Cringe-inducing comedy, actors shamelessly acting as brand ambassadors, boring performances, faulty edits, audio lags, potential couples sitting close and a very typical stage set up; the FilmFare Awards night was nothing short of a predictable yawn-fest.
1. Facepalm Comedy
When KJo gets together with bestie SRK, we’d expect a battle of wits but all we got was senseless comedy. I tried really hard to find solace in a few punches here and there. Sadly, the only thing that had me giggling was Kapil’s joke on censor board cuts and 4 minute long smooches in Bollywood.
Sony seems to be way too excited to have The Kapil Sharma Show airing on their channel. What you do not understand is that one such show is enough. Haven’t we had enough of the Sunny Deol and Dharam paaji mimicry? And when SRK and Kapil performed that terrible qawwali, I cringed. Why guys? Firstly, it wasn’t easy to understand whatever ye all said and secondly, couldn’t you come up with something better than mocking old treasures?
2. The Ultimate Bhai Lao Success Pao Recipe
Aren’t we tired of watching Sallu bhai perform at almost every awards night? It might be a sure shot recipe to gain TRPs, but c’mon give us a break! A daring look with slightly squinted eyes, a body that tries too hard to dance but all it ends up in is towel pulls and hand swings. It’s almost like I already knew what would follow Salman Khan’s ‘terrific’ introduction by his new best friend SRK.
3. Yawn-worthy Performances
Sonakshi Sinha is the new Salman Khan. Following the footsteps of her mentor in Bollywood, she danced to every song but hers. Why so? Because Sona darling is either seen rapping, being tomboyish or on her Instagram these days. Regardless, what disappointed me this time was the fact that the otherwise amazing dancer looked clueless and restrained this time. Her steps were mismatched and she also forgot a few. Not like the others were any great too.
Muscles, attention seeking stunts and excessive film promotion galore, Varun Dhawan’s performance wasn’t fun either. Sushant Singh Rajput and Jacqueline Fernandez surprised us with a fairly stunning performance towards the end. But it was Alia’s cute and energetic dance tribute to yesteryear heroines that gave us a big relief. Tiger Shroff made up for a sasta version of Hrithik Roshan, and that hat-tip to Prabhudeva’s Muqabla track was very welcome.
4. Awards Night or Brand Promotional Event?
The whole event looked less like an awards night and more like a promotional stint. Even Varun Dhawan’s lame joke on the acronym for ATM didn’t escape a mention of Ambani, Trump and Modi. SRK’s promotional activities at different times in the show was equally pestering. From video call demos to pouting for selfies - it was brand promotion time almost every other second on the show.
5. The Trademark Clichés
This is the stuff that happens always.
Shah Rukh Khan HAS to teach someone or the other how to romance. This time it was Shabana Azmi while Javed saab looked on. No big deal, except for the fact that Javed saab walked away with Shabana from right under SRK’s nose.
Rekha as usual presented the Best Actor award, acting like she’s seen every struggling actor grow and work hard, while growing younger over the years. And of course, the typical roping in of Amitabh Bachchan too was in place, when Rekha mocked Kapil on whether he could talk English, walk English and breathe English.
But most of all, I fail to understand where did all the good films go? MS Dhoni, Pink or even Airlift for that matter. Where art thou? No wonder many actors decided to give the show a miss this year. We would have too.
Amidst the scripted bits, what I loved most was Shatrughan Sinha’s honest speech while accepting his much deserved Lifetime Achievement Award. Too less? Well, I tried hard.
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