Madhur Bhandarkar’s latest film is called Calendar Girls. These are girls who appear on a calendar. In this case there are five of them, all from different parts of the country, who collide in Mumbai only to be parcelled off to Mauritius. In Mauritius these bikini-clad women pout and pose and then announce animatedly “Ab hamari lives completely change ho jaayegi”. The said calendar gets shot in the first 15 minutes of the film. What do we do for the rest of the 115 minutes then? *face palm*
If you thought Heroine was bad then wait till you watch this one. Or I’d rather you don’t! In Calendar Girls, Bhandarkar rounds up five young women, all indistinguishable except for the colour of their bikinis. Akansha Puri, Avani Modi, Kyra Dutt, Ruhi Singh and Satarupa Pyne. A quick Google search revealed that Ruhi has earlier also been part of a lovely documentary, The World before Her by Nisha Pahuja – if you really want to know about the pressures that the glamour industry puts on young girls, I suggest you watch this instead.
True to his style, Madhur Bhandarkar weaves a facile, superficial story taking bits out of various celebrity scandals and marinating them with gossip column masalas. Once the calendar is shot the girls go their separate ways trying to chart their course to success and fame. Needless to say it isn’t an easy journey – both for the girls and for the unfortunate few watching them.
The known faces like Rohit Roy and Mita Vashisht ham it up, the new faces overact and everything else is forgettable.
In one particular scene, a character on the brink of suicide is given a reason to live when Big Boss comes knocking. Yes that’s your doze of realism! Madhur Bhandarkar has always tried to make women centric films exposing the ugly underbelly of society. Here too he tries to do the same and as usual fails miserably. What could have been a thought provoking depiction of the dizzying heights of stardom becomes an unimaginative piece of humdrum. I’ll go with 1 QUINT out of 5. Save yourself the trouble and give this one a miss.
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