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Blog: Filmfare is not 'fair' at all!
By IndiaFM News Bureau, February 17, 2007 - 09:05 IST
Nominations for the 52nd Filmfare awards are out and certainly purchased by big shots of the industry before hand. Filmfare in India is equivalent of Oscars in the US and BAFTA in the UK. I do not agree with the final contenders of the awards, hence, a review.

Best Film nominations:

Dhoom 2
Don
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna
Krrish
Lage Raho Munnabhai
Rang De Basanti

Apart from Krrish (Due to the concept and appeal and being the 1st true Superhero of Bollywood), Lage raho Munnabhai (No questions about it!) and Rang De Basanti (The best of the decade), no other movie which is nominated deserves to be in this category.

Answer this: WHY on earth 'Omkara' is not on the list? 'DOR', 'Khosla ka Ghosla', 'Woh Lamhe' or 'Gangster' seems to be avoided! One of a kind 'Vivah' which deserves a nomination is also forgotten completely.

Don is a remake, nothing original and was too long. Dhoom 2 had a wrong message integrated in it and if Yashraj were paying for the nominations, they should have chosen Fanna instead. Kabhi Alvida Na
Kehena (Are you kidding man!) was the most senseless film I have seen in recent times!

Best Director Nominations:

Karan Johar (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)
Rakesh Roshan (Krrish)
Rakeysh Mehra (Rang De Basanti)
Rajkumar Hirani (Lage Raho Munnabhai)
Sanjay Gadhvi (Dhoom 2)
Vishal Bhardwaj (Omkara)

Disappointing! When Technology takes over the director's seat the nominations for humans can be avoided. Dhoom-2 and Krrish for the best direction is a hard candy to swallow! Where as without nomination, Mohit Suri's best work till date and maturity of handling the sensitive topic in 'Woh Lamhe' was the talk of the town and same goes for Anurag 'Gangster' Basu is left on the streets to die. Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Corporate' is another example and one is Dibakar Banerjee's 'Khosla ka Ghosla'.

For the first time we saw a new way of storytelling through Shirish Kunder in 'Jaan-e-mann', where he missed?

Let us not talk about 'Dor', 'Fanna', 'Vivah', 'Kabul Express' and 'Pyaar ke side effects'.

Karan Johar is okay for the nomination but should not win! The best options are Rakesh Mehera or Vishal Bharadwaj. Though, Rajkumar Hirani is giving them tough competition.

Best Actor in a leading role (Male) nominations:

Aamir Khan (Rang De Basanti)
Hrithik Roshan (Dhoom 2)
Hrithik Roshan (Krrish)
Sanjay Dutt (Lage Raho Munnabhai)
Shahrukh Khan (Don)
Shahrukh Khan (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)

Did someone forget that Hritik was the negative lead in Dhoom-2? And SRK's was also the negative role in 'Don'? What was unique with SRK in 'KANK'? Aamir for RDB is a well deserved nomination, so is our Munnabhai as Sunjay Dutt or the other way around!

What about Aamir for 'Fanna'? Ajay for 'Omkara'? Salmaan in 'Jaan-e-Mann'? Shiney Ahuja in 'Gangster' and 'Woh Lamhe'?

Did someone see the movie 'PKSE'? It was a very good film.

Ajay or Salman are sure going to get the so called 'critics' award! Hell!

Best Actor in a leading role (Female) nominations:

Aishwarya Rai (Dhoom 2)
Bipasha Basu (Corporate)
Kajol (Fanaa)
Kareena Kapoor (Omkara)
Rani Mukerji (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)

Hold it man! Ash was the vamp in 'Dhoom 2'. Rani just cried her eyes out in 'KANK'. Rest nominations are Okay but again tell me where Alice Patten from 'RDB', Ayesha Takiya from 'Dor', Kangana Ranaut from 'Gangster'or 'Woh Lamhe' , and the one and only Urmila from 'Banaras' or even Mallika Sheravat for 'PKSE' missed the nomination?

Best Actor in a supporting role (Male) nominations:

Abhishek Bachchan (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)
Amitabh Bachchan (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)
John Abraham (Baabul)
Kunal Kapoor (Rang De Basanti)
Siddharth (Rang De Basanti)

Abhishek was never in form in 'KANK'. Amitabh's Sexy Sam was a comedy. John was wooden in 'Baabul'. Only the nominations from RDB are worthwhile. But tell me was the part played by Atul Kulkarni or Madhavan or Sharman Joshi in RDB doesn't well enough for nomination?

Let's say, The Gandhi from Munnabhai was convincing enough? Or Alok Nath from 'Vivah' was not netural enough to get water in your eyes? What about the Akshay of 'Jaan-e-Mann'?

Best Actor in a supporting role (Female) nominations:

Kirron Kher (Rang De Basanti)
Konkona Sen Sharma (Omkara)
Priety Zinta (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)
Rekha (Krrish)
Soha Ali Khan (Rang De Basanti)

Agree to all but want to pay tribute to the rest deserving candidates. Masumeh for a chilling role in 'Woh Lamhe', Sima Biswaas for believable acting without dialogues in 'Vivah', Gul Panag for a solid performance in 'Dor', Juhi Chawala for 'Bas Ek Pal'.

Best Actor in a comic role nominations:

Arshad Warsi (Lage Raho Munnabhai)
Chunkey Pandey (Apna Sapna Money Money)
Paresh Rawal (Phir Hera Pheri)
Sharman Joshi (Golmaal)
Tusshar Kapoor (Golmaal)

They say comedy is a serious game! Circuit from Munnabhai is a cult character now but had a little to do when Mahatma Gandhi himself was starring in the same film. Not just Chunkey Pandey but all the characters were overshadowed by the one and only Ritesh Deshmukh in 'Apna Sapna Money Money'. Paresh from 'Phir hera Pheri' was run-of-the-mill and Golmaal was never meant to be for a healthy comedy.

So here are we left with some worst combination of nominees possible for the best award!

Her we go with Shreyas Talpade from 'Dor', Akshay and Govinda from 'Bhagambhag', Akshay from 'Jaan-e-Mann', Ranveer Shouri from 'PKSE' and 'Mixed Doubles', Uday Chopra from 'Dhoom 2', Amitabh Bachhan from 'KANK', Rietesh Deshmukh from 'ASMM', Deepak Dobrial from 'Omkara', Paresh Raval for 'Chup Chup Ke' and the one and only Rajpal Yadav for the same film 'Chup Chup Ke'.

Any complains?

Best Actor in a negative role nominations:

Boman Irani (Lage Raho Munnabhai)
Emraan Hashmi (Gangster)
John Abraham (Zinda)
Naseeruddin Shah (Krrish)
Saif Ali Khan (Omkara)

Saif is my all time favorite for this award. He is going to win this for sure. Rest all are just cancellations. Apart from Comedy, this is the only category without any nomination from 'Kabhi Alvida na kehna', isn't it saying something?

Best Music Nominations:

A R Rahman (Rang De Basanti)
Himesh Reshammiya (Aksar)
Jatin-Lalit (Fanaa)
Pritam (Dhoom 2)
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (Don)
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)

'Don' is nominated but 2 of it's tracks were used same as were in the ol'70's film and title track was made-up from the background score or the theme music of the old film. So where is creativity? On the other hand, the Musical which was 'Jaan-e-Mann' needed the nomination for the first ever opera style execution for a motion picture in India with some good melodies inside too!

So are we really considering Himesh Reshamiya's 'Aksar' work as Ghost Raising? Was his album better then the soulful melodies and some chartbusters from 'Omkara' or 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' or of the folk-art of 'DOR'? Pritam's 'Ankahi' is his best till date but also has got no place on the list.

And finally...

WHO on earth in his true state of mind can nominate 'Dhoom 2' in the best music category over 'Bas Ek Pal', 'Gangster', 'Pyaar ke side effects' and 'Woh Lamhe'! These four albums rocked the sales and charts for months and still hot favorites and much better then Dhoom 2's non-melodic sounds. And did someone say 'Taxi no. 9211'?

From the rest of the lot, A R Rahman (Rang De Basanti) is a sure winner of the nominated lot. Jatin-Lalit's Fanaa is an interesting choice as the legendary duo had a last laugh with this score. And finally Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna) had got a nomination which should remain a nomination because no great shakes for the score of KANK. They should win for 'Salaam-e-Ishq' next year!

Apart from these most popular categories, there are several more categories and everywhere you see the proofs of biased-ness of the Filmfare and the Times group can be seen.

Will they give ‘Jaan-e-Mann’ for best Background Score or Best Editing or Best Choreography?

This is the time when Filmfare should standup on its own feet and TOI should implement the 'India Poised' campaign here also.

Disappointing.

Dushyant’s blog can be accessed at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-0GMB2kw1 ... cq=1&p=445

Best Music Nominations:
A. R. Rahman (Rang De Basanti)
Jatin-Lalit (Fanaa)
Pritam (Gangster)
Pritam (Woh Lamhe)
Vishaal Bhardwaj (Omkara)

But omitting ANu for Umrao and Javed for lyrics is criminal this year!along with alka, all 3 for Umrao jaan

J.P. Dutta (Umrao Jaan)

I'm just as shocked as you are. It's an amazing triumph for someone who's two of his three last films are amongst the worst ever(!) in the history of Indian cinema. In the new Umrao Jaan, there's great texture of decadence and vocal poetry. An exact sort of tangibility felt in the original Umrao Jaan. Also, Dutta atleast (In my opinion) deserves a mention for best director for not only turning 360 degrees on the direction of his creative art, but also getting Abhishek Bachchan to act(ACT!) in the greatest(and probably only, I think) melancholic performance of his career(sort of a Devdasish if you will).