Calendar Girls(2015)

Calendar Girls(2015)
Storyline
The film attempts to explore the unseen darker side of the fashion world. It narrates the struggle of the new models who want to make it big in the glamorous world and the problems they face in this journey.
Calendar Girls Movie Details

Akanksha Puri
Nandita Menon from Hyderabad

Avani Modi
Nazneen Khalid from Lahore

Kyra Dutt
Sharon Pinto from Goa

Ruhi Singh
Mayuri Chauhan from Rohtak

Satarupa Pyne
Paroma Ghosh from Lahore

Suhel Seth
Kumar

Keith Sequeira
Pinaki

Rohit Roy
Photographer
Meeta Vasisht
Ananya

Rushad Rana
Aniruddh Shroff

Madhur Bhandarkar
Cameo

Vikram Sakhalkar
Harsh Narang

Atul Parchure
Manager

Indraneil Sengupta
Shashank

Kiran Kumar

Gargi Patel

Yogesh Lakhani

J Brandon Hill

Sharad Ponkshe

Anant Jog

Suchitra Pillai
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Plot
The movie revolves around the life of the girls called Nazneen Malik (Avani Modi) who hails from Lahore, Paromita Ghosh (Satarupa Pyne) from Kolkata, Nandita Menon (Akanksha Puri) from Hyderabad, Sharon Pinto (Kyra Dutt) from Goa and Mayuri Chauhan (Ruhi Singh) from Rohtak. Leaving behind their families, these girls arrive in city of dreams, Mumbai to earn name and fame. They get selected to become a part of the shoot of a passion project of the industrialist Kumar (Suhel Seth). This shoot for the annual 'Calendar Girls' opens the door of a different world for these five models and they start a new life.
They confront various problems during their journey to become successful in their field. One of them has to work in different field, as the advertising world closes doors for her, the other lands up being an escort in search of ray of hope. A model marries a rich person and quits her career, but fails to get real love. One model gets trapped in cricket match fixing case due to her overambitious boyfriend. The film narrates their journey to achieve their aim.
Stills(3)
Box Office CollectionFlop
Opening Day
₹1.50 Cr
Opening Weekend
₹3.80 Cr
First Week
₹6.20 Cr
Lifetime (India)
₹6.20 Cr
Parties & Events
4 Exclusive AppearancesCritic Reviews
One Line Review: The dreary tale of small town girls, big dreams and the harsh career journey with Madhur Bhandarkar stamp on it. Positive Points: Good cinematography, precise editing. Negative Points: Dull screenplay, non-gripping direction, not-so-good music, dreary character performances. Plot: The movie kick starts with an introduction of the five lead characters, Mayuri Chauhan (Ruhi Singh) from Rohtak, Nandita Menon (Akanksha Puri) from Hyderabad, Sharon Pinto from Goa (Kyra Dutt), Nazneen Malik (Avani Modi) from Lahore and Paromita Ghosh (Satarupa Pyne) from Kolkata. These five beautiful girls leave their families behind and struggle hard to be the part of the passion project of the flamboyant industrialist Kumar (Suhel Seth). This project is the annual 'Calendar Girls'. On the eventful night of calendar launch in Mauritius, these five beauties are greeted with media people and paparazzi. These girls commence a brand new life from the next morning. At a social function in Mumbai, Paromita Ghosh comes across her long lost love Pinaki (Keith Sequeira), who is an overambitious person. Paromita goes on loving Pinaki in an unconditional way without knowing his motives. She gets so much crazy in his love that she becomes entangled in a match fixing with cricketers for the affluent cricket league matches. Very soon, Paromita comes in the eyes of Police and her life changes in a bad way. Pakistani model Nazneen Malik has to return the entire signing amount of her debut movie owing to anti-Pakistan movement. Nazneen sees no option in front of her and becomes a high-society escort. A leading talent management agency signs the stunning Sharon Pinto. But the agency owner Aniruddh Shroff (Rushad Rana) comes up with some nasty and fictitious stories about Sharon. Sharon gives a slap to Aniruddh in front of all the employees due to her self-respect. She confronts a 'ban' from the advertising world. Afterwards, Sharon lands up becoming a television show anchor. This happens after she meets a leading journalist at a book store. Nandita Menon waves good-bye to the glamorous world to exchange marital vows with Harsh, who is from a rich Narang family from Jodhpur. The other model Mayuri Chauhan leaves no stone unturned to make the best use of her networking skills as well as her social networking skills to ascend the ladder of Bollywood to become an actress. Mayuri gets ready to do a movie with the son of producer and she doesn't mind hobnobbing with the eminent filmmakers from the industry. The film talks about whether Sharon Pinto turns into a successful television show host, whether Nazneen Malik be able to get out of the escort business and see a new ray of hope in her life, will Nandita Menon achieve true love from her husband Harsh, whether the excellent PR skills of Mayuri Chauhan can create wonder for her by helping her to become a successful starlet and whether Paromita Ghosh will find a way out of cricket scam. Direction and Other Technical Aspects: With this film, the filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar attempts to showcase the noire and real side of the fashion world. His previous flicks like 'Fashion' and 'Heroine' also revolved around the similar theme. Bhandarkar exposes the life of models post the exposure to success and fame. The story is told in a convincing manner and the filmmaker Bhandarkar has taken a risk of narrating such a complex tale with five newbie. The flick is all about bikini-clad models, gay designers, make-up, contemporary outfits, high profile gossip mongers, melodrama and love-making scenes. However, it offers nothing new to the audience and continues to depict the same old story of darker side of the fashion world, which has been discussed many a times in various movies. Madhur Bhandarkar makes a special appearance in the film during the scene in which he interacts with the character Mayuri Chauhan and tells her the reason behind making women-centric films. The movie shows the advantages of being active on social media. The content of the flick does not appear powerful to make it gripping enough and it's basically a tale of these models post the calendar shoot. The things seem to be repetitive and dialogues also fail to create wonders. 'Calendar Girls' gives a message that your life is decided by your choices that can either make or break you. The cinematography by Harri Vendaantam is good and Devendra Murdeshwar's editing is great too. Performances: The performances of the lead actresses like Avani Modi, Akanksha Puri, Kyra Dutt, Satarupa Pyne and Ruhi Singh can't be tagged as great. Their performance seemed artificial at times and the flashy make-up and cheesy dialogues make the things go downhill. Although, the actors like Rohit Roy, Suhel Seth, Keith Sequeira and Atul Parchure didn't have much role to play; all of them performed their parts in a convincing manner. Music: The music is given by Meet Bros Anjjan and Amal Malik. The theme of the film being an intense topic did not need the music. However, the music was not tuneful and does not seem to have long shelf life. Final Verdict: You can certainly give a miss to this unimaginative tale that fails to give a dose of entertainment.
External Reviews
Madhur Bhandarkar is obviously frustrated mid-way through his CALENDAR GIRLS. I believe he sees that the film is headed nowhere. So the director decides to come on screen for not one but two scenes, in the hope of salvaging it. If five semi-clad girls can't he surely has a hope in hell! In the first scene he makes sure that the audience are told he is the one filmmaker who likes to address films close to reality.
There's a scene in Calendar Girls where Madhur Bhandarkar is speaking on the phone trying to clarify to someone that he's not making a film on a controversial subject like 3G scams. Yet, his film focuses on such controversies like cricket betting and high profile escort scandals. It shows how models are easy targets for hunters in the entertainment and glamour world. It's all a bit stereotypical. But it is supported by a decent story and capable filmmaking.
Halfway through Calendar Girls, the new film by Madhur Bhandarkar, a young actress is shooting a film when she's sidetracked by the revelation that some superstar is shooting nearby. She bolts, thrilled, toward the celebrity, and while one might imagine a Khan cameo, the star in question is Bhandarkar, playing himself.
Director Madhur Bhandarkar's films - Chandni Bar, Page 3, Traffic Signal and Fashion - have collectively won 11 national awards, including those for acting, script and direction. Does that make Bhandarkar a master at his craft? Far from it. What they do, however, note is Bhandarkar's special talent for spotting stories with potential in fascinating worlds that are great settings, full of pulp, sleaze, glamour and glitz.
Small-town schemer Mayuri (Ruhi), rebellious Paroma (Satarupa), free-spirited Sharon (Kyra), naive Nandita (Akansha) and Pakistani Bollywood aspirant Nazneen (Avani) are 'calendar girls' for industrialist Kumar (Suhel), whose glamorous almanac, with itsy-bitsy bikinis and sprawling white sands, is 'India's symbol of success'. Shot by ace photographer Timmy (Rohit), the ladies wear lip-gloss, attitude and little else, dreaming of fame, love and success.
After making a spate of woman-centric films and bagging a National Award, Madhur Bhandarkar probably thought that it was time to let his hair down (cinematically, at least) and stop taking things seriously, for no other reason can justify his latest film Calendar Girls. Consider this - a Pakistani gentleman sips his beer while lecturing his girlfriend about how un-Islamic it is to wear skimpy clothes for a photo-shoot! Need we say more? Apparently, we must so here we go...
It's often said that 'Films are nothing but a reel representation of the real life'. While a majority of filmmakers thrive on making 'masala' films, there are a handful of them who have carved a niche for themselves in making realistic yet commercial cinema. Madhur Bhandarkar is one such bright example for this. Be it CHANDNI BAR, PAGE 3, CORPORATE, TRAFFIC SIGNAL, FASHION or HEROINE, all of his films have been reflecting the bitter truth or like he says 'the other side of the coin'. Madhur's penchant for realistic films continues with his latest offering, CALENDAR GIRLS, yet another film that exposes the bitter side of the glamour industry.
Madhur Bhandarkar is known for films that showcase a gritty reality that you're left pondering hours later. However, with his latest film Calendar Girls, the director perhaps tries to show far too many facets of the glamour industry for just a two-hour film. As far as the glamour aspect is concerned, Bhandarkar tries hard to make the film stand out. The glam quotient, background score, glossy sequences could have made for a brilliant film but the Calendar Girls of the title only look good in still photos.
A few agonising Madhur Bhandarkar films over the years and I am imagining this is how his script factory functions. So let's start with the essentials; 1. Get an intense looking cop, preferably with red rimmed eyes; call a Marathi actor. 2. A rich industrialist whose introductory scene will be in a board room meeting, awkwardly deriding some extras in suits; call Suhel Seth. 3. A socialite who looks like she is born with a wine glass stuck to her hand and who goes around introducing random people to random people at tacky parties; call Suchitra Pillai
Slapdash and sanctimonious, Calendar Girls is a stunner, but for all the wrong reasons. It is stunning in its sheer stupidity. One of the girls alluded to in the title, a Lahore lass from London, is quickly reduced in aamchi Mumbai to servicing sex-starved politicians, industrialists and diplomats. Another, a Hyderabad girl now married to a philandering jetsetter from a wealthy Jodhpur clan, lectures the former on "third-rate and characterless" escorts who sell their bodies and souls for money.
The film starts off with an introduction to the chosen five calendar models. We are first shown a picture of their backgrounds as they come from different towns and different family values too. The five models essaying the lead characters are Akanksha Puri as Nandita Menon, Avani Modi as Nazneen Malik, Kyra Dutt as Sharon Pinto, Ruhi Singh as Mayuri Chauhan and Satarupa Pyne as Paroma Ghosh.
At one stage in the film, which up until then has been swimming in a sea of predictable clichs about the 'glamour' world, a spiky little plot-point yanks back our wandering attention: a 'calendar girl' attends a funeral, and her `fee' for so doing is a couple of cool lakhs.
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