Iffi fashion show fails to impress

PANAJI: Entertainment Society of Goa CEO Manoj Srivastava's attempts to rekindle the magic of yesteryear cinema via a fashion show displaying the dress styles of heroines through the years, failed miserably on Monday. It was a brilliant idea that could have been the highlight of the entire International Film Festival of India (Iffi), but was unsuccessful because of poor implementation.
Most of the costumes on display were bad. The show started with Devika Rani. And nobody in their wildest dreams would have imagined she wore a backless blouse, the kind worn by Sharmila Tagore in Evening In Paris!
The models danced to yesteryear melodies and while most of the music score selected was good, most of the dancers, barring a few, had two left feet. Only the dancer who re-enacted a Rekha number from Umrao Jaan had grace.
Coming back to the styles of display, the costume designer and show designer jumped from Madhubala directly to Sharmila Tagore. Sadhana, who made famous a certain French hairstyle that till date is called the 'Sadhana cut' in small-time parlours, was completely forgotten. In fact, Sadhana's churidars and tight kurtas were a style statement of that era.
The Sharmila Tagore get up too was not up to mark and the song selected-Roop tera mastana-had nothing to do with the costume she was wearing. Anwar Ali dancing with the model to brother Mehmood's 'O meri maina' was a good touch.
Madhuri Dixit was represented by the 'Dhak dhak' song. A great idea, but, the model preferred to cover her back with her hair rather than moving it sexily like Madhuri. And they forgot the path-breaking Urmila Matondkar of Rangeela fame, preferring to jump directly to Rani Mukherjee.
It was probably that time was running out or that they realized that the show was just not happening. There was a sudden visible rush and the last couple of girls almost ran on stage. One didn't even make her individual entry but walked the ramp in the last encore.
The list of pitfalls can go on. We hope Srivastava chooses a better designer the next time around and that his ideas take better shape.