carrying the film. The sexy Mughda Godse makes a confident debut and she does act well too. Kangana Ranaut with her dazzling looks appears hot in the catwalks, but is a little too loud when in distress. Samir Soni does a fine job while Arbaaz Khan, Kitu Gidwani and Arjan Bajwa make their presence felt.
Aren’t there many female models who have reached the top without resorting to drugs or drinks and without getting used by the promoters? Bhandarkar uses his usual style of story telling in Fashion, like he did in Chandni Bar which clicked that time about the life of bar girls but the modeling industry has lot of educated and even professional models who are level headed in the industry.
CAST of Fashion:
Meghna Mathur – Priyanka Chopra
Shonali Gujral – Kangana Ranaut
Janet Sequeira – Mugdha Godse
Abhijeet Sarin – Arbaaz Khan
Manav Bhasin – Arjan Bajwa
Rahul Aurora – Sameer Soni
Meghna’s father – Raj Babbar
Meghna’s mother – Kiran Juneja
Anisha Roy – Kitu Gidwani
Avantika Sarin – Suchitra Pillai-Malik
Vinay Khosla – Harsh Chhaya
Rohit Khanna – Ashwin Mushran
Monsin Merchant – Pradeep Kharab
Leena Mehta – Rinku Patel
Shomu – Chitrashi Rawat
Models – Caroline Martins Alcamim, Esha Balwe, Jaqueline Borges, Svetalana Casper
Rohit Roy
Manoj Joshi
Kamal Adib
Usha Bachani
Riya Bajaj
Sheena Bajaj
Manini De
CREDITS & CREW of Fashion:
Producer – Madhur Bhandarkar
Co-Producers – Ronnie Screwvala, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Deven Khote, Zarina Mehta
Directed by Madhur Bhandarkar
Story and Screenplay – Madhur Bhandarkar, Ajay Monga, Anuradha Tiwari
Associate Producers – Ram Mirchandani, Sanchayan Bhattacharya
Dialogues – Niranjan Iyengar
Original Music – Salim Merchant – Suleman Merchant
Cinematography – Mahesh Limaye
Film Editing – Devendra Murdeshwar
Production Design – Nitin Chandrakant Desai
Costume Designs – Narendra Kumar Ahmed, Rita Dhody
Fashion, movie review