The good bits about IIFA

Photos courtesy of IIFA

Y'all, I'm not some whiny baby who rants when not everything goes her way. Despite what commenters have said in the last few days after I posted my IIFA mega rant. (Also, I don't just make stuff up. I'm actually a professional journalist when I don't write about Bollywood as a fan. But that's another story.)

Ahem, not that I care.

Anyway, I thought it was worth saying at some point that there were a few nice things about IIFA. Not as many as there were bad things, and having done it once, I still never would do it again (as a member of the media or as a fan). Next time I'll just watch it all on TV.

But still, here were some fun bits nonetheless:

Stars said some nice things about Tampa (when they weren't busy gushing about their love for fans despite dodging them all weekend). Aside from the folks who just cooked stuff up because that's what they're supposed to say, there were some real nice sentiments. "Bahut khoobsurat hai, bahut peaceful, bahut charm," singer Ankit Tiwari (now being held on rape accusations... oops) said of Tampa. "I just don't want to leave this place," Anil Kapoor said in the Tampa Theatre. "This theater is absolutely magnificent. It's fantastic. This city has a soul, and I can see that soul in this theater." Vivek Oberoi, who has family in the area and has visited before, said before the event: "It's not as crazy and gritty as Miami but it's so beautiful, so you get the best of both worlds in Tampa. You can relax, unwind. There are beautiful beaches nearby. The weather is always fantastic." It isn't always, but it was for that weekend. Several stars said on the green carpet that they'd been enjoying the sun at Clearwater Beach. In fact I heard this so often that I wondered whether all the fans shouldn't have camped out there rather than the green carpet to see stars. It would've been a nicer atmosphere, for sure.

Meeting international journalists was awesome. The coolest part of the whole IIFA experience was being sandwiched between journalists from the U.K., Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan and India. Talking with them was overall better than meeting the stars. Except the "media professionals" who think they deserve the spot you've been standing in for six hours because they think they're better than you. They sucked.

I thought Deepika's gown was especially nice.

Got to see some nice gowns on the green carpet. You already know not all of the big stars walk the green carpet, but the ones that did had some nice gowns when they did. I saw a few fashion disasters (Dia Mirza's gown... yikes; though she seemed nice when I ran into her earlier that day, and I heard nice things about her in general), but most gowns were pretty good. Certainly not something you get to see every day.

Kevin Spacey doing Lungi Dance. This. It was amazing. If you haven't watched it on YouTube yet, do it. NOW. What I haven't seen on YouTube is the hilarity after, when Spacey bundled up his lungi and laid down to take a nap on stage. Shahid then covered him with his own lungi as a blanket.

John Travolta strutting his stuff -- at 60! I mean, was there a more perfect Hollywood star to bring to IIFA? Aside from the fact that he lives like two hours from Tampa, Travolta is basically a Bollywood star: He sings, he dances, he acts. He gave his speech reading from cards, which was rather lame, but overall Travolta's presence was a plus. (He wasn't overly friendly on the green carpet, either, tho. I definitely don't intend to sugar coat that fact, either.)

Shahid and Farhan were funny hosting. I mean, they had to ask for the teleprompter to be fixed about a dozen times, so maybe it wasn't them being funny, but there were some good laughs to be had. (And I'm sure the jokes that fell flat, of which there were also a few, will be edited out in the end.)

They entered on a pirate ship! I was right beside them when it happened. They threw out beads (I even caught some) like a real Gasparilla parade and everything. (Gasparilla is a Tampa tradition, a big pirate festival and parade every year.)

The performances were pretty good. Other than some dragging bits that will obviously be trimmed down, the performances were pretty good. However, there were some parts that were way too busy for you to see anything. Like too much happening all at once, lights flashing blindingly in your eyes, etc. Ranveer entered driving around on a motorcycle, which was pretty cool and changed tacky jackets about five times (he must have an endless supply of them...). Hrithik's performance started blacked out with lighted suits, which was also pretty nifty. Priyanka started her performance off with aerial stunts although some of that will definitely be edited out; she didn't seem very comfortable in the harness.

Milkha Singh was there, and friendly -- and funny. I mean, who would've expected he'd run in place and sing "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" on the green carpet? And that he'd be much better spoken than "star" director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (seriously, slowest, most boring talker ever)? Though I could have done without Milkhaji's 10-minute acceptance speech at the show's end. That's sure to be edited, too.

So, yeah, most of the good things to be said are about the show itself -- the stuff they did for the cameras.

Of course the obvious downside of all this good talk about the show is that if you didn't pay $300 or more, you couldn't see or hear anything from the top deck.

Catch it on TV for free.

2014 IIFA Awards up close and personal: A disastrous, infuriating mess

Two weekends ago now, I attended the International Indian Film Academy — IIFA — Awards here in own back yard of Tampa Bay as a member of the media — a dream come true, right? A dream that led me to come home early from India, to skip a trip to Assam.

Boy, did I end up regretting that.

I've watched IIFA broadcasts before and was so excited to see it up close and personal, but I came out of it realizing that IIFA is much, much better enjoyed as a TV show. Covering IIFA was a terrible, terrible experience that given the chance I’d never choose again. It was infuriatingly unprofessional and much less than promised (more on that later). And I'm not the only one who feels that way. I've heard complaints from everywhere, and there's even a survey circulating about how awful the experience was. Some others have made me feel like a whiny baby though (boohoo the stars came to my back yard but didn't want to see me), so I've held back on posting even after writing this epically long rant days after the events ended. But, nope, most of the fury hasn't died down.

I get the impression that IIFA’s “imperfections” are generally glossed over by media and everyone else, but I’m not one to sugarcoat things — ever — so here goes nothing.

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.

2014 IIFA Awards will be held in Tampa; here's what you should know

UPDATE: It looks like three-day IIFA 2014 tickets will cost you upward of $1,800.
UPDATE 2: The awards have been moved to April 24-26.

So, it’s official: We’re hosting the IIFAs next summer.

Tampa will be the first city in the United States to host the awards, which are going on today in Macau for 2013.

Yours truly is completely over the moon. If a stranger on the street handed me $1,000, that still wouldn’t make me as happy as this news has.

After spending much of summer 2011 in pure envy at those that got to attend the awards in Toronto, the awards are coming to my doorstep. (I can tell you I have a green-carpet-ready dress and sari ready to go in any case.)

The reasons for Tampa will play host are numerous but include these: The Indian community here is large and active; Florida is a great place for tourism and is always prepared for huge amounts of tourists; Tampa has the capacity for huge events; Tampa Bay has recently surged in movie popularity (Spring Breakers and Magic Mike, anyone?).

I fully expect much of the Bollywood blogging community to turn up among the thousands of others expected to flock in (the estimated impact to the local hotel industry is 24,000 room nights). And I’m the organizer/head of a Bollywood movie group here that as of this morning had 81 members. So the Bollywood spirit here is strong, and if you choose to come, you will certainly be in good company.

As a local, I’m issuing this open invitation to any and all attending to meet up with me and my Bollywood compatriots in my home base and/or ask me any questions about the area (the one thing I probably can’t answer is what restaurants are good). Email: caitlineoconner @ gmail.

A few things about Tampa Bay:

• The “bay area” is comprised of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Events may be held across all three, though most would likely be in Tampa.
• Collectively, the area is referred to as Tampa Bay, also the name of the big body of water that we’re all situated around. The bay separates Tampa/Hillsborough County from St. Petersburg-Clearwater/Pinellas County.
• This metro is in the top 20 for Indian-American populations in the U.S.; it has the second-largest Indian population in Florida, behind Miami-Fort Lauderdale (where, coincidentally, there is an internationally used cricket ground).
• Gujaratis are the most prominent.
• Tampa Bay is home to a football team, a baseball team, Hulk Hogan, Hooters (yep, the original) and its own movie star: Winter the dolphin of Dolphin Tale.
• In June, the temperatures will likely be in the 90s F (33 C); the heat index may top 100 (40 C). It will also rain. A lot. Hurricanes are a possibility, though one is unlikely.
• The beaches are in Pinellas County (Clearwater-St. Pete); Clearwater Beach is considered the most tourist-friendly.
• Tampa is no stranger to the national stage: It has hosted four Super Bowls and last summer hosted the Republican National Convention.

A white girl's second (or third?) Holi

Last year, I shared with you the experience of my first Holi.

This year, I don't have as much fun information about the experience of Holi to share, but I do have some great photos. I went with a handful of people from my Bollywood movie club, and we had a blast despite some rather unsavory weather (we got rained on at the end).

I got soaked by water and color in alternating patterns — getting full on drenched with a water hose and then having a whole package of color dumped down your back is what Holi is about, right? — and this year my white shirt definitely didn't wash clean like it did last year. But my contact lenses were spared this year, and I knew ahead of time that my undergarments were going to come out a lot more colorful than they went in, so I was ready for it.

On the flip side, I think the weather kept a lot of people at home this year, and things were perhaps a bit more hesitant than they were last year, something I lament.

One of these years, I want to be in Delhi for Holi.

India International Film Festival Tampa Bay 2013: Planes, Trains and Autorickshaws; Gattu; and more

This past weekend, it was that time of year again: film festival time!

That’s right: another year of the India International Film Festival Tampa Bay. I actually enjoyed the selection of films this year much better than last year, even though I didn’t get a chance to watch Vishwaroopam, which I had been looking forward to. But as is typical of South Indian films, there were no subtitles. An all-too-familiar disappointment. If it were feasible, I would start learning Tamil and Telugu right away just so I could watch movies I want to see!

But anyway, on to what I did see:

NEW: Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola: Drinking and power politics and pink buffaloes -- oh, my!

Synopsis: Somewhere in Haryana, Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapur) is a wealthy industrialist who wants to take all the farmers’ land and build some kind of car plant — only Harry also loves getting drunk, and when he does, he gets into mischief and thwarts his own plans. His servant Matru (Imran Khan) — supposedly working off a loan from attending law school? — is supposed to keep him from getting drunk and acting crazy, but he’s secretly Mao, champion of the farmers, so he likes drunk!Harry. Then there’s Harry’s free-spirited daughter Bijlee (Anushka Sharma). To secure Harry’s factory and power, Bijlee is set to marry bumbling idiot Baadal (Arya Babbar), the son of Minister Chaudhari Devi (Shabana Azmi), who enjoys playing footsie with Harry during important meetings.

Oh, yes, and there are lots of pink buffaloes. (Harry’s mind supplies them when he stops drinking beer — with pink buffaloes on the labels — too fast.)

So, maybe we should start with the fact that I have something of a mixed history with Vishal Bhardwaj. I loved Omkara, couldn’t finish Kaminey (too confused, though I want to try again) and have absolutely no desire to see 7 Khoon Maaf.

Well, Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola left me no clearer on my opinions of Bhardwaj. I thought parts of the movie were great — some of it is hilarious, the cinematography is great, the songs are catchy — but overall, the thing left me thinking, “WTF am I watching?” And not because of the pink buffaloes — those were more understandable.

I got to a point where I couldn’t tell what was supposed to be funny and what was supposed to be serious. I don’t think that’s a good thing.

Oh, and don’t get me wrong. I’m totally down with the dung-throwing drunk-stumbling pink-buffalo type of humor.

Hullo, gulabi bhain!

And the plot had some great darker twists — like poor Bijlee contemplating suicide and then getting drunk in order to bear her wedding to Baadal — but I think you can tell from the moment that Shabana Azmi steps on screen that the big bad politician will lose and Harry will choose his daughter’s happiness and the plight of the villagers (and retire from his wild drinking). 

Go home, Harry. You're drunk.

So overall, I think perhaps I was bored because I knew where it was going, and the slow, drawn-out pace didn’t help. It was so slow and dragging at some points that I wondered if the film crew was drunk-slurring its way through the entire movie. (By the way, drunk!Mandola is nearly impossible to understand. I think subtitles would be necessary even for the Hindi fluent.)

Even Anushka Sharma and Imran Khan — both of whom I love — didn’t help this one.

Sorry, guys. Not feeling it.

The rich man’s rebel daughter is a such a great character of possibilities, but I don’t know if Bijlee’s presence is really ever earned in this movie (except for the getting drunk in order to go through her marriage). And Matru’s presence in the Mandolas’ household is kind of underexplained and even undeserved; Imran has his moments, but I found Matru a mostly lackluster accessory to scenes where he just played Harry's shepherd or told angry villagers what to do.

Basically, for a film named for the three main characters, I was underwhelmed by the development of Matru and Bijlee.

This tattoo of Bijlee's, though. Want. "Dekho magar pyaar se." (Look, but with love.)

Hey, at least the music was good and I got a few laughs, right? Err, right.

One of the people I went with — part of the new Bollywood Movie Club of Tampa Bay! — said, “Well, since everyone spends half the movie drunk, maybe you have to be drunk to fully appreciate it!” That sounds like a good idea to me. Next time, I’ll bring a bottle of rum.