Live Long And Prosper Leonard Nimoy!

Live Long and Prosper

Leonard Nimoy RIP

Logic dictates that everything and everyone will come to an end. Even Vulcan logic.

Yet logic will not prevent true shock and heartbreak, such as of today's.

I'm not the biggest Star Trek fan, but the sudden shock of Leonard Nimoy's death at the age of 83 comes with trued sadness.

But as an eloquent New York Times Article puts it; Leonard Nimoy was not only Spock.

He was more than that.

A poet, musician, director, photographer and above all an actor.

Beyond that he is a cultural icon even with Spock over him.

It's what the fans will remember him the most for and I'm sure his happy somewhere knowing that.

So to Leonard Nimoy, wherever you may rest as a shining star in the final frontier; we'd like to say

Live Long And Prosper.

(for there will be no one like you)

The HIndie Awards 2015

The HIndie Awards

It took long, but the Hindie Awards are finally over and they're done with one hell of a riveting end. We all know the winners, but since the division of genres we don't know each films actual score and ranking in terms of top ten (like you've gotten to know for the past two years). So here in this post, I will put a cap on that.

But first here's short rundown of the HIndie Awards winners of 2015 (in terms of which film won) and some fun statistics of the first ever Official HIndie Awards.

Award	Movie
Best Picture (Drama)	Haider
Best Picture (Comedy/Musical)	Ankhon Dekhi
Best Director	Haider
Best Screenplay (Drama)	Ugly
Best Screenplay (Comedy/Musical)	Aankhon Dekhi
Best Lead Male (Drama)	Haider
Best Lead Female (Drama)	Highway
Best Lead Male (Comedy/Musical)	Aankhon Dekhi
Best Lead Female (Comedy/Musical)	Queen
Best Supporting Male (Drama)	Miss Lovely
Best Supporting Female (Drama)	Haider
Best Supporting Male (Comedy/Musical)	Finding Fanny
Best Supporting Female (Comedy/Musical)	Finding Fanny
Best Ensemble	Ugly
Best Breakthrough Male	Filmistaan
Best Breakthrough Female	Citylights
Best Cinematography	Miss Lovely
Best Editing	Finding Fanny
Best Production Design	Dedh Ishqiya
Best Costume Design	Finding Fanny
Best VFX	Jal
Best Documentary	The World Before Her
Best Soundtrack	Haider
Best Score	Miss Lovely

So that's it for the winners. Now for some statistics...the nominated for the most awards was the black crime comedy Dedh Ishqiya!

And the film with the most award wins was; Haider!

Now onto the ranking of the top ten films of the year...

The HIndie Awards 2015: Best Picture Award Part 2

The HIndie Awards 2015

Best Picture Award (Drama)

 

 

Drama will always be an integral form of cinema, in fact it's funny that it's even considered a genre since every film has an essence of drama within it. To be honest, my feature isn't about dramas but instead these are films that are genres anti-comedy in some sense. 

For example what you have here are seven films of different thematic values. A road-trip/romance mash-up, a war film, a political revenge thriller, an experimental feature, a sports movie, a crime thriller and a dark comedy mixed with a psychological thriller. 

As this is the last post, it's a guaranteed that the winner of this is the best Hindi film of 2014. It's true that drama goes home big, but the films on this list sadly have a wider disparity than all the comedies together. 

That still doesn't mean that these films are bad, far from it. In fact these are some features I'd back against the regular nominees that horded over shitty Indian film awards. 

So once again let me reiterate (and copy paste due to laziness)

So overall who will win the big one? In my opinion, a film need not win either screenplay or direction to prove their the best film. They don't even need to win all the awards. All the film needs to be is consistent all across the board. 

Still winning awards isn't a bad thing, so here's a look at so far how well each of the Drama nominees have done in terms of individual nominations and wins below.

Film	Nominations	Wins
Highway	6	1
Miss Lovely	7	2
Haider	9	4
Hawaa Hawaai	2	0
Ugly	8	2
Citylights	5	1
Kya Dilli, Kya Lahore	3	0

Here you can see big disparity in award winners, but is it a big bullseye or a red herring? Check below to find out...

The HIndie Awards 2015: Best Picture Award Part 1

The HIndie Awards 2015

Best Picture Award (Comedy/Musical)

 

This year saw as any year a number of great comedies take center stage, whether they be of the romantic kind or of satirical whimsy. Though there aren't any necessarily great outright musicals. 

Some of the greatest bits the past year in Hindi cinema have come from this side of the fence. Terrific directorial efforts by newbies and sophomores such as Vikas Bahl (Queen) and Abhishek Chaubey (Dedh Ishqiya). Definitely the best stories whether it's Queen, Filmistaan or Ankhon Dekhi. Of course the performances of a Kangana Ranaut (Queen) and a Sanjay Mishra (Ankhon Dekhi) are not far behind. 

So overall who will win the big one? In my opinion, a film need not win either screenplay or direction to prove their the best film. They don't even need to win all the awards. All the film needs to be is consistent all across the board. 

Still winning awards isn't a bad thing, so here's a look at so far how well each of the Comedy/Musical nominees have done in terms of individual nominations and wins below. 

Film	Nominations	Wins
Queen	6	1
Filmistaan	5	1
Ankhon Dekhi	5	2
Dedh Ishqiya	11	1
PK	2	0
Hasee Toh Phasee	2	0
Finding Fanny	9	4

So as you can see some films win big while others are consistent across the board with nominations. So which film should win? Find out below...

(PS: Straight to the award, no bullshit this time round below)

The HIndie Awards 2015: Direction Award

The HIndie Awards 2015

 

The director is the captain of the ship, the man who steers the boat to its final most accomplished form. The director is what I one day aspire to be. 

Below you will see a list of seven of the most fascinating directors making the most fascinatingly varied films from last year. Their works speak for themselves. 

These seven men have either gained a great repertoire of features or are showing signs of becoming the top dogs in the future. They've literally been the force that could make or break the film. 

So let's not waste time and just get to it...

The HIndie Awards 2015: Acting Awards Part 3

The HIndie Awards 2015

Leading Awards

 

 

Now onto the leading awards. 

Like the ones in supporting, the four leading award categories will follow in ascending order in terms of how good their winners are. This you will find out once you read the whole post. 

Anyways let's get onto the categories...

The HIndie Awards 2015: Acting Awards Part 2

The HIndie Awards 2015

Supporting Awards

 

 

Time to get to the fun bit of the HIndie awards;

The Acting Awards!

As much as I chastize Bollywood for their fascination for their actors (Such that they end the awards as the most prestigious parts of a film), I also love doing this part of the awards cause I feel I can write about performances better. 

Still as you can note, I'm not ending my show with the acting awards cause that in its entirety is an insult to the film and the makers of it. 

There's an odd rule I've put into the acting awards though, but it is of importance. Normally we see the male actor awarded after the female actor, being awarded the last is a sign of prestige (reiterated from above). 

As such it's unfair in a gender wise situation, just like our world. So instead I decide to award my actors on merit. 

So the rule is simple. There's four supporting awards to be given out. 

Despite gender, despite genre. Each award will come depending on the ranking of its winner. 

Example;

If Male (Comedy/Musical) winner is the best. Then that award will come fourth on this post. 

Followed by Female (Drama), then Male (Drama) and then Female (Comedy/Musical)...

it's a complicated rule, so you'll know what I mean once you see the awards...so let's just get to it...

The HIndie Awards 2015: Screenplay Awards

The HIndie Awards 2015

 

This year's quota of writing nominees got expanded because it was difficult to eventually decide which seven screenplays were truly the best of the best.

To tell you the truth, it's been a difficult time to judge not just a script but the movie as a whole. As I begin to learn more and more about film, which I have not just in these two weeks of University but this year, I tend to lose the right way to critically analyze a film and especially the screenplay.

It's why I might have more nominees than I bargained for, cause I thought all of them were excellent when years later in retrospect some of them will be just good. I hate putting down my nominees like this but it's true.

Anyways the screenplay as anybody who's a somebody will tell you, is the backbone of the film. It is its most important element and without it no film can start and without it no film can reach a certain pinnacle of filmmaking achievement.

In Bollywood, screenplay writers aren't so revered. So much so that most either become directors or start out as such, or most directors write their own films so as they have complete control. This year saw a varied genre of scripts work, from black comedies to social satires and from adapted works of acclaimed literature to deep character studies.

Some screenplays were even loose, but had so much impact with so few instances that they wrenched the audience away into the magical film journey.

So here's to the best screenplays of 2014...