There used to be a time, when I was very very little, when I looked forward to the various award show nights and getting to see all the performances, antics and what not.
Especially on New Year’s eve, when one of the bigger award shows would air, even if me and my family were at a relative party, all us cousins used to get together and watch the awards.
Because, not to say they were very good before, but at least they were slightly entertaining. At least they were entertaining to the mind of 12 or 13 year old.
But as I have grown up and seen the change and humongous increase in these award shows, I realized that almost every single one of them was the exact same. With no difference, no unique aspect and no integrity for the art at all.
I believe the recently released list of nominations for this year’s Filmfare Awards speaks in favour of my point, where we see films like Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (are you kidding me right? This movie was not just there for the director but also music, and supporting roles… are you seriously kidding me?) and Sultan (do not even get me started on this one) and various other 200 or 300 crore films, that were while okay, but definitely do not deserve a place in such a so-called esteemed award show.
While films like Rustom or Airlift and Aligarh were nowhere near any category, Akshay Kumar, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Manoj Bajpai once again left out in the cold, even the much praised debuting Dangal girls were not nominated.
This is just sad to see when good films and actors are overlooked in favour of well we all know what in favour of.
But this all has just brought to the forefront of my mind, exactly why I stopped watching Filmfare and other Indian award shows, because to be honest, they just seriously suck:
1. Dance Performance Ka Joke Bana Diya:
Ek to please please for god’s sake, stop with these endless and frankly really bad dance performances. Actresses come to the stage to stand around in glittery and just plain embarrassing outfits, give a few thumkas and then run back flipping their hair and skipping around.
Actors, on the other hand nowadays stand around in a skimpy vest, showing their oiled chest, do a few steps and then zoom away on their motorbike or wannabe batmobile.
Barring a few actually good dance performances, most just stand there and don’t even move. I mean, what is up with that?
2. Slapstick, Misogynist and Immature Jokes Are Passed Off As Humor:
Oh yes, how can we forget the high quality humor that we see at these award shows, huh?
I mean, the greatest comedians and all should probably just retire, based on what our award shows are offering.
All jokes aside, it just strikes me so starkly now that these jokes are just not funny, or even if they ever were, then their time has long since passed.
Bachpan wale jokes and just all around joking by demeaning another is what is called humour at these events.
‘Oh you are fat…. Hahahahaaa” *crickets chirping*
Truly, most of the times I laugh at these pathetic attempt to liven up a dead party.
3. Speaking of Humour:
Okay, since we are on the topic of humour, can we also talk about the hosts at these award shows.
Mujhe to bus ye lagta hai that these hosts jump at the opportunity to get some screen time. Maybe not at the big shows, but at smaller award shows, you see various unknown actors being hosts and well it is not a pretty sight.
I fail to understand why can’t these award show organizers get actual standup comedians, whose main job is to entertain big crowds of people to host these shows?
People like Tanmay Bhatt, Biswa, Kanan Gill, Aditi Mittal, Neeti Palta, Abish Mathew and more are extremely good at what they do.
Kapil Sharma, Manish Paul, Bharti Singh and all can only do so much until they too start becoming stale. Not to say they are not good, but overdose naam ki bhi cheez hoti hai.
If these organizers can shell out a pretty penny for top stars like SRK, Farhan Akhtar, Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra, then I’m sure they should have no problem in hiring these people too.
4. The Scare Factor:
Ohh man, how can I forget that well known scare antic that practically every Filmfare, Stardust, Indian Idol and any other show is adopting these days.
The one where they start showing these promos almost a week before the actual airing and it almost always involves the host ribbing or joking with an actor or judge and then suddenly the celebrity flips out and dun dun dun….
Ekta Kapoor shots everywhere, grayscale is used to further drive home the point of how serious everything is, and probably a shot of the actor walking away from the stages.
Sigh. Do they really think that the audience is so stupid that we won’t understand by now that this is all staged?
Ultimately everything will turn out to be hunky dory, with the actor saying ‘ahahahaaha, tricked you’ and then everything goes back to normal.
The nomination list and all are just a part of this long vicious cycle that audience and award shows are stuck in.
The audience likes all this crap so the award show people serve it to them. But on the flip side, the audience don’t have anything else to watch either, so eventually they come back to this only.
So basically the mentality has now become ki matlab jo chal raha usse chalate raho, why bother with giving the audience something actually worthwhile and all.
We all are so enamoured with the Oscars and Golden Globes, however we never try to think why our award shows don’t get the same level of respect.
The change has to come from somewhere right?
One award show will change it concept and soon all will start changing too, or maybe that one award show will be the only one like it, which will further enhance its standing.
So… yeah, until that happens, I am not watching another Filmfare or any other Indian award show for the above reasons.
Image Credits: Google Images
Other Recommendations:
http://edtimes.in/2015/03/when-will-we-have-our-oscars/
http://edtimes.in/2015/02/60th-filmfare-black-lady-goes/
