most memorable filmfare awards of 1992-93
Most awards, you know, they don’t give you unless you go and get them – did you know that? Terribly discouraging.
- Barbra Streisand
The topic of awards is quite a sensitive one. But, at the same time its also a topic of much controversy when the right people do not get it and the wrong ones are awarded, for whatever reasons.
Like the practise goes, of giving away awards a year after they release, obviously; here too the awards were given away in 1993 for the films that released in 1992. This awards night was the last time that I saw the entire show. One of the reasons being that, I had started losing respect for them.
Anyways, this award night was quite remarkable in more ways than one. This was also the last time that Aamir Khan attended the show. Not just attended the show, he performed too. Aamir and Juhi danced to the Ghoonghat Ki Aad Se Dilbar Ka song from the movie HHRPK. In fact, Filmfare awards was a kind of platform to promote upcoming movies and stars usually performed songs from their to-be released movies, thereby reaching a wider audience.
Shahrukh too performed, alongwith Kajol, to the songs of Baazigar. It was great to see Aamir and SRK on Filmfare podium. It just looked like the future of Indian movies was bright, in safe hands and heading in the right direction.
Coming back to the awards distribution, let me start with the last award of the night. The previous year, in 1992, Dimple Kapadia was called on stage to give away the award for Best Actor. She had pulled open the envelope with great enthusiasm and she shrieked into the mike with all her energy ‘Amitabh Bachchan for Hum‘ and had handed-over the award to Bachchan with great excitement. This being 1993, and Bachchan being nominated for Khuda Gawah, it seemed like it was more than a coincidence that Dimple Kapadia was asked to give away the prestigious award again. When she came onto the dias, she seemed to be so unexcited and disinterested. She did not even pull open the envelope, she just held it up in the air, against the light, and calmly declared ‘Anil Kapoor for Beta‘.
I felt Dimple was being teased, she herself might have felt that. That aside, when there were more worthy nominees like Aamir for JJWS and Bachchan, the award went to Anil for a movie that was carried entirely on Madhuri Dixit’s shoulder. Not just this award, Beta swept the awards with Best Actress for Madhuri, Best Supporting Actress for Aruna Irani, Best Female Singer for Anuradha Paudwal for Dhak-dhak number, and of course the Best Choregraphy for Saroj Khan for the same song.
JJWS won just 1 award for Best Film. JJWS did not win any awards in acting categories, what was more disappointing was the way in which JJWS was deprived of awards in music category. There was a minor goof-up on the stage, while the nominess were being read out for Best Lyricist, Majrooh saab heard his name and mistook it for the announcement of the winner and he just walked onto the stage. The award was very undeservedly given to Sameer for Teri Umeed Tera Intezar Karte Hain, and Majrooh’s fantastic lyrics of Pehla Nasha Pehla Khumar was swept aside. It took Simi Grewal’s experience that she handled, what could have become an utterly embarassing situation, by asking Majrooh to hand-over the award to Sameer.
After that, the Best Music Director award went to Nadeem-Shravan for Deewana, and Jatin-Lalit’s wonderful tunes of JJWS were side-lined; that was really disheartening. The worst was not over yet. The nominations in the Best Male Singer was read out and again the award went to Kumar Sanu for Sochenge Tumhe Pyar Karen Ki Nahi from Deewana. I was so disappointed that Udit Narayan did not win the award for Pehla Nasha Pehla Khumar. Not just disappointed, that was the first, last and only time that I cried for an award not being given to the most deserved one.
That very moment I told to myself, lets see 10 years down the line which song will be remembered. I did not have to wait for 10 years because within 2-3 years people forgot the tunes and lyrics of Deewana while Pehla Nasha became the anthem for all lovers, for everyone who is in love, for everybody who has romance alive in their hearts. The song has become immortal and there is hardly anyone who has not heard the song Pehla Nasha.
Pehla Nasha … a song that pushed an entire generation to fall in love, a song that resonates in our ears whenever we hear about a new budding love-story, a song thats present in every compilation of love songs and Valentine’s Day celebrations. Udit’s mellifluous voice, the simple and melodious piano sequence, the wonderful lyrics…the song is just pure magic.
There onwards, the trend continued and awards were being doled out to all the undeserving people. It turned into a popularity award instead of an award being given for talent or achievement. I soon lost faith in the awards as the sanctity of awards was being destroyed.
I was reminded of the celebrations that took place when the founders of the awards had called upon Gregory Peck to inaugrate the first Filmfare Awards. It was all so promising that we had an awards show on the lines of the Academy Awards [Oscars] and that awards would be given to recognise the contribution and talent of film-makers and as an encouragement to do better work ahead.
And here we had the institution of awards becoming a machinery being oiled by the celebrities whom the panelist/jurist/trustess favoured. The more I hated awards, the more number of awards ceremony sprung up from all quarters. We soon had Zee, Star, Screen, Stardust giving out awards. Anyways, coming back to Filmfare Awards, it was saddening to see the awards being celebritized.
To end the post on a bright note, this year the awards that were given away for movies in 2008 was much better and more fairer. I even wrote about it here. I hope they are in the right track on their way to recover lost glory.
Tags: aamir khan, Academy Awards, Amitabh Bachchan, Dimple Kapadia, filmfare, gergory peck, Juhi Chawla, kumar sanu, madhuri dixit, Oscars, SRK, udit narayan
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Rals- yes even I remember watching those awards & feeling utterly frustrated.I was rooting for AB to win the Best Actor award & Udit Narayan to win the Best Male Singer award, but the actual results shattered me.After all these years finally the Filmfare awards this year seemed to have some semblance of normalcy getting restored.
let us forget all those sad moments and enjoy cannes film festival.India like every year is missing in action but not film stars with indian media asking questions to stalwarts of world cinema “do u watch bollywood movies?”…
you made me cry. I wish i was an actor, and i would have said now,”who cares abt award, i won’t take these awards even if i will get one”.
But it really pains, bcoz those deserving ppl are not getting award.
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you really have very nice memories, that u remember so many details of the past.
Maybe i watched this award night, but that time i didn’t know anything abt acting/direction and who deserves what. (even now i don’t know much)
I used to watch these awards for performances. and to see various other actors/directors/md etc. whose older movies i used to watch, and wanted to see them live.
(and yeah, that curiosity too, who is married to whom, whose children i can see etc)
Gradually, i started losing interest and respect for these award system.
And now i don’t trust any award system, i don’t know, how can ppl decide which is the best , out of two best movies.
The products are different, and acting depend on the characters and director too. director depends on script and actors. Well, we should take all this in good spirit. This is for encouragement and even if someone got nominated, that is a good thing too.
But then sometimes i have found that many times there are nominations for many fields, becoz they just want numbers. (it happens mostly for supporting roles, when u wonder, what ! this actor got nominated for supporting role, where was he in the movie, did he really act so well)
And why best actors, in leading role, supporting role, negative role. can’t compete with each other.
i don’t take these award seriously now, otherwise i feel sad.
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ROFL @ yayaver
@Sethu: this was not the first time that filmfare did such mess-up, but this was the first time i felt cheated and emotionally moved against it
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if u notice kumar sanu won 5 back2back filmfare and just 2 of them were deserving
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anyways, this post was not to make a laundry list of such instances of undeserving awards, just the 1992-93 incident that changed my perception and belief system :(
@rals,
you forgot 1972.. check
http://passionforcinema.com/filmfare-awards-jai-bolo-beimaan-ki/
@PavanJha: wo post maine padhi thi…bahut pehle .. and could not believe it
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anyways, 1972 mei tha nahi main :D so i did not go through that depression …
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and filmfare have done lotsa such goof-ups … not goof-ups… pandering to the stars, i must say
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but remarkably, all through the 1980’s they awarded parallel cinema. a lot of those movies like chakra, bazaar ect won awards.
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but again in 1990’s they went back to their notorious ways :(
I’m still finding it hard to forgive filmfare for not giving Mala Sinha a single award not even one for outstanding achievement,(there’s still time and i hope if anyone at filmfare is reading this, they’ll consider honoring her soon) this woman has acted in numerable credible films such as ‘Pyaasa’, Dhool ka phool’ Gumrah,’36 Ghante’ commercial flicks like ‘Aankhen’, ‘Himalaya ki God mein’ yet no awards, the only person who saw fit to honour her was Stardust screen magazine who gave her a lifetime achievement in 2004. Filmfare this woman is getting old and can die at any time, be sure to honour her before she goes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mala_Sinha
@bollywooddeewana: even dharam paaji did not win a single filmfare award and when they gave him the lifetime achievement dharam paaji could not control his emotions.
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stars still value filmfare awards, and its high time filmfare start taking themselves seriously and award the right people
@AB. : thanx for your extended comment. i have loads of memories, good and bad, i have been trying to put them here
Well 1992 was nothing compared to what followed. And the most retarded decision, was to give Salman Khan the Best Supporting Actor award for his irritating, hammy act in KKHH over Manoj Bajpayee for Satya. After that i just lost whatsover interest I had in the awards.
Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, winning Best Picture in 2000,i doubt any one even remembers it right now.
Bollywooddeewana – I am your deewana now
I also “love” MS.
Rals, you must read last fortnight’s Filmfare (Apr 29 issue ), where Jitesh slapped the guys who were criticizing the awards given this year. I also think that this year they were fair.
@kcp: this time filmfare did a good job, they were pretty fair. i did write about that
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i stopped reading filmfare 2006 onwards… isse pehle i had a collection of filmfare mags from 1992 to 2006 :D
Rals u read filmfare till 2006? I stopped reading it from 2000 onwards, he he. Yeah but like u wud regularly read Filmfare, and it was pretty good under Khalid Mohd.
The only time i browse through movie magazines nowadays is when i go to the saloon for a hair cut, LOL.
Many times i read abt this line, “ABC got award/became-hit-that-time instead of xyz”, and now who remebers ABC ? we know xyz.
Does this logic Always make xyz better than abc ?
Does the time-frame has any role in it. that maybe ABC was suitable and important or new for that time-frame, and xyz now has its own beauty, bcoz it is not in that time-frame, and audience is different.
As some movies which were important for some important issues that time in the past, and people may liked that. but later we don’t have those issues, or we got much bigger issues. so we can’t know why ppl like that so much at that time.
well, i am just thinking. i want to come-up with some examples too.
I am simply crazy about FF of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. 80’s was a bit boring ( except a few news here and there ;) ). In fact I never read much in the 90’s. 2000’s I started once again and never miss a single issue
@Ratnakar, kcp: i was crazy abt filmfare mags in 1990’s when my movie craziness was at its height. i used to buy filmfare[as already emntioned tat i collected filmfares between 1992 and 2006], but other than that i used to borrow a host of other mags like cine blitz, star&style, movie, zee premiere, showtime and ofcourse stardust from library.
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after the advent of tv channels and other film related programs, these mags dont sell that many copies anymore
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also, the cost of the mags have gone up. cost of mag = cost of haircut :D
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yes, now-a-days i browse the mags in a saloon
I was thinking abt this line which i heard and said many times, “If ABC got award/became-hit instead of XYZ that year, And if we now we watch/listen and remember XYZ, then XYZ is better than ABC.”
Does the XYZ is always better than the ABC ?
Because in case of some movies, which are based on current issues, or abt something which was relevant more at that time or were getting discussed more at that time. (like movies on dowry,cancer,untouchabilities.. and related to the current news headlines, Or new techniques abt colors,camera,sound etc)
And if later we get more movies, better movies on those themes, then we may forget those initial one, And we may remember some other movies of that time, which has their own beauty not related to that time-frame.
We had many different themes and subject at different time in bollywood. If a medium class movies raised some important issues of that time, in a movie, which people loved that time, and there was another movie, which didn’t touch ppl’s lives that much, but was technically strong. then which movie shud be ‘better movie’ for that year.
Obviously after few years the technical one will be remembered.
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About music it happens with me, many times when i listen to an album, i like few songs very much, and i listen a lot, but after few months, i start liking some other number,which was not my most favourite when i started listening the album.
This happens with many of my friends too.
Sometimes when u pick a old-unheard-album, u may start liking something, which was not a craze-number that time.
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And judging by this criteria of rememberance.
Maybe national award used to be more creditable, i have found some names of hindi movies which won music-direction award that time. i don’t remember any song at all. some movies i didn’t hear too.
Whereas i remember some other movies of those years, and i remember those songs more. (so were those awards unfair ? )
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I have to do one more test on some friends, i will tell them to choose their favourite songs of the past from a list. And then i will compare the result with national-award-for-singer’s list. I am curious to know, how much will it match.
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Abt Salman khan winning the award, instead of Manoj for Satya.
I am not trying to say, whether salman deserved it or not. I have some thoughts abt it, i want to share that.
RGV wrote,
“In the year Satya released, a Salman Khan starrer “Bandhan” directed by Murli Mohan rao which released around the same time collected much more than Satya. But is it because they liked it better than Satya or is it because many more went to see Bandhan because of Salman’s pull? So the fact that there are more collections necessarily does not mean people liked it more. It only means that more people saw it. For instance Satya when it released was taken off from the theatres on the 2nd or 3rd day in parts of UP, Rajasthan for lack of audience. So it was registered as a super flop in those areas.”
So i think, when a movie gets super-flop in some areas, then any actor of that movie has a very low chance of winning any Popular award. ( i think, filmfare depends on popular votes, if it is correct, then if less ppl saw a movie, then how many votes it will get )
Though sometimes i have seen in many voting contest, that if there are five movies, and one guy has seen only 3, then too, he will vote.
And for remaining movies he may decide, what he heard/read at other places. or he may overlook those totally.
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(even the award at PFC, i am sure , few people must have voted, without seeing all the entries)
@AB.: your ABC vs XYZ does not cut much ice because in most cases XYZ is good enough for all seasons, including the time-frame of ABC. its just that filmstars/media/sponsors play politics and hand the award to somebody else. they introduce new awards just to keep stars happy
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again your satya vs bandhan is not a good example because awards are supposed to be given for acting/performing capabilities; its not a popularity award. thats eactly what i tried to convey in my post that awards started becoming popularity-based instead of merit-based
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finally, bringing national awards in picture was a nice thought. most of the times, national awards have got it right because they recognize a quality product that will stand the test of time; i.e., people will recall such movies/songs/acting etc
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but even national awards, a few times, have screwed up…like giving saif ali the national award for best actor :D, how laughable was that!
“It just looked like the future of Indian movies was bright, in safe hands and heading in the right direction.”
Hahaha
@Rals,
yeah, i knew, i may not be right in what i said, i was just thinking, and wanted to discuss with someone, so i wrote those things earlier.
Criteria of rememberance:
i tried to come up with examples, but i have to do a lot of research, and i get help from wikipedia, but sadly the entries there are not correct all the time. so i can’t present my idea strongly too.
(as zindagi zindagi got national award for music in 1974, and other page says that it was released in 1972)
if zindagi zindagi got national award (1972 or 74), and reshma aur shera got national award (1972). But when i see the list of movie released in that year. i find, that i know more songs from other movies. And i saw many people listening/having other movies-songs more in their collection.
(i am trying to get those full album so that i can listen those.)
so i get this doubt about this, criteria of rememberance and what-is-popular-today-of-the-past.
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What i was telling abt ABC and XYZ. that i remember once upon a time, we had this problem going in the society, abt dowry, and burning daughter-in-laws. (that problem is still here). then i saw one movie “dulha bikta hai”. (the problem is that time i was a stupid young guy, or for some movies i was kid, or not born, and it is difficult to find more info on net).
Problem of ‘mehgaai’, ‘corrupt politicians’ ‘girl-child’, ‘problem of clerks’, ‘caste’,'rich-poor’,'not caring abt parents’, ‘cancer’, ‘aids’, ‘widows”muslim women’ ‘women literacy’, ‘women doing job’. When i was just busy in watching amitabh,mithun and dharmendra, i used to sense, that people were interested in some movies, and there were housefulls for many movies related to family drama.
As there was one more movie ‘jeevan dhara” (1982) Rekha, i used to listen, women talking a lot abt that movie.
My mother tells me a story, that when she was a kid, his brother showed him movie “Anpadh” (mala sinha, related to education for girls) and told her, this is why she shud study.
My point is, will movie like these which touched ppl’s lives at that time. Are they now in our list of favourite classic movies.
Is technical brilliance is more important than content of the movie ?
Same year we have “Saheb biwi aur ghulam” which is very famous abt everything.
I feel, Anpadh is more important than saheb..
Maybe now i am talking about, which is better, using cinema to change society OR making a perfect movie in the cinema-art way.
I think, award should be given in a different way. they shud be given for, what u added and excelled abt cinema-art. And there should be more awards for, how u used cinema for society.
And people who brought good subject, or raised important questions, should be given award too.
And if there are three good movies at a time, then award shud be given to all three. It is silly to give award to only one movie.
Giving award to only one movies sounds better, if ppl are making movies only for that competition, then they can choose winner.
But when audience goes to watch movies, it doesn’t always watch only one award-winning movie.
If award means, recognizing and appreciating good movies, then if there are two good movies, then why both of them should not be appreciated and encouraged.
And one more silly thought i have, if there is a poetry competition, and 100writers went there, and javed akhtar went too. and he won the competition, then it is fine with me.
but when it comes to award, and we have this idea that, we are doing this to encourage and appreciate ppl, then why javed akhtar gets award so many times. If he is there, means, we will not appreciate other people, and new talents ? they have to compete with him ?
Why doesn’t he remove his nomination. And how is that going to affect him, obviously we are not telling listeners not to listen his song. neither i want to ban him nor i want him to retire.
i can understand it, if it is about sports and competitions.
And especially when there is no absolute method to compare arts of two ppl, unless both of them do the same thing.
(we may judge who is better lyricist, if both of them get the same situation, same song to write. Even then there is a chance that they will interpret situation differently. )
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Satya and Bandhan, and salman getting award example was easy to understand.
If there are 100 ppl, and some of them , say, 20 saw ollo , and 90 saw ghajini. and if u try to take popular vote for best movie. then there are more chances that, ollo won’t get more votes.
Filmfare is based on popular votes, if few ppl watched satya, then obviously it will get few votes, even if everyone who saw ’satya’ will vote.
But if someone who didn’t watch satya, but have watched other movie, then why will he vote for ’satya’.
Problem with popular voting, everywhere is, u can’t ensure, that ppl who are voting have seen all the nominated work before voting.
“I liked ‘rock on’, hmm i didn’t see ‘jodha akbar’. who cares, i will vote for ‘rock on’, i love this movie.” one can change names here.
thanks for reading, i hope and wish, i am wrong abt everything i wrote.
From now onwards, i will write and post less
I shouldn’t waste ppl’s time.
@AB.: [From now onwards, i will write and post less] … dont do that…
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the javed akhtar example was a bit misplaced becasue an award is given as appreciation of a work thats done well, and then an encouragement to continue such good work. its not menat only as encouragement :D
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also, the question of asking a particular person withdrawing from nominations etc has been done already. lata mangeshkar has long back requested filmfare not to nominate/award her and give chance to others. in 1992, when bigB won for ‘hum’, he also said that award should goto ‘young and fresh face’, he also went on to say that ‘he is neither young nor fresh’. but filmfare continue to nominate him.
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lastly, about your first point of a movie having touched somebody’s heart… thats very subjective. it need not happen to everybody. not everybody react the same way to a movie. maybe someone feels more strongly to ’saheb biwi aur ghulam’…. the point is that the awards should be fair, consider all these things. what is good, which will be better for society or the art of film-making in the long run, which movies show the path for next-gen etc..
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if u want to understand movies better, u should watch all kinds of movies. watch jodha-akbar, then u can tell that rock-on is better than that. else, u will just have your biased opinion abt one movie without seeing the other
Purani yaaden yaad dila di crazyrals bhai.. I also remember that night and still remember when uditnarayan name was announced for jjws and on TV screen they played pehla nasha song in which Aamir throw his cap in air but after that i was disappointed when they said Kumar Sanu.. i was 10 years old and shaked my head and said to my family yaar udit marayan ko milna chahiye tha.. and i literaly cried when Amitabh Bachhan did’nt got award for Khuda Gawah.. kaise yaar.. that was blunder.. who can forget Amitabh Bachhan saying… MERA NAAM BADSHAH KHAN HAI..ISHQ MERA MAZHAB MOHOBBAT MERA IMAAN…
@Yayaver
Lol….2day there is a interview of Tom Hanks on HT where he is asked whether he has seen any bollywood film…also whether he has met Ms Rai Bachchan…
he responded in negative…
@Rals, when i wrote that, abt writing less, i was thinking, that i should do more research, and whatever i want to comment, i should write on notepad, and should read and edit few times. otherwise i write emotionally more. I will still read a lot, i love this site.
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yeah, that javed akhtar related idea was not good. ( i went against what i read in ayn rand’s Atlas-shrugged ) :-( but i was not telling him to retire, or stop writing. he still can have his work.
I thought, whether he has 4-5-6 trophy, it shouldn’t matter much to him, and we really have some new talents too. these awards may help them in getting good work and recognition.
And i thought, comeptition and these-awards are different.
Well, i too felt that maybe i am wrong. I wanted someone to tell me that. I am only at this side of movie-making so i dont know much abt other side. And this is why i love this site, i can learn a lot here, then i will enjoy and judge movies fairly.
yes i should watch all the nominated movies before i declare the best movie. i haven’t watched jodha-akbar and rock-on yet. this is why i didnt comment anything abt this year awards.
(i only wondered once, abt why shabana-azmi didn’t get supporting actress award at pfc, was her role was short, or her character doesn’t have much feeling to show, or we judged character or shabana didn’t do better acting as compared to others. I am curious to watch all those movies.)
Nowadays i am more busy in watching older or some different type movies. i have to see a lots of movies. i was more stupid earlier, i missed many.
what i wrote about rock-on and jodha-akbar earlier, that type of thoughts are what i listen from some other people. ppl don’t always watch all the nominated work before voting.
yes, i have to learn a lot abt movie-watching :D
@pavan jha & jitaditya, i want these bollywood crazy media guys to be rebuked by a white causcasian guy heavily and telling them to watch cinema of adoor, john barua or girish kasaravalli. I want to see the ashamed and amazed faces of bollywood stars and crazy indian media on knowing existence of these unknown genius of Indian cinema by distant foreigners.Is this mine day dream or just hidden pain..
Great post! Got me nostalgic! Yes I would agree that the awards this year were fairer than most in the past decade.
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Why just Dharam paaji and Mala Sinha? Check out how many awards has even Big B got, and note that Sholay got just the best editing.. Filmfare did screw up in the 70’s too! But yeah, far more now then ever before!
did someone said “Pancham”?