Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Cast: Avani Modi, Kyra Dutt, Ruhi Singh, Akanksha Puri, Satarupa Pyne
He has a template set. And within that same template, year after year, Madhur Bhandarkar moulds ‘different’ stories and presents them to the audience. The characters may have different names and the story may be attempting to explore the realities of a certain industry, but they end up all the same.
Bhandarkar’s latest ‘Calendar Girls’, on paper, focuses on the lives of five new faces who get the dream launch in the glamour industry by featuring in a coveted calendar. The instant fame and spotlight on the girls and how they all take different paths in life and build a career is what the film is all about. But what one sees on screen is full of clichés and stereotypes and one can’t help but get a déjà vu of Bhandarkar’s previous work in every other frame.
The director, who is credited for making hard hitting, grim and engaging films like ‘Chandni Bar’ and ‘Page 3’, sticks to his tried and tested formula of filmmaking in his latest. While his earlier films made revalation that stunned and educated the audience about the glamour world, or the media or even the underbelly of Mumbai, ‘Calendar Girls’ has surprisingly nothing new to offer, it doesn’t show anything that we already don’t know about.
The film launches five fresh faces of which two actresses- Kyra Dutt and Ruhi Singh- stand out the most. Perhaps because of their characters and their individual track- coupled with very confident performances by the two new comers, it is really these two tracks that one enjoys watching the most onscreen. Dutt plays a practical, level headed Goan model, who gets disillusioned by the glamour industry soon after and opts for a completely different line- that of a news anchor- eventually. Singh plays the ambitious, go-getter, social media savvy Rohtak girl, who knows which ladders of success to climb and how to attain super stardom the right way. Bhandarkar seems to have invested the maximum time in writing her character. It is enjoyable, quirky and entertaining. The rest three characters remain sketchy and very predictable.
In fact, the film’s biggest flaw is that it fails to surprise the audience making the entire experience dull. There were moments where the audience in the theater were completing sentences before the dialogues were said on screen.
The men in the film - Suhel Seth, Rohit Roy, Indraneil Sengupta and Keith Sequeira play background characters and strictly their as the supporting cast.
While ‘Chandni Bar’, ‘Page 3’ and even to an extent ‘Fashion’ had a certain bit sharpness, which was served in typical Bhandarkar style, ‘Calendar Girls’ steers clear and plays it safe. Of course there is the token gay character, the immoral boss, the unfaithful boyfriend – which is there every Madhur Bhandarkar film- but they do nothing new.
Maybe it is time for Bhandarkar to try the other template that he used in ‘Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji’- that worked well too. May be it is time to stick to that template for a while.
Ratings: 2/5
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