IIFA 2014 nominees are out; who won the Filmfares vs. my favorites

IIFA announced its nominees this week for the 15th annual awards, to be held in my very own Tampa Bay in April. The nominees are shortlisted by voting by members of the "film fraternity" (a phrase they all use quite freely) and then voted on by average joes (and janes!) like you and me. (Seriously, go vote now.)

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag earned the most nominations with 10 (no surprise given that Farhan Akhtar is co-hosting this year), then Ram-Leela and Aashiqui 2 with seven each, then Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani with six.

But the clear winner this year? Deepika Padukone, who dominates the best performance in a leading role (female) category with three nominations!

Now as you may very well know, the favorites for IIFA awards can often be determined by the winner of the Filmfare Awards, which were handed out last month. In 2013, the best film, best leading male and female actors, best supporting male and female actors, best male debut, best music director and best directorial debut awards were the same between the Filmfares and IIFAs. The table below shows all nominations for the IIFA awards, with the Filmfare winners highlighted in red.

This is a year in which I've seen each of the best film nominees, so see below the table for my own commentary.

Best Picture
Film	Nomination
Dhoom 3	Aditya Chopra
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani	Karan Johar
Goliyon Ki Rasleela-Ramleela	Kishore Lulla & Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Krrish 3	Rakesh Roshan
Kai Po Che	Ronnie Screwvala & Siddharth Roy Kapoor
Chennai Express	Ronnie Screwvala,Siddharth Roy Kapoor, Gauri Khan & Karim Morani
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag	Viacom 18 Motion Pictures & Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Direction
Film	Nomination
Kai Po Che	Abhishek Kapoor
Krrish 3	Rakesh Roshan
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag	Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Chennai Express	Rohit Shetty
Goliyon Ki Rasleela- Ramleela	Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Performance in a Leading Role (Male)
Film	Nomination
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag	Farhan Akhtar
Krrish 3	Hrithik Roshan
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani	Ranbir Kapoor
Goliyon Ki Rasleela-Ramleela	Ranveer Singh
Chennai Express	Shahrukh Khan
Kai Po Che	Sushant Singh Rajput
Performance in a Leading Role (Female)
Film	Nomination
Chennai Express	Deepika Padukone
Goliyon Ki Rasleela- Ramleela	Deepika Padukone
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani	Deepika Padukone
The Lunchbox	Nimrat Kaur
Aashiqui 2	Shraddha Kapoor
Lootera	Sonakshi Sinha
Performance in a Supporting Role (Male)
Film	Nomination
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani	Aditya Roy Kapoor
Special 26	Anupam Kher
The Lunchbox	Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag	Pawan Malhotra
Jolly LLB	Saurabh Shukla
Performance in a Supporting Role (Female)
Film	Nomination
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag	Divya Dutta
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani	Kalki Koechlin
Krrish 3	Kangana Ranaut
Goliyon Ki Rasleela-Ramleela	Richa Chadda
D Day	Shruti Hassan
Raanjhanaa	Swara Bhaskar
Filmfare winner: Supriya Pathak Kapur, Ram-Leela (nominated in Negative Role category for IIFA)
Performance in a Comic Role
Film	Nomination
Jolly LLB	Arshad Warsi
Grand Masti	Riteish Deshmukh
Fukrey	Varun Sharma
Performance in a Negative Role
Film	Nomination
D-Day	Rishi Kapoor
Aurangzeb	Rishi Kapoor
Goliyon Ki Rasleela- Ramleela *	Supriya Pathak
Krrish 3	Vivek Oberoi
* Supriya Pathak Kapur won best supporting actress at Filmfare
Music Direction
Film	Nomination
Aashiqui 2	Mithoon, Ankit Tiwari,Jeet Ganguly
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani	Pritam
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag	Shankaar - Ehsaan - Loy
Best Story
Film	Nomination
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag	Prasoon Joshi
Kai Po Che*	Pubali Chaudhuri, Abhishek Kapoor & Chetan Bhagat
The Lunchbox	Ritesh Batra
Filmfare winner: Jolly LLB, *Kai Po Che won best screenplay

Lyrics
Song	Nomination	Film
Tum Hi Ho	Mithoon	Aashiqui 2
O Rangrez	Prasoon Joshi (Filmfare won for Zinda)	Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
Sunn Raha Hai	Sandeep Nath	Aashiqui 2
Playback Singer (Male)
Song	Nomination	Film
Sunn Rahai Hai	Ankit Tiwari	Aashiqui 2
Tum Hi Ho	Arijit Singh	Aashiqui 2
Zinda	Siddharth Mahadevan	Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
Playback Singer (Female)
Song	Nomination	Film
Ram Chahe Leela	Bhoomi Trivedi	Goliyon Ki Rasleela - Ramleela
Sawaar Loon	Monali Thakur	Lootera
Sunn Raha Hai	Shreya Ghoshal	Aashiqui 2
O Rangrez	Shreya Ghoshal	Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Now we get down to my opinion, though it matters very little.



While I saw and liked Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, almost no one I've talked to came out of the movie feeling wholly satisfied. I may be more sensitive than anyone else to this considering I edit for a living, but the movie suffered from a severe lack of focus as it meandered along. What it really needed was an editor. An athlete's biopic is a nice turn for a Bollywood flick, but this one was not the best (of a similar vein, Paan Singh Tomar, in my humble opinion, was better).

Does Farhan deserve an(other) award for his portrayal of Milkha Singh? Absolutely. His performance was amazing (especially in a year where all the other men where thoroughly outshined by the heroines). Does Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra deserve another one for directing? Err, not in my opinion. Best film? Nah.

So, what movie do I think is better? Dhoom 3 was pretty awful. Krrish 3 was lackluster. Chennai Express wasn't all we (or at least I) hoped for out of an SRK-Rohit Shetty collaboration.

Ram-Leela, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewaani and Kai Po Che (the last two of which I evidently never wrote about!) were all much more solidly put together. I don't know that I could directly pick a favorite among the three because they were very different types of movies, but I lean toward Kai Po Che for story and I would hands down pick Ram-Leela for directing. It has Sanjay Leela Bhansali written all over it, and the great amount of work he put into making the movie a masterpiece is evident. The pacing of it is also more even (in a good way) than the other two and than typical Bhansali movies.

While we're on the subject of Ram-Leela and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, we can't skip Deepika. I'm pretty sure it's a given that she'll win the best performance in a leading role (female) award, since she takes up 50% of the category's nominations. Which of Ram-Leela, YJHD and Chennai Express was her best? She outshined SRK in Chennai Express and more than held her own in YJHD, where her role was so far from her normal party girl high-gloss wild style. But she was the anchor of Ram-Leela. You could've replaced Ranveer Singh, though he did do well, but you absolutely could not have replaced Deepika in this movie. It wouldn't have been the same. (The same could probably be said of Sonakshi Sinha in Lootera, but her role had a lot less agency to it, and this has really been Deepika's year.)

For the supporting role awards, I haven't seen the Lunchbox yet (curse its belated U.S. release!) so I can't really comment, but my voice isn't really needed amidst the constant chorus of praise for Nawazuddin Siddiqui. As much as I loved Anupam Kher in Special 26, I'm sure Nawaz has Anupam uncle beat by a long shot. (I'm sure both had a lot more meaty roles than Pawan Malhotra's in BMB and were much better than Aditya Roy Kapoor's general annoyingness, however toned down it was in YJHD.)

On the women's side, Divya Dutta as Milkha's sister in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Kalki Koechlin as friend Aditi in YJHD were both solid performances, one more somber and the other more well-rounded. Swara Bhaskar was funny in Raanjhanaa but spent most of the movie getting kicked around. Nothing much to cheer for. I can't remember whose sister Richa Chadda was in Ram-Leela, Kangana Ranaut underwhelmed me in Krrish 3 (though most of the movie itself did the same), and I haven't seen D Day so I can't comment on Shruti Hassan.

Yes, that means I also haven't seen one... or either... of the roles that earned Rishi Kapoor noms in the best performance in a negative role category. I do love Rishi, but Supriya Pathak was thoroughly excellent and deliciously evil as the matriarch Baa in Ram-Leela, so I kind of hope she'll beat him (a possibility since the role won her a Filmfare in a different category). I sure as hell hope Vivek Oberoi doesn't win one for floating around looking like an emaciated vampire and talking like he’s got a sore throat.

Lastly, on the music front, I can't say much as that's not my forte — my intermediate-level understanding of Hindi is far from good enough to comment on the best lyrics. But I will say that I found the soundtrack of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag to be refreshingly different — very rock heavy — and totally suited to the tone of the movie.

And if you bothered to read all of my opinion, you probably deserve an award all your own.