Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is a legit Cannes legend and nothing can dim her sheen, not even a dress that was meant to enhance it but didn't quite do that. The 45-year-old actress made her first red carpet appearance this year at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival in a metallic mermaid silhouette gown by Jean Louis Sabaji - a molten gold creation with green undertones in a snakeskin effect fabric. The dress had a single sleeve and a pleated train. For Aishwarya, it was a look as unexpected as could be - it seems to be a year for sartorial surprises at Cannes, after Deepika Padukone's eye-popping green and turban outfit - and while she fared as well as anyone possibly could in so difficult a dress, as many eyebrows were raised as jaws were dropped.
Here's Aishwarya on the red carpet:
Aishwarya shared images of herself and daughter Aaradhya, who always accompanies her to Cannes and was dressed in yellow to match her, and her husband Abhishek Bachchan, for one, was impressed. "The gold standard," he wrote on one of Aishwarya's Instagram posts. Other comments, however, expressed confusion and outright dislike of the somewhat futuristic dress. "Complete disaster this time," read one comment; "Please change your stylist," read another; "A big no for this outfit," read a third.
Twitter was less polite:
Aishwarya's dress reminds me of this pic.twitter.com/Hx8D7ZjXNw
— Ras. (@chaandaniya) May 19, 2019
Aishwarya rai's dress looks like a chameleon's skin #Cannes
— Sandy Tungdim (@sandytungdim) May 20, 2019
But Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and she doesn't need a dress to prove it. These comments agree:
Aishwarya Rai looks beautiful at #Cannes19 because she is Beautiful.
— Lisa Smith (@LisaTictactoe) May 19, 2019
But I really think Aastha Sharma her stylist has missed it this time (she is always hit or miss) this dress looks terrible in flash Also the cut is odd. Deepika's stylist is on point this year. (I am aish fan) pic.twitter.com/RsNN8v3MrD
Dress was not at all good
— Abraamsingh (@abraamsingh) May 19, 2019
Look did not go well
It's her face which can save anything
It was not at all refreshing look
Still Queen manages to grab eyeballs at Cannes
Wish @aastha06 has something unexpected for tomorrow
Cannes Queen Aishwarya #AishwaryaRaiBachchan #Cannes pic.twitter.com/olozv5m1gI
We will give Aishwarya, who like Deepika is often criticised for playing it too safe on the red carpet, 10 on 10 for experimenting - and we do hope she continues to do so. This is Aishwarya's 18th Cannes - she was first there in 2002 representing her film Devdas and has attended ever since as a L'Oreal ambassador. She's had plenty of red carpet practice, to say the least, and she hasn't always got it right. Sometimes she hits it out of the park, like the year she wore a gold Roberto Cavalli dress with coral lips:
Other times, she's been trolled for overly purple lips and less than stellar saree looks:
We'll reserve judgement on this year's fashion report card until we see Aishwarya's next few looks. This time, she's one of a veritable crowd of Indian stars at Cannes - we've already seen Deepika Padukone, Kangana Ranaut, Priyanka Chopra, Diana Penty, Huma Qureshi and Hina Khan. Next up, Sonam Kapoor.
