Fashion

It's unusual to see a realistic portrait of a human being disintegrating mentally in and Indian film. It's been done a few times, for example in Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara starring Anupam Kher. Fashion is a movie where this is done with two different people.

Fashion is a movie that depicts the highs and lows achieved by the people in the modeling and fashion industry. It's a film that portrays various aspects of its primary topic. The glitter is in evidence but it's just a mood-setter in this movie, a thinly brushed-on veneer of glamour-paint. Most of the movie is about the weaknesses of the human character: the arrogance that comes with easy success, the meanness and lack of strength exposed when success turns to failure. It's hard to find a single cliche in this movie. There are many movies that show people descending to low levels because of a mental sickness; this movie shows what being in an industry like the fashion industry can do to healthy, normal minds. The movie often makes the viewer think about what's going on.

The unfortunate thing is this happens only in parts of the movie. Although the topics and writing are great and handled well, I found the movie gripping only in parts. It's hard to put a finger on it, but some parts are just a tad too bland to grasp attention. This could've been a great movie, but it ended up being merely good.

Telugu Movie Recommendations

Here are some Telugu movies that I enjoyed. Think of it as my top Telugu movies list. I tend to enjoy movies that are have good attention to detail. I usually don't enjoy movies that are too masaledar or too artsy or too violent. I'll keep adding movies as I come across them. This list has fairly recent movies; maybe I'll create another list for the older movies.

I've started adding ratings. What do the ratings mean? They give you a sense of how good a movie is relative to others. A movie with a higher rating is better than one with a lower rating, but this doesn't tell you how much better.

1. Anukokunda Oka Roju (5 stars). Low key, edge-of-the-seat suspense. Great, natural acting and tight direction make this one of my favourite Telugu movies. You can't help connecting with Charmy's character. Much, much better than its ridiculous Hindi remake Sunday. There's not a thing wrong with this movie.
2. Godavari (4.5 stars).Heavily regional movie with the river as its theme. Kammula uses the scenery of the Godavari, local accents and the fresh cast to great effect. Great restrained performances from all of the actors.
   
3. Morning Raaga (4 stars). Part-English, part-Telugu movie with a nice Andhra feel. Shabana Azmi impresses in her portrayal of a traditional middle-aged Telugu lady.
4. Happy Days (3.5 stars). This early effort by Sekhar Kammula is relevant and perfectly captures various aspects of a gang of students' journey through four years in a typical college. The music in this film is fantastic. However, the acting and diction were disappointing in patches and it was good, not great.
   
5. Gamyam (3.5 stars). Interesting story, nice portrayal of rural areas. One innovative dance sequence (the one with many hands). On the downside, the narrative isn't as coherent as it could be and the movie's moral science lesson is too in-your-face.
   
6. Nuvvu Naaku Nacchav (3.5 stars). Venkatesh does comedy well. There's nothing even the least bit innovative in this film, but it doesn't have any cringe-inducers either.
   
7. Aithe (3 stars). A so-so pick. It had a great story idea, but poor execution. The actors are not convincing at all, but what really bothered me was their absurd accents. Was the dialogue not spoken by Telugus?
   
8. Bommarillu (3 stars). On the better side of so-so. Genelia's character is a little too ditzy - or psycho, don't know which. But is generally well-made.
9. Anand (3 stars). Good, but not as good as Godavari. Sekhar Kammula, who directed both Godavari and Anand, seems to be shaping up to be a great director.
10. Anasuya (1 star). Ok, I actually hated this movie. The direction was horrible, the acting was so-so, the pacing needed a lot of work, and it almost looked like it was over at the intermission. The reasons it's in this list are: it was genuinely scary, it was good in patches, like the Aliens-inspired ending sequence, and it had a really great story. In the right director's hands, this movie could have been great.