Dharm and Parzania disrespected at Filmfare Awards
Posted by Simranjeet @ 9:02 pm March 3, 2008
Filed Under Filmfare, News
Tadka question - For long, parallel cinema wasn’t featured in mainstream award shows like the reputed Filmfare Awards, but why were they nominated this year, only to draw a blank?
‘English, dubbed and foriegn movies are not to be nominated for any of the awards.’ Or so used to read one of the many lines of the Filmfare Awards advertisements, asking the general public to nominate their previous year’s favourite performances. And any viewer, not just a fan of Filmfare, could have easily guessed that hard hitting movies like Dharm and Parzania would not be nominated in any of the categories.
But this year, all that changed. Gems of 2007, from Indian Cinema, Dharm and Parzania were not only nominated in at least two categories, at the 53rd Annual Filmfare Awards, but drew a blank when it came to collect the most-sought after award, the black statuette at the ceremony. This is perhaps the first time that Filmfare has nominated two off-beat multiplex movies in the popular awards categories, and also gone ahead to give the trophies to other movies.
Dharm and Parzania were two masterpieces of the year gone by. Parzania was majorly done in English and inspired by a true story, and Dharm in Hindi itself, was reviewed by a critic in just one line “Watching it should be made compulsary”. But it isn’t as much about the language, as it is about the fact that these two movies dealt with the most damaging aspect of India today, communal riots. And it is exactly for this reason that if the jury at the Filmfare decided to nominate them with other commercial gems, they should also have respected the bold directors’ decisions to go ahead and make something which would prompt a billion minds to take a second look at our lives today.
Countless movies of the years gone by, which were labelled and tagged ‘parallel cinema‘ or ‘art movies‘, were never nominated at such award shows, which wasn’t a disrespect to them, but a reminder that such movies never needed any awards to prove their contribution to Indian Cinema. Why didn’t Filmfare never nominate a ‘Morning Raga‘ or a ‘Bow Barracks Forever‘, or ‘Mr. And Mrs. Iyer‘, or a ‘15 Park Avenue‘ … the list is endless. Filmfare has clearly disrespected all these movies, and if it was so much about recognizing these movies, then a special award could have been introduced for them, just like the couple of others which we never needed in the first place.
When the same agency handling the Oscars was hired by Filmfare a few years back to handle it’s nomination and voting process, it was expected that the accusation of the awards being biased could be done away after all. But by nominating these gems and not giving them anything, it has raised doubt on the very authenticity of the whole process. Perhaps then, we shouldn’t have made a hue and cry when Eklavya: The Royal Gaurd was sent for the Oscars this year, and not a gem like Vibha Singh’s Dharm! May Filmfare recover form the illness soon!
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2 Responses to “Dharm and Parzania disrespected at Filmfare Awards”
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filmfare awards suks
full bakwass
they are partial towards a particular section of bollywood and ignores the best works of others like amir khan
well……i guess it was expected…have a look at the award categories…..filmfare has this knack of honouring each and every person of the film industry……sample this : what do you mean by best actor (SRK) and best actor(critics choice)(Darsheel Zafari)……and what do you understand by these categories - best music director (awarded to AR Rehman) and RD Burman award for best music (awarded to Monty Sharma for Saawariya)…..their simple philosophy - make everyone happy and ensure that nobody goes home empty handed…why annoy them, and take the risk of these b-town stars not performing at their events free of charge and giving them exclusive soundbytes and photo shoots…….sab politics hia bhai !!!!!!!!………….
Have a look at the oscars……ther are no faltu categories like : best actor in comic role , best actor in -ve role , best actor and best actor (critics choice)………either a person is best in his performance or not…..but here we ve abt 10 best actor categories !!!…they should take a cue from the oscars(especially since filmfare was meant to be the b-town equivalent of the oscars).
Its high time we stopped using filmfare as a yardstick for measuring the worthiness of a movie……National Awards i guess are a better way of judging the worthiness of a movie.