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| Bollywood
Online : Filmfare awards |
| Rani
reigns, Shah rules at 50th Filmfare Awards
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| Rani
Mukherji and Shah Rukh Khan after winning the Best
Actress and Best Actress awards at the 50th Filmfare
Awards ceremony in Mumbai on Saturday. |
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MUMBAI:
Nostalgia walked hand-in-hand with contemporaneity as India's
oldest and most coveted cinema awards celebrated their 50th
year in a glittering ceremony at the MMRDA grounds here on
Saturday.
Golden was the hue of the evening — a specially crafted gold
trophy, retro performances by top stars and anchoring peppered
with anecdotes and trivia from a misty past.
Bollywood's best and brightest — Dev Anand, Sharmila Tagore,
Shammi Kapoor, Rekha, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Shatrugan
Sinha, Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar, Kajol, Mahima Chowdhury,
Manisha Koirala, Kareena Kapoor — were all part of the
audience thronging the venue, as were political heavyweights
like Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
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When
Amitabh Bachchan walked in with his faithful entourage —
Amar Singh and Anil Ambani, the audience forgot what was
happening on stage and stood up to catch a glimpse of the
actor, proving that the decades may come and go but the
Bachchan charisma remains intact.
The four main awards of the night were swept up by Shah Rukh
Khan (Best Actor for Swades ),
Rani Mukerji (Best Actress for Hum
Tum ), Kunal Kohli (Best Director for Hum
Tum ) and Yash Chopra (Best Film for Veer-Zaara
). First-time winner Kohli declared his love for his
wife, who blew kisses at him from the audience.
Rekha, who presented the Best Actor award to Shah Rukh, quoted
an arcane couplet on love, adding that the commonality between
her and the Filmfare awards was that they had both entered
their fifth decade.
The show
was emceed by the irrepressible Saif Ali Khan with Sonali
Bendre and Farida Jalal. Last year, Saif and his
partner-in-crime Shah Rukh Khan had brought the house down
with their wicked swipes at Bollywood celebrities.
This year, SRK was missing on stage but the irreverence wasn't
— the audience cracked up repeatedly as Saif lampooned
friends and colleagues and ad libbed with his trademark
deadpan demeanour.
The performances kicked off with an anthem composed especially
for Filmfare's golden jubilee by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. It was
sung by Abhijeet Sawant and Amit Sana, finalists of the
popular television talent hunt 'Indian Idol'.
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The
star acts which punctuated the show were all in rewind
mode. Part of the retro chic was the presence of a live
band, a feature that was last seen in the Shanumukhananada
film nights of the '70s.
This year Sonu Nigam harked back to the golden days with
a 25-piece band which accompanied him in a medley of
songs from the 1940s on. Beginning with the soulful
'Babul Mora' and ending with his own qawwali from Main
Hoon Na , Nigam spanned both decades and genders,
adding a touch of mimicry and bringing the house down.
There was no doubt that his act rocked.
If
Sonu was the voice of the past, Rani Mukerji and
Priyanka Chopra were its twinkle toes. Rani danced to a
medley of popular hits from ' Hothon
Pe Aisi Baat' to 'Choli
Ke Peeche' while Priyanka Chopra sizzled to
sultry dance numbers from the '70s and '80s, such as 'Yeh
Mera Dil Pyar Ka Diwana' from Don
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| Undboutedly,
the most unique act of the evening was Shah Rukh Khan's
delineation of romance down the ages — shaking a leg to
popular tunes from the '60s on, he was accompanied by the
original leading ladies themselves — from a bespectacled
Vyjanthimala to the gorgeous Sharmila Tagore and the sultry
Zeenat Aman, Jaya Prada and Rekha, down to Kajol, Rani and
Preity Zinta. As each actress was serenaded by Shah Rukh, the
audience went wild.
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In
keeping with the sepia hue, Lata Mangeshkar, Dilip Kumar
and veteran composer Naushad, the first winners of the
Filmfare awards in their respective categories, were
felicitated by Amitabh Bachchan and CM Deshmukh.
While Amitabh showered praise on the trio, it was
Naushad's exceptional thank you speech which moved the
audience. "I am grateful that Filmfare has
remembered me after 50 years," said the maestro,
who was in a wheelchair. "Beech
mein nahin yaad kiya ."
He
then quoted a couplet, the essence of which was that it
was better to let some things go. The couplet and his
subsequent remark on the pedestrian quality of certain
latter-day songs and lyrics triggered a roar of approval
and thunderous applause from the audience.
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Farhan
Akhtar and Ashutosh Gowariker gave away another special
award — to Ramesh Sippy whose Sholay
was adjudged the best film of the past 50 years.
There was a lot of good-natured banter between Akhtar,
Gowariker and presenter Karan Johar about who, among
them, was Sippy's greatest fan.
The Lifetime Achievement Award went to an actor who was
discovered 40 years ago in a Filmfare-United Producers
contest. Rajesh Khanna went on to become a rage after
his first hit Aradhana —
girls sent him letters written in blood, the word
'superstar' was coined for him by the media, and
Khannamania generally prevailed until the superstar was
unseated by the next claimant to the crown, Amitabh
Bachchan. Khanna, dressed in flowing white kurta-pyjama
accepted the award with customary 'shairana andaz',
quoting a couplet.
An audiovisual tribute against the haunting background
melody of ' Bicchede
Sabhi Bari Bari' from Pyaasa
was paid to those from the cinema fraternity who
had passed away in the previous year — Vijay Anand,
Gulshan Rai, Yash Johar, Mehmood, Nirupa Roy, Parveen
Babi, Amrish Puri and Laxmikant Berde.
The event was sponsored by the Swarup Group of
Industries, Reliance India Mobile, Bright Advertising,
Velocity Car Rentals, ICICI Lombard, Hyatt Regency, Coca
Cola, Damas, the UB Group and Chateaux Indage. Radio
Mirchi and Sony Television were the official partners of
the event, which was managed by 360 Degrees. |
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