Madhur Bhandarkar does it again and this time notches below his usual standards.His latest outing "Calender girls"has all his typical cinema elements-sleaze n glamour,controversy, taboo topics, shocking reality bytes etc..but nothing manages to really hold your attention here in spite of the presence of not just one but 5 sexy sirens going from bikinis, sarongs to LBD and red carpet gowns.The stories of each of the five leads borrows heavily from Madhur's earlier works like Fashion,Page 3, Satte,Corporate,Chandni Bar and even Heroine.The dialogues are far from hard hitting barring a few scenes and the music is like a stale masala dosa which hardly adds any depth to the film.
While the theme of taking a peek behind the lives of Calender girls must be lauded, there is nothing much to offer here in terms of content.Relatively unknown faces and few smaller actors or not much in demand small screen and silver screen actors ve for screen space and the result is so ho-hum
Among the girls Kyra dutt as the more sorted Sharon Pinto is bang on.Satrupa pyne(Paroma Ghosh) looks hot but carries the same expression throughout.Avni Modi as the bold and hard hitting Nazneen from across the bordrer is also quite a let down.Satrupa and Avni have strong stories and their shot to fame and then down the drain as a Honey trap in cricket match fixing and High class escort called for more nuanced portrayals.Then there is the selfie obsessed Mayuri(Ruhi singh), and aspiring Bollywood actress whose PR skill antics are irritating but also interesting in parts.And finally Nandita(Akankshi Puri) a small town south Indian girl who gives up her career early on to become a business magnet's bahu and ends up with a philandering husband and a twisted life.
Supporting actors Keith Sequira,Mita Vashisht, Rushad Rana,Suchitra Pillai,Kiran Kumar,Ronit Roy and Indraneil Sengupta and Madhur himself in a cameo add good support.
The problem is Calender girls is not compelling like Fashion or Heroine.It is not entirely bad but is not the stuff that Madhur's hard hitting and impact creating films are made of.At best a good time pass one time watch.