Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘Page 3' is a fast paced morality tale of India's nouveau riche that offers a fascinating glimpse into todays Mumbai society. A hard hitting look at the jet-setting glitterati of Bollywood and environs, it plays on every stereotype in the book, albeit entertainingly and without the cliched sermonizing.

Page 3 occupants are filmi types, businessmen, politicians, social workers, cops, publishing moguls, models, fashion designers and struggling actors. Sutradhars of their bizarre lives are the chauffers who offer glimpses into their masters' petty desires.

Konkona Sen Sharma plays Madhvi, a naïve, wide-eyed journalist who covers the page 3 crowd’s nocturnal activities. As the journalist who can help get them on page 3, she is allowed into their world despite her solidly middle-class background.  She club hops with them, reveling in and looking down on their excesses even as she writes about them for voracious readers to devour. Madhvi’s room mates are Pearl (Sandhya Mridul), a world weary air hostess with a heart of gold and a struggling starlet Gayatri (Tara Sharma). Their stories run parallel to Madhvi’s.

Trials and tribulations follow, there are heart breaks aplenty with some powerfully shocking behaviour and Madhvi decides to give her regular beat a miss. She joins her colleague Vinayak (Atul Kulkarni) and tries her hand at crime reporting only to be sucked back into the world of corruption, sexual promiscuity, pedophilia and everything rotten in the realm of Page3 and it’s inhabitants.

Madhvi’s muck raking story does not see the light of day,  suppressed by media big wigs.  Despite support from her worldly mentor-editor played excellently by Boman Irani, Madhvi faces tough choices in a tough profession.

Undeniably, the film does have its obvious flaws, but it is still is far ahead of the standard escapist Bollywood fare, without losing its ability to keep you engaged.

Konkona Sen Sharma, Boman Irani and Atul Kulkarni turn in great performances ably supported by Sandhya Mridul and Tara Sharma.

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