Correlation

Headlines for today : In the wake of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's hate campaign against north Indians and non-Marathis, the Supreme Court on Thursday struck a patriotic note by saying that "all of us are Indians" and there is no difference between people coming from various regions.

Im glad of this patriotism, better late than never. We need it. After all we are Indians. Lets do away with tags like castes, creeds, regions, hindus, muslims, christians, minorities(whatever that means), majorities(and woteva that means 2), females, males, tribals. Lets have common rules for everyone. Like maharashtrians should work hard and compete. Like I heard some people shout, Its the survival of the fittest. Or is it?

Wish I was standing in the engineering line in this era. No reservations for navy, army, dalits, OBCs, minorites(again). No college level reservations for Gujuratis(in Maharashtra, trust me, our college had reservations)!! No city centric struggles. Allow full access to everyone to all MBA colleges in Maharashtra through CET instead of just 5% of outsiders. We are Indian. Period.

Lets all talk in Hindi in Chennai(we are all Indians, remember), and lets donate land for the good of the state you have been staying in for more than 10 years, instead of a homeland(AB babyyyyyy). Whats a homeland in a country full of Indians??

And while we're at it, lets allow people to roam about with guns in their hands and wave them at the police(who needs em anyway), but ofcourse dont hurt 'em, lets give 'em the benefit of the doubt.

Note: The author hates violence, be it from MNS or whoever, but she also hates hypocrisy. She has no political bias, except that she's one of those few unfortunate majorities, for whom no one will ever fight, she's too far from ever being a reserved category(unless I add an e to my surname), too far from owning and donating land, and has to listen to too many people griping about how badly crowded and unsafe bombay has become and how narrow minded maharashtrians are 'coz they are anti migration into bombay in the same breath.

Reel-view

I think "The Devil wears Prada" is at least close to being called "Fashion", unlike the actual Fashion movie. The Fashion movie is nothing about the way the fashion industry works, the way business is done and undone, the non glamorous employees of the glamour world.

Instead it's about one woman's success, what she does, willfully, without the demonized male parties asking her to, and the tag line says, you have to give up more than just your morals. It implies unwillingly. But it's not unwillingly. The protagonist dumps her boyfriend, and starts smoking. She dumps her baby and starts sniffing white powders. Really now!!

Maybe this movie should have been called Models. Or even Showstopper. The movie goes on and on about Priyanka and Kangana vying for the show stopper spot, and no other model is ever shown to be jealous about it, except these two. Another problem is too many characters. It gets really disconnected. Like the photographer guy is given two tiny scenes in the movie. What for? The movie breaks apart with such meaningless additions.

Unfortunately, everyone has acted damn well, which makes the waste of talent in a disastrous movie, more pronounced. Like the last scenes where Priyanka walks out as a showstopper (again) with tears in her eyes, but a haughty face, and eyes that tell the world, "I'm still one up on you".

Or the tortured, slave of habit and abuse, Kangana (they should reduce the volume when she speaks though, I almost went deaf; and also give her diction lessons maybe). Or Sameer Soni, who makes his preferences evident, oh so subtly.

This movie is not at all true to its subject. It's an over the top dramatized movie. These stories can happen to anyone who gets really successful, fashion industry or not.

I'd rather see a movie on how the Panache guy got to where he was. How he arm twisted all the designers to almost own their souls. Or how the established designers keep up appearances or quell talented budding designers. Anything but the overused stereotypical characters like the bollywood designer that cater to the masses to get a few cheap laughs.

Some final thoughts - I wouldn't have killed the movie, if Madhur Bhandarkar hadn't made it. It was not research. Anyone story writer could come up with a story like that, without actually knowing anything of the Fashion industry. I think in the end, he too couldn't really give away the real dirty and grimy secrets of a closely associated industry, and used a rehashed money making formula; instead of an eye opener.