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Friday 10 February 2017

HIndie Awards 2017: Best Motion Picture [Comedy/Romantic/Musical]




Best Motion Picture 

Comedy/Musical/Romantic




As I've mentioned before, the non-drama section [I'm calling it such, because it's harder to constantly type comedy/romantic/musical, of course realizing the futility of explaining the whole thing in a lengthy bracket] hasn't been the top dog this year and we will have to see what this entails for our Best Pic nominees.

Anywho TM.

After a Screenplay win, Kapoor and Sons is at the top of its game with 3 wins and 9 nominations barring Best Picture. It's other two wins being from Leading Male Actor and Supporting Female Actor.

As for the other two acting awards, they go to Nil Battey Sanata thus giving it 2 wins from 6 nominations.

3 nominations yet 0 wins marks the run of Dear Zindagi. Dhanak is also haunted with 0 wins from 3 nominations and Jugni scores one higher with 4 nominations but again 0 wins. This trio might not have big wins but remember it is always the nomination that counts.

A collectively good film always trumps a film with just one or two great aspects. Filmmaking at the end is about a wonderful but unified piece of art.

As for films that failed to leave their mark altogether, there weren't many but the few that did do get a mention without of course mentioning details, let's just see what lost out in rankings [PS They are not many]

6. Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive
7. Happy Bhag Jayegi

Well then, now onto the nominees...





Hiroo Johar, Apoorva Mehta and Karan Johar for Kapoor and Sons [Fox STAR Studios]

How Dharma has changed.

Once their films were about tight knit families highlighting the importance of family and loving your parents, in the most grandiose manner.

Here you have warring parents, warring siblings, disenchanted families struggling to make ends meet while a plumber haplessly watches on fixing the pipes.

Three secrets, three wonderfully structured arguments and a whole lot of drama in between is what makes Kapoor and Sons both the funniest and most profound dysfunctional family film that begins with an attack and a reunion and ends with death and reconciliation.

It is this measured approach and an experiential understanding of family dynamics that makes Shakun Batra's dysfunctional family film just as much an indictment on the structure as well as celebration of loving loved ones. It truly is about understanding and even loving your parents, but mostly understanding them and them you.

With some intutive character work comes breezy comedy and romance that also finds its heart in two characters that could have been one note, yet both supporting players and the performers in Rishi Kapoor and Alia Bhatt find way to enhance the picture.

At the centre is this family of four and the explored dynamics have interesting twist and turns I still wish would have been worked wonderfully at the end with the potential in hand, but even then Kapoor and Sons turns out something entertaining as well as profound.

Hats off of course to Ratna Pathak Shah and Fawad Khan as well as the ensemble cast, you cannot get enough of them.




Gauri Khan, R Balki and Karan Johar for Dear Zindagi [Red Chillies Entertainment]

Opening the gates on the conversation of depression and reminding you why women just write better women.

After the year saw a myriad of films with an agenda to exploit feminism to sell their portrayals of its complex ideas to the world [including Gauri Shinde's own husband absurdly sexist film Ki and Ka] it was refreshing to see a woman honestly tackle the subject and prove one thing;

At the end of the day, every film is in one form or another a commentary on the cumulative appearance of the filmmaker behind it and in some form Dear Zindagi could be no different.

Situating at first Shah Rukh Khan as an omniscient voice of conscious with his charming smile intact, Dear Zindagi becomes a breezy examination of a young working woman facing depression in a society with a stigma of it.

Yet at the end it is all about her, so this woman in question; Kaira, is strong, resolute, insecure, self absorbed, spirited yet also very naive even though mature. To sum it up she is a full fledged character like most and at the centre of it is her rising conflict made engaging by the play by play that goes on between Shinde's soft subtle yet spectacular sensibilities and Alia Bhatt's intution to follow through with this vision.

It creates sparks on screen and hopefully sees to that these two will become a tandem to be recognized as filmmaker and muse. Proving for one of the most cathartic experiences of the year!




Anand L Rai, Ajay G Rai and Alan Mcalex for Nil Battey Sanata [EROS International]

Anand L Rai's expansive understanding of milieu doesn't just add to his own films but rather his decision to back films, this is what builds the foundation for Nil to become an intriguing piece of art.

So we open on Chanda's little cove, it's dusky and each crammed space and sensation comes to life with wonder, the contrast with locations; the free spaces where Apu and friend dawdle, the dreary daunting Math class, or the grand pristine white locations where Chanda works or sees for her daughter each in turn add little and little to the overall world of a film.

It's this world that allows thus to become the foundation for Tiwari's characters and especially protagonists situation against her hopes and desires and just not for her, but her daughter. Thus making this an engaging underdog tale.

For such a stirring dramatic yet also light narrative you need the write type of underdog and Nil finds it in the affable Swara Bhaskar, with a wide eyed innocence; Bhaskar portrays doltish and confused with sharpness, she has an essence to her that isn't necessarily comedic but lends itself to levity and she can heavy lift dramatic moments with the best of them yet never let them be overwrought.

Bhaskar along with her peripheral co-stars, a brash Riya Shukla and a deadpan Pankaj Tripathi among others makes for the most feel good film of the year. She is the lynchpin of the story and with Tiwari creates a piece and people worth rooting for, a film worth celebrating cause just like Chanda it's the underdog picture that managed to succeed this year.

An absolute fairy tale.




Nagesh Kukunoor, Elahe Hiptoola and Manish Mundra for Dhanak [PVR Pictures]

Speaking of fairy tales, Dhanak is aptly titled Rainbow as the films colorful road of twists and turns. An exciting high towards a tense low pays dividends with a pot of gold at the end, feel good is the hit of this year and Dhanak with its sweet portrayal of children's dreams is the epitome of this.

That pot of gold also pays off to Nagesh Kukunoor, with the film sparking him back after some unfortunate misfires. In Dhanak he finds the right tale, a film that is sweet and is aware of its potential to not really deter the audience and make it fear the outcome, but rather use this post modern knowledge in creating the most unexpectedly enjoyable slice of life road journey.

At the centre are two protagonists and the always omnipresent Shahrukh Khan, building of the myth of celebrity idolism comes the true 'Fan' story which seeks to build the notion of hope with ease yet also maturity thanks to it's two lead characters and the young performers that add spice to it.

Under the watchful veteran eye of Kukunoor, Hetal Gada and Krish Chabria give fine turns that would put most performers to shame. They are the heart and soul of a film full of love and sometimes that rainbow filled happiness is what the viewer needs.

Thanks for this one.




Shefali Bhushan, Manas Malhotra and Karan Grover for Jugni [PVR Pictures]

The relentless passion of music is what stirs the fire in the flies of Shefali Bhushan's Jugni.

It is thus after all that the films finest scene is Vibs and Mastana's duet rendition of 'Haat Mulla'. As the two cozy up near a fire in an abandoned fort site, the isolation from the world stirs the music within and reaches an intoxicating high right to the precipice from where they make love.

It's this passionate take that is then so smartly subverted into a mature and realistic understanding of love, relationships and more importantly the difference of worlds between the two characters.

The film feels like an intimate expression of a profound episode in the filmmakers life, so it takes some resolve for Bhushan to never really shy away from making Vibs a flawed and at times even unlikeable protagonists.

This methodological take, turns Jugni into a character study tethered by the omnipresent world of music that is within and around everyone.

With her efforts and more, not to mention the actors in charge especially a brightly burning Siddhant Behl, make Jugni the little firefly that could. That in itself deserves untold accolades and applause.

A rousing lyrical piece of its own tune.



And the Winner is...




Kapoor and Sons!!!

FOX Star Studios and Dharma secure this one, the former hasn't had the smoothest of rides in Hindi cinema and Kapoor and Sons is probably one of their biggest hits. For Kapoor and Sons, it's about redemption from reconciliation despite some massive flaws, the picture still comes together and has a great rewatch quality. 

Up Next; The Big Daddy of the Big Daddies, who wins the Best Picture Drama and claims the spot as number 1 best Hindi film of 2016

'Nuff Said,

Aneesh Raikundalia


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