Sunday, February 23, 2014

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.

5 comments:

  1. i love bollywood movies its my passion to watch hindi films the best film of the world

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi, my name is Shawn. I didn't know how else to message you, so I apologize for doing it on this post. I think we went to UF around the same time. Funny coincidence. Anyway, I started a YouTube channel called "I love Bollywood". I do music/movie/video/trailer reviews and responses. I live in cocoa florida. I would be very interested in collaborating with you in some way regarding our blog/vlogI couldn't affor IFFA this year, but I might go haunt the place. Let me k ow if you are intersted in collaboration of any type. Just leave me a message on my YouTube channel. I'm the crazy white guy making horribly not funny jokes an reviewing bollywood movies. All the best either way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Shawn,

      Sounds awesome! You can email me at caitlineoconner @ gmail.

      And as far as IIFA goes, I'm working on a story now about what you can do for free or cheap during the IIFA weekend, since the cheapest seats are sold out. So definitely come for that stuff!

      Delete
  3. 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, scarf suppliers , ladies wraps and shawls , wholesale shawl suppliers , velvet shawl , new york wholesale , elegant shawl , kashmiri shawls wholesalers , red shawl 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.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. 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. lawn cotton suits , pakistani lawn suits for sale , pakistani lawn suits online shopping , lawn suits online , pakistani lawn suits price , pakistani lawn dress , pakistani cotton suits , designer lawn suits online , pakistani lawn suits wholesale , lawn suits sale 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.

    ReplyDelete