Wow! What a weekend it was.Saw the Red Carpet screening of CARRY ON JATTA with the stars and also the first Punjabi International Film Academy Awards on the weekend.
CARRY ON JATTA: I was new to the new generation of Punjabi films. Last Punjabi films I saw were one or two films 5-6 Yrs ago and rest in the 1970s, 1980s. I had noticed Punjabi films running tens of weeks, recently, in Toronto where Hindi films last just 4-5 weeks. I thought, it was just a religion for Punjabi folks to see Punjabi films and hence they ran so well in Toronto. But, after seeing CARRY ON JATTA, I find, it really is the film quality itself that they are so successful. CARRY ON JATTA is a super clean family film. It's mad cap situational comedy like NO ENTRY but without any embarrassing situations. Couldn't have imagined that without vulgar situations and double meaning dialogs, it could still get same (or even funnier) high octane comedy. Songs and music was another plus. Wow, what a performer and singer Gippy Grewal is. Gippy sure is a new sensation among teenagers. Other male co-stars in comedy role were equally good and comic. Gurpreet Ghuggi, Binny Dhillon, B N Sharma, - - - . Lead actress Mahi Gill too did very well but was not part of comedy (comic situations involved hiding reality from Mahi and a few others).
Technically, film was not behind any big budget Hindi films. Looks like, new wave of Punjabi films not only are as good and lavish as Hindi films, they might have surpassed them.
Sound in theatre was extremely loud, which I enjoyed for the songs but it made dialogs difficult to understand. I'm sure sound will be excellent in the 'A' quality theatres.
Carry On Jatta sure is worth repeat viewing in theatre. As Jatt & Jullitte is even more successful, it's on my "To Watch In Theatre" list as well. Too bad, these films did not make it to the Ottawa theatres, but I'm sure I'll catch them in my next Toronto trip.
Red Carpet: For a 6:30 PM Red Carpet & 7 PM film, crowd waited patiently for hours for the stars to arrive, in high heat and sun. Crowd had started gathering before 5 PM. My guess, it must be 1500 - 2000 crowd. Finally stars started arriving around 7:15 PM and film screening started at 8 PM, while some stars and guests still had to arrive. Gippy sure was the sensation among the crowd. Gurpreet Ghuggi arrived after I had gone in the theatre, so don't know what kind of crowd reception he got. Guest Prem Chopra too arrived after I had gone in the theatre. Albion is a big capacity theatre and was full. Ticket price for the special screening was just $ 20 ( advance), and was a bargain.
PIFAA: Excellent MCs and comedy, throughout. Excellent show and performances. I had thought that nominated stars coming from India or from far (Jimmy Shergill, Arya Babbar, Prem Chopra), sure will get the awards, but not so.
The four major awards; Best Film (Public Choice), Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress went to the film Jihne Mera Dil Lutteya (Director - Mandeep Kumar, Actor - Gippy Grewal & Diljeet Dosanjh, Actress - Neeru Bajwa). Gurpreet Ghuggi won the Best Performance in Comic Role award for Yaara O Dildaara. Best Supporting Actor award went to Rahul Dev for Dharti while Prem Chopra too was nominated for the same award for the same film. It surprised me as Prem Chopra is a bigger star and came all the way from India. May be, just like for the Best Actor, the award was given to two main actors of a film, so could have been for the supporting actor category ??. Rama Vij won Best Supporting Actress for Khushiaan.
Gippy Grewal sure was the teenage sensation and got the biggest applause. Neeru Bajwa, whether on stage or not was, referred thousands of times, for MC's jokes, which she didn't seem to mind. She performed on stage as well.
Dharti won the best Film - Jury award.
Dara Singh was given the Life Time Achievement award and was told of this award a few months before he passed away.
Dharminder was the Brand Ambassador of the PIFFA awards and gave the opening welcome speech and also addressed the audience during the show 3-4 times. Om Puri, Prem Chopra too addressed the audience. BTW, Dharminder did mention jokingly that stars do get disappointed when they see empty seats as he saw the venue only partly full. There were empty seats on the floor at the beginning of the show but they filled in later on. Reason was that most of the floor seats were for the stars and the guests and they were not occupying their seats, preferring to mingle back stage, perhaps. The venue did fill up as audience took their seats.
http://www.pifaawards.com/nominated-movies/---------------------------
After viewing Carry On Jatta, must see other recent Punjabi films, in theatre or on DVD:
Jatt & Jullitte, Dharti, Jinhe Mera Dil Lutteya, Khushiaan, Yaar Annmmule, Yaara O Dildaara.
Which of these films have been released on DVD ?? In the past (DEI/ BEI days) Punjabi films used to be the best quality Progressive, Anamorphic & DD 5.1.
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