The 2008 Wonder: Fashion

This time around, BollyCurry brings to you the review of a film that is female-oriented and promotes women power, Fashion! This movie created waves as soon as it released for its amazing songs, its even better script that featured powerful women characters, and for the absolutely flawless acting! This movie may not quite be appropriate for a re-visit under the Retro Review banner, but we stretched the definition as bit as it goes great under the theme of the month, Women Empowerment! Fashion boasted of a superb cast, consisting of Priyanka Chopra, Kangna Ranaut, Mugdha Godse, Arjan Bajwa, Sameer Soni, and many more!

Directed, co-produced, and co-written by Madhur Bhandarkar, this movie depicted the dark side of the fashion world, through the protagonist's eyes. This movie quickly catapulted to the top of the box office as its realism and characters with a shade of grey, quickly caused much intrigue among the audiences.

Aspiring model Meghna Mathur (Priyanka Chopra) expresses her wish to go to Mumbai and pursue her dream of becoming a supermodel, against her dad's wishes. In the busy and popular city of Mumbai, the gal experiences some initial difficulties and struggles. Her old acquaintance, Rohit (Ashwin Mushran), an aspiring gay designer, assists her into getting her foot in the fashion world, in which she continues to bump into another model, Maanav (Arjan Bajwa). Due to a lingerie ad she shoots, her cousin's family kicks her out of the house she was living in and she ends up moving in with Maanav, thus bringing them closer together. At the same time she comes across Anisha Roy (Kitu Gidwani), who runs a major modelling agency. Anisha is impressed by Meghna and brings her to her boss, Abhijit Sarin's (Arbaaz Khan) notice, who runs Panache, a highly regarded brand. Shonali (Kangna Ranaut) is the face of Panache, but her attitude creates problems and soon Abhijit replaces her with Meghna. This is the rise of Meghna. In her rise, she loses Maanav, the love of her life along with other important and close friends. The rest of the movie revolves around her rise and downfall along with the story of her taking a step forward in helping Shonali, her former enemy, get back on the right path, away from drugs.

Fashion also featured many stars in cameo roles including Konkana Sen Sharma, Ranvir Shorey, Karan Johar, Madhur Bhandarkar and Rakshanda Khan. The movie was a sellout on opening night and both critics and viewers praised the movie, saying that it was for upper-crust audiences, for youngsters, and for all the people who want realism. Madhur was praised for being the undisputed king of realistic fares by Taran Adarsh. The music was rated highly by listeners and critics as well. Salim-Sulaiman were praised for their music and most critics said that "Mar Jawan" was the icing on the cake.

If that wasn't enough, Fashion won several awards as well! Priyanka Chopra and Kangna Ranaut won the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards at the 56^th National Film Awards. They also won these awards at the Filmfare Awards, Stardust Awards, Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Awards, and IIFA Awards. Priyanka walked away with the Best Actress Award at the Star Screen Awards and Bollywood Hungama Surfers Choice Award. Mugdha Godse won Best Female Debut Award at the Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Awards.

A power-packed performance, a power-packed director, a power-packed script, and power-packed actors. That's all that a movie needs to wow the audience and Fashion had it all. That's why this movie tops the list of many critics and viewers alike.