Average night ... few good memories

So the first award show of the year for Hindi films released in the calendar year of 2009 is over! As usual, the Star Screen Awards had a good attendance, some predictable nominees and a few surprise winners. Nothing too surprising to actually talk about on a blog. However, there were a lot of good memories from the show, which was not bad. Shahid Kapoor, Madhavan, Omi Vaidya (a.k.a Chatur Ramalingam) and Shahrukh Khan did a good job hosting, but quite frankly, the good moments from the show came elsewhere.

Here is the countdown of my favourite moments from the show:

7. Salman Khan dancing with kids. Yes, which other star in the industry can oblige his fans by agreeing to dance with them on stage after their request, and small children that too! In an age where stars prefer to dance either alone or with their co-actors only, Sallu bhai is a bit hatke!


6. Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan's Award speeches. The only reason I've included Vidya Balan in this list is because you could feel her speech being spoken by her heart and not mind. The sheer happiness on the face with the obvious self-realization that she has gotten over her wardrobe sneers and is now on the verge of becoming the star she so truly deserves to be, was something worth watching. Amitabh Bachchan's speech was special because he signed off by praising Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and the entire team of 3 Idiots for making quite possibly one of the best movies of all time. An actor praising a film of which he was not even a part of, while accepting an award, is something you don't get to see very often. Hats off to Amitabh Bachchan and the entire cast and crew of 3 Idiots for making the Big B say so.

5. Vidhu Vinod Chopra making fun of himself by shouting Shut Up, Shut Up, Shut Up, with his fingers pointed at the hosts who prompted him to say so, on obvious reference to the press conference controversy just after 3 Idiots' release.

4. The Prem Chopra tribute. There was a time when SRK and Shahid were talking about heroines bathing under waterfalls and having DVDs of such movies, and that was fine. But the topic then moved to the pose given by heroines of the 70s and 80s while about to get raped in a hotel room. Now obviously, being a major Hindi film fan, the very mention of such a sentence brought up none other Prem Chopra's picture in my mind. It then changed to Ranjeet and Shakti Kapoor after some time but moved back to Prem Chopra again. Looks like the cameramen of Screen Awards too had similar thoughts going in their mind; for there on camera was seated a very smiling Prem Chopra, whose memory I'm sure would have gone back to his fun days as the womanising villain as well (and would have had a hint the cameras would be focussing on him now).

2. At number 2, I have a tie between two great moments. Javed Akhtar's speech for Lifetime Achievement and Vidhu Vinod Chopra paying tribute to Dev Anand.

Javed Akhtar, in his speech, expressed his disappointment over the songs of today, as he rightfully pointed out, there's no meaning in the songs of today. Lyrics are getting crappier day by day, and that songs of today are not an iota of the quality that old songs would have. It's a point one can easily agree on - songs of those times had fantastic lyrics, which would always suit the situation they were placed for; which is why for example, most ad-makers of today reference those older songs in their advertisements. Today's songs just don't fit situations at all! Not only do the songs have no meanings, the words too sound very amateurish! But the point I liked best was the other reality Javed saab pointed - he said that when music directors of today are questioned over the poor quality of their tunes, they immediately reply saying that this is the music the youth of today enjoy; but in reality if you were to ask the youth what they want, they would say they want songs the way they were made back in the good old days. Javed Akhtar couldn't have been more spot on in his observations about today's generation. Every person I know who has heard old Hindi songs (I'm just restricting this to Hindi movies for that's the area I'm most comfortable speaking about) always say that those songs were truly memorable and timeless. In fact, while playing Antakshari, no one even remembers a Hindi song of the same year even if it came out just a couple of months back. But songs from the 40s to the 80s - they are there on everybody's mind and tongue.

One beautiful moment came when Vidhu Vinod Chopra called the legendary Dev Anand the biggest idiot in the industry for still making films at this age (he meant it in a nice way of course. And by the way, Dev Anand is 87 years old now). He went up to him and asked him if he could ask a question. (Meanwhile SRK saw Dev Anand, rushed towards him, and touched his feet).Dev Anand immediately stood up from his seat (good manners!) and confidently asked him to ask whatever he wanted to. 87 years, and still speaking so well. He truly is evergreen! Anyway, coming back to the scene, VVC asked Dev sir for his inspiration, what keeps him going despite his age. Dev Anand replied saying it's good filmmakers and actors like you that make me want to compete with you. And the feeling you get that whatever I've done, I've given it my best! A perfect tribute to the never-say-die spirit of Dev Anand. I'm personally happy atleast someone approached him during the ceremony. A guy of his age and stature, sitting alone, can be a depressing sight for his fans ... I was real glad this conversation happened.

1. The highlight of the evening for me were the Salman-Aish moments. It all started with the nominations for Jodi Of The Decade. And the first nomination was Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai. Aishwarya Rai, who was sitting next to her husband Abhishek and holding hands with him, had the shock of her life. You could see her getting nervous for a brief moment. But the expression on her face was something to look at! Surprisingly, it was more of happiness and pride than embarassment or anger. Well, there were plenty of surprises to come. And they arrived when the show saved for the last happened. Salman Khan was dancing with his fans and quite expectedly, the camera kept zooming towards Shahrukh and Aishwarya alternately. But Aishwarya's expressions kept surprising us each time the camera fell on her. At first, she looked really happy seeing Salman dance, later her expressions were those of pride and respect for Salman and I can swear the last couple of zoom-ins on her, she was actually blushing! She looked like a shy bride on her wedding night each time! And this is something you can verify as well. That is a sight I'll never forget in my entire lifetime!

Well, looking forward to the Filmfare Awards now. But I doubt anything could better Aishwarya blushing at the sight of Salman :)