Fashion:
Bhandarkar’s definition of realism is making dramatically depressing films. Time and again, he’s passed off his brand of depression as realism simply because the world he sets his characters in seem real and are peopled with stereotypes that you would identify with that universe. He slaps his middle-class morality into every territory he’s ever explored and has branded himself as a hard-hitting filmmaker known to expose truths.
Fashion is among his better formula films because it has a few interesting characters but Bhandarkar lets them down in not fleshing out the key parts of what’s interesting about them most. Why would a girl (Priyanka) who has reservations about sharing a house with a guy she trusts not even discuss or think about having an affair with a married man? What exactly is going through Mughda’s head when she agrees to marry her gay best friend and are there no complications that arise out of an unnatural marriage between a straight woman and a gay man? Kangana’s is one of the most interesting characters but then we hardly get to know much of her other than the fact that she keeps going back to her abusive boyfriend, does drugs and punctuates every sentence screaming Bastard. And does wardrobe malfunction have to be treated with so much melodrama – it’s something most model experience and Carol Gracias got an applause for the way she carried herself. The world of Fashion is much more understanding than as seen from Bhandarkar’s blinders.
Golmaal Returns:
Irreverence and self-deprecation is in, thanks to Om Shanti Om. Like the first installment, Golmaal Returns is equally forgettable but entertaining nonetheless. But seriously, imagine the audacity of the filmmaker to repeat his gags all over again just because the title promises that the franchise has returned.
This is strictly for fans of the first installment simply because there’s more of the same old. Devgan is less smarter this time around, Sharman has been substituted with Shreyas, Arshad has been reassigned a cop’s role and Tusshar reprises his role of playing the animated mute who talks through noises. Apart from Shreyas who rocks this part, the rest are barely passable and Arshad is worst hit with hardly any lines to keep himself afloat.
MADRAS INK. 