What crap!!

Had been to the Star Screen Awards yesterday at BKC. Either there was something seriously wrong with the jury or my judgment is as good as (rather as bad as) Anil Kumble’s resplendent batting.
The awards sucked…imagine Ritiesh Deshmukh getting an award for the best comedian when the other nominees were Arshad the next-comedy-God-after-Paresh-Rawal Warsi for Hulchul.Paresh himself for Hulchul, Rajpal Yadav for Mujhse shaadi Karogi and Vijay raaz for Run. The best contender amongst these was Arshad. His timing was sooo brilliant in Hulchul that he almost overshadows Paresh.Seldom has any actor managed to give life to even the most mundane dialogues and has got the audience in splits. After a certain point you laugh at anything it need not even be remotely funny.

If this was not enough, Shahrukh Khan’s ahem…performance in Swades was not even a part of the nominations for the Best Actor’s award. All said and done the Khan came of age in this movie. As a tabloid had aptly put, ‘A star has become an actor.’ His restrained act was one of the most beautiful parts of the movie. Honestly, with a tight leash around him he oozes an earnestness, which is convincing. That’s the reason your heart reaches out to Mohan Bhargava and his predicament. And guess who got the Best Actor Trophy????? Shahrukh Khan for Veer Zaara.
We love clichés don’t we? Infact I think mediocre is therapeutic, as good as an orgasm for some people. Coz that way they feel secure that there are many other people like them.

And horror of all horrors Priyanka Chopra won against Irfan Khan for Maqbool in the best performance in negative role category. The poor thing herself couldn’t believe it. The way these morons were giving awards I was glad that Irfan didn’t get one.

First of all it was difficult for me to comprehend why Pankaj Kapoor was slotted in the supporting actor category and Irfan in negative role, it should have been the other way round.

With due respect to Abhishek who was splendid in Yuva, was not the right choice when you have Pankaj Kapoor from Maqbool as competition. But nonetheless he won.

This list will be evidence enough to prove the debauchery of the jury.

Best Story – Veer Zaara (Couldn’t bear to see Ashu’s face!! Did the jury ever hear about the movie called Swades.)

Best Editing – Dhoom (Ek Hasina thi,Ab tak Chappan,Maqbool are not from the Chopra clan so they have no right to ask for awards.)

Best Director – hold your breath…Kunal Kohli for Hum tum.(Ashu…its ok dude you deserve something better than this piddly Star screen)

The fillers in between were fairly entertaining. Sajid Khan as the main host for the evening did manage to provoke a chuckle here and there. Especially in the end session when the main awards were about to be announced. He pretended to read the thoughts of the nominees. The most hilarious one was when he said, ‘the thoughts that must be going on in Shahrukh’s mind would be, “I would like to thank the jury, Star, Screen..” before he could complete the audience was in splits.

Shahid hosted a part of the evening with Soha Ali Khan. Both were not natural and one could make out the desperate but awkward attempts at making people laugh. But they were far better than Amrita Rao and Zayed Khan who could give lessons in gaucherie.

Some nice moments were when Atul Kulkarni spoke in Marathi after receiving the Best Actor Award for Devrai in the Marathi Film category. Pooja Soorthy walked away with Best Screenplay for Ek Hasina Thi.Jaya Bachchan’s reaction when announcing the best supporting actor award, which was ..yes Abhishek. Abhishek’s reaction when Sajid was targeting him for the thoughts in his mind.

All in all evaluation of good cinema is yet to come of age in India. Till then happy sulking.