Here's a look at all the performances of last year in varous categories, who took the top honors and who missed out.
Neerja and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil snatching wins in 7 categories each. With Ae Dil almost sweeping Music section with exception of Female playback singer. While Kapoor & Sons and Ms Dhoni The Untold Story with 4 and 3 wins respectively.
Presenting the winners along with the list of nominees in each category. Just a reminder, its entirely my personal opinion based list.
Best Actor Male : Sushant Singh Rajput (Ms Dhoni The Untold Story)
• Aamir Khan (Dangal)
• Manoj Bajpai (Aligarh)
• Randeep Hooda (Sarbjit)
• Ranbir Kapoor (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
Not just for the brilliant mannerisms that totally resembled Dhoni, its the way Sushant handles the 1st half that deals with initial struggle of Dhoni while trying to get selected for Indian team that made me love his performance. Plus, I have loved Sushant's performance in every film he has done till date. Aamir Khan sadly comes 2nd, despite a strong performance in Dangal. While Manoj and Randeep are almost equal 3rd for me, and its a surprise that Randeep performance was hardly given due at any award shows which it deserved and I say that having not loved Sarbjit. Best actor nominee list is always incomplete without Ranbir, too good a actor to leave out. While Akshay Kumar just missed out for his good performance in Airlift (not Rustom, dear National awards). And Amitabh Bachchan has been highly over-rated at award shows for his performance in Pink, not worthy of top5 at all, I would instead prefer his Te3n act.
Best Actor Female : Anushka Sharma (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Radhika Apte (Phobia)
• Alia Bhatt (Dear Zindagi)
• Vidya Balan (Kahaani 2)
• Sonam Kapoor (Neerja)
Will come as a surprise for many, but I totally loved Anushka in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and I had tweeted too that its her 3rd best career performance since Band Baaja Baraat and NH10. There's just too much in her 'Alizeh' character, the kind of filminess, romantic, emotional, friendly, sarcastic, rude but still a lovable girl. And Minus the bald look though, only not likeable aspect of her in film. Radhika Apte was easy choice at 2nd, she was wonderfully awesome in Phobia portraying the terror she goes through as if trapped inside a room. I didn't love the character of Alia in Dear Zindagi but her performance was too good to ignore. And Sonam had to be there in list, afterall its rare when you see Sonam act, which she did in Neerja. Unfortunately, Swara Bhaskar misses out, she was awesome in Nil Battey Sannata.
Best Director : Ram Madhvani (Neerja)
• Shakun Batra (Kapoor & Sons)
• Hansal Mehta (Aligarh)
• Nitish Tiwari (Dangal)
• Karan Johar (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
It has to be some excellent direction if you get to see Sonam perform so well in acting department, Ram Madhvani uses drama and emotions very well along with the bravery act of character Neerja. Shakun Batra gave glimpse of how subtle he can be in the rom-com 'Ek main aur ekk tu', and with Kapoor & Sons, he lives upto the expectations, a film that shows a dysfunctional family, that finds it tough to be happy together. Any other director would had made it very over the top melodrama, but Shakun keeps it so subtle that at times you feel he should had kept atleast one complete breakdown scene in movie, but I am still happy without it. Nitish Tiwari got named as new Raju Hirani for a commercial entertainer movie that gives a message, would be interesting to see his work in next movie now. Meanwhile, Karan Johar gave his career's best and most matured movie, beating his last best 'Kabhi Alvida na Kehna'.
Best Film : Kapoor & Sons
• Dangal
• Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
• Neerja
• Pink
Already written on them, here
Best Supporting Actor Male : Fawad Khan (Kapoor & Sons)
• Rajat Kapoor (Kapoor & Sons)
• Rajkumar Rao (Aligarh)
• Shahrukh Khan (Dear Zindagi)
• Kumud Mishra (Airlift)
I won't go into the debate of whether Fawad should be in supporting or lead category, I loved his act in the film and thereby he wins in this category. Sadly, the political angle of our country means, we will miss him in future a lot. Rajat Kapoor was equally convincing in his performance, always been a great actor. To see Shahrukh in supporting category is in a way pleasant surprise, that means he is trying something different and it is working in terms of his performances atleast even if the films are not upto the mark. Kumud had a big role to play in Airlift even if with less screen time, think of it how the mission would had failed miserably if he didn't try to convince people at his side to help the Indians in Kuwait. Rajesh Sharma and Pankaj Tripathi were so lovable in MS Dhoni The Untold Story and Nil Battey Sannata respectively, unfortunately couldn't make to my top5.
Best Supporting Actor Female : Shabana Azmi (Neerja)
• Kirti Kulhari (Pink)
• Ratna Pathak Shah (Kapoor & Sons)
• Sakshi Tanwar (Dangal)
• Aishwarya Rai (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
Fairly easy choice, and not surprised to see Shabana Azmi win at every award show (atleast our awards are right in some category). That climax speech by Shabana where she is trying to balance her emotions at feeling proud of her daughter and missing her at same time, was alone enough to make Shabana top this category. I didn't see Kirti Kulhari to be the one I would talk of more from Pink, with Tapsee Pannu as main lead, but she was so good in almost all her dialogue scenes, specially those 2 scenes, one where she on phone changes from soft compromising tone to angry go to hell tone with Rajveer, and the courtroom scene where she ends up getting frustrated and accepting they took money. Sakshi Tanwar despite having very few dialogues in movie, you could just see her emote through her eyes all the time, and to be able to be so noticeable in a Aamir Khan movie, just tells about her performance. Aishwarya Rai, looked damn gorgerous and for a change didn't ham like her last 2 movies, for me this is her comeback movie. The scene where she tells Ayan, that its in our own hands when to end or go away from love, was her best moment from film. Yashaswini Dayama misses out in my list, she was very sweet in her friendly act of Phobia, that included a scene where her tshirt said 'bhoot raja bahar aaja'.
Best Actor in a Comic Role : Rishi Kapoor (Kapoor & Sons)
• Varun Dhawan (Dishoom)
• Akshay Kumar (Housefull 3)
• Lisa Haydon (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Piyush Mishra (Happy Bhag Jayegi)
Rishi Kapoor was hilarious throughout the movie, but the irony is his most funny scene, the one in trailer where he asks the guy if he doesn't have a mother, that laugh out loud moment didn't make me laugh at all, and kudos to Shakun for that, tension of movie is so high that a great comedy scene makes no impact. Special mention to the opening 'marne ki acting' act he does. Varun Dhawan I feel is getting typecasted in doing non-stop comedies, but then as long as he is making you laugh during the movie, you can't really complain much. Lisa Haydon's 'vaatavaran' is already a regular used word for people now. And Piyush Mishra's imaginary world where he wants plenty of well known Indian personalities to be Pakistani made for a great laugh.
Best Actor in a Negative Role : Jim Sarbh (Neerja)
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Raman Raghav 2)
• Manav Vij (Udta Punjab)
• Tahir Raj Bhasin (Force 2)
• Akshay Khanna (Dishoom)
Playing the terrorist Khaleel, Jim Sarbh was very menacing and uncontrollable for most part in the hijacked plane. Love the scene where he feels frustrated at following orders from his head as he believes other way out. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is powerful and very creepy in his act, watch out scene where he is making chicken dish while having his sister's family trapped in their own home. Tahir Raj Bhasin was good but it was such a dejavu of Mardani act, hopefully he would not make it a hat-trick of similar roles. And good to see Akshay Khanna in a movie, he had less screen-time sadly but was very impressive in it.
Best Music : Pritam Chakraborty (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Amit Trivedi (Fitoor)
• Pritam Chakraborty (Dangal)
• Clinton Cerejo (Te3n)
• Armaan Malik (Ms Dhoni The Untold Story)
Already written on them, here
Best Lyricist : Amitabh Bhattacharya, channa mereya (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Amitabh Bhattacharya, haanikarak bapu (Dangal)
• Manoj Muntashir, besabriyaan (Ms Dhoni The Untold Story)
• Irshad Kamil, jag ghoomeya (Sultan)
• Sayeed Qadri, ji huzoori (Ki & Ka)
Was tough to choose between Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Dangal, but in both cases it was Amitabh Bhattacharya's lyrics. Channa Mereya may not be my fav song like it is for most people but I did love the lyrics. Specially like the line 'dil ke sandukoon mein, mere acche kaam rakhna'. While Haanikarak Bapu had some hilarious lyrics. Manoj's lyrics in Besabriyaan were quite motivational. Irshad Kamil delivers yet again in a romantic track, while Sayeed Qadri made Ji huzoori a lot more special with his lyrics. I love Dangal title track lyrics, but it misses out in my list.
Best Playback Singer Male : Arijit Singh, ae dil hai mushkil (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Amit Mishra, bulleya (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Armaan Malik, bol do na zara (Azhar)
• Daler Mehndi, dangal (Dangal)
• Arijit Singh, salamat (Sarbjit)
The day I heard only small portion of the song in 1st teaser of the film, I knew I would love this song and probably have Arijit as my winner in this category. Along with a great composition and good lyrics, its Arijit vocals that brings additional pain to this track. Amit Mishra really excels in Bulleya, specially the high pitch part. Even though I like the composition, but if it was any other singer I won't have loved Bol do na zara as much as I did due to Armaan Malik, his voice suits soft romantic numbers to the core. Whether he shows the consistency of Sonu nigam/Kay Kay or not, remains to be seen.
Best Playback Singer Female : Palak Muchhal, kaun tujhe (MS Dhoni The Untold Story)
• Sona Mohapatra, qatl e aam (Raman Raghav 2)
• Sunidhi Chauhan, just go to hell dil (Dear Zindagi)
• Neha Bhasin, jag ghoomeya (Sultan)
• Jonita Gandhi, gilehriyaan (Dangal)
One of the rare categories, where I feel every single nominee deserves to be a winner. Palak Mucchal I choose in the end, for her vocals in Kaun Tujhe made you feel for the deep love the girl has for the guy. Sona Mohapatra voice brings calmness to an otherwise very mad track. Neha Bhasin voice gives that freshness which male version missed. And Jonita Gandhi who was singer of the year for her numerous great songs, with Gilehriyaan being one of them. Kanika Kapoor had to miss out, despite the fact that Da Da Dasse was best song of her career.
Best Debut Male : Jim Sarbh (Neerja)
• Diljit Dosanjh (Udta Punjab)
• Aparshakti Khurrana (Dangal)
• Aditya Seal (Tum Bin 2)
• Harshvardhan Kapoor (Mirzya)
Jim Sarbh was a straightforward choice here, his villaneious act in Neerja as a debut was exceptional, look forward to see him in Raabta next. Diljit Dosanjh was one of few things that I had loved about Udta Punjab. While Aditya Seal performance was the only good aspect about Tum Bin2. And sorry Harshvardhan Kapoor, only reason I had to include you in my list was, I couldn't find any other decent debut performances I had seen in the year.
Best Debut Female : Disha Patani (MS Dhoni The Untold Story)
• Fatima Sana Sheikh (Dangal)
• Shriya Pilgaonkar (Fan)
• Yashaswini R Dayama (Phobia & Dear Zindagi)
• Sobhita Dhulipala (Raman Raghav 2)
Disha Patani completely fitted the character of a innocent girl fallen in love with a new upcoming Indian cricketer on the rise. Hard to say if she would be able to pull off tough roles, but very much satisfied with her performance here. Fatima Sana Sheikh was able to give complete takkar to Aamir Khan in Dangal, be it her rebel act while being at the camp and then that standout akhaada scene with Mahavir. Shriya Pilgaonkar had a small role, but was able to leave a mark with her good performance, I specially love the way she silently reacts to Gaurav's mad obsession of Aryan as if telling how stupid this person is. Yashashwini R Dayama is so cute, and both her roles had her in friendly supporting characters, would be nice to see her in a different role next. Sobhita Dhulipala was able to give a good performance despite a character that was very weakly written. Special Mention to Manini Chadha who was quite likeable in Kahaani2.
Best Debut Director : Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari (Nil Battey Sannata)
• Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury (Pink)
Kind of wierd, but I could find only 2 eligible nominees. Ashwiny Iyer direction was terrific in a movie where she never went into melodrama territory and made sure the mood of film is mostly lighthearted. While Aniruddha Roy was also almost as good, only complaint I had was with 2nd half where the court-room drama could had been more serious with less of the entertaining bits even though it still worked mostly.
Best Story : Maneesh Sharma (Fan)
• Pawan Kripalani, Arun Sukumar, Pooja Ladha Surti (Phobia)
• Nitesh Tiwari (Nil Battey Sannata)
• Krishna Hariharan, Gauri Shinde, Kausar Munir (Dear Zindagi)
• Karan Johar (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
The film may not have worked for me, due to that messy 2nd half. But story of fan was always exciting one, me being a firm believer of worshipping an actor is plain stupid activity, and then to see a film story based on a ardent fan who worships a particular actor and can go to any extent for him. When that obsession turns into hatred, what would such a fan do, oh wish they had explored this concept, or I hope someone else in future does it. While Phobia had an interesting concept too, a real life incident forcing this girl to have a phobia where she can't step out of her house, not even open door when bill rings. And in this case, it was executed pretty well too.
Best Scene : End part of Cutiepie song to the pre Channa Mereya song (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Geeta gets into a wrestling fight with her father Mahavir in akhaada (Dangal)
• Long conversation between Aryan and Gaurav at police station where Gaurav tells Aryan that without him, Aryan is nothing (Fan)
• Professor Siras having alcohol alone at his home at night while listening to classic 'aapki nazron ne samjha' and humming it (Aligarh)
• MS Dhoni waiting at platform and takes train back to Ranchi (MS Dhoni The Untold Story)
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil's scene is not just best of 2017, but among my all time fav scenes. To see Ayan faking happiness at Alizeh wedding, then the 'Ayan weds Alizeh' mirror scene followed by how he keeps looking at Alizeh in wedding dress, admiring her and soon the thought strikes that she is about to be someone's else and becomes heartbroken. Simply outstanding entire sequence! Dangal's scene where Geeta lets her childhood anger out while fighting with Mahavir in akhaada, where her father is angry too at her current behavior, makes for a hard tough fight viewing.
Best Jodi : Ranbir-Anushka (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Krrish-Hetal (Dhanak)
• Shahrukh-Alia (Dear Zindagi)
• Naseeruddin-Kalki (Waiting)
• Manoj-Rajkumar (Aligarh)
Was a straightforward choice for me, Ranbir-Anushka pairing may not have worked well in Bombay Velvet but in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, right from that first disco/pub scene, their chemistry was too good. I think people who didn't like the film (find those ppl wierd) would also agree as how brilliant they were, almost close to the level Ranbir-Deepika have while working together. Krrish-Hetal were hilarious, and sweet playing brother-sister where sister is shahrukh fan and brother is salman fan creating some great laughing moments. Unusual pairing but Shahrukh-Alia clicked mostly because they both played their age very well.
Best Trailer : Fitoor
• Dangal
• Raees
• Fan
• Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Fitoor may have failed as a film, but it didn't in music and same the case here with trailer. I had loved the trailer, kept watching it on loop for many weeks. And even now when I have disliked the film, the trailer still looks so beautiful and romantic minus 'doodh maangoge' line. What a irony, best trailer isn't even available on youtube, makers of film deleted it, who knows if they intentionally did it. Dangal is close second, that created craze for Aamir's words regarding silver medal, Geeta and Babita's wrestling scenes looking good, and Daler Mehndi's inspirational title track. Gladly, the film lived upto the trailer's hype. Not the case though with Raees, the trailer was so fucking good, everyone including me felt its the best masala movie Shahrukh is doing since ages, all the dialoguebaazi, the angry avatar, laila item song of Sunny Leone and Nawazuddin as cop to counter Raees at every step, it was a trailer meant to be loved. Raman Raghav 2 and MS Dhoni The Untold Story miss my list, and Special mention to Kapoor & Sons, whose trailer I didn't like at all when it came, but now that I love the film, its trailer is kinda of appealing.
Best Screenplay : Saiwyn Quadras (Neerja)
• Shakun Batra, Ayesha Devitre (Kapoor & Sons)
• Nikhil Mehrotra, Shreyas Jain, Piyush Gupta, Nitesh Tiwari (Dangal)
• Ritesh Shah (Pink)
• Sujoy Ghosh (Kahaani 2)
Was a close one between Neerja and Kapoor & Sons. Neerja had slighty more gripping screenplay, keeps you engaged with the story directly focussing on night before the plane hack happens, all the emotional bonding Neerja has with her family and a guy who has feelings for her. And the simultaneous, planning of hijackers that is going on. Also, glad the past life of Neerja is shown in small flashbacks and serving a good purpose in taking the story forward. While Kapoor & Sons very well explored the dysfunctional punjabi family, and all the drama, fights and love they go through.
Best Dialogue : Ritesh Shah (Pink)
• Sudip Sharma (Udta Punjab)
• Nikhil Mehrotra, Shreyas Jain, Piyush Gupta, Nitesh Tiwari (Dangal)
• Karan Johar, Niranjan Iyengar (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Pranjal Choudhary, Neeraj Singh, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Nitesh Tiwari (Nil Battey Sannata)
Loved most of the dialogues in Pink, be it regular conversations, or the ones Amitabh gets in court-room scenes which just about manages to not have a preachy feel. Udta Punjab was able to make the already good setting of a city getting addicted to drugs look more authentic with the dialogues, and as I said in one of my blogpost, despite not loving the film, in technical department it was really good.
Best Editing : Monisha R Baldawa (Neerja)
• Shivkumar V Panicker (Kapoor & Sons)
• Namrata Rao (Kahaani 2)
• Meghna Manchanda Sen (Udta Punjab)
• Bodhaditya Banerjee (Pink)
Neerja had excellent editing, and wins from rest nominees very comfortably. Its not just the parallel cuts used at start with Neerja happily enjoying party at home against the terrorists going through final preparation on other hand. But the way a balloon burst is cut to bomb packing by terrorist. No idea if it was done intentionally during shooting or entirely edit table work. Monisha kept pace and rhthym of narration intact, I don't think a single scene felt unrequired or too long, some may argue if 'Maa' track was needed but it gives a nice feel to the already shown flashback and the tough situation in front. Kapoor & Sons is at no.2 alone for that special scene, where 3-4 parallel cuts are done, one is Tia telling Arjun about her parent incident, 2nd is Rahul finding truth about his dad, 3rd is Rahul's mom finding truth about her son. And once these 3 revealations end, we get 4th one involving truth about Rahul getting favour from her mom for a novel betraying Arjun. That entire parallel cutting was so on par with the way Nolan's editor usually cuts scenes in his films, like that interstellar sequence that begins with Matt Damon revealing his real identity. Or the famous Inception one where all dream levels from Limbo to present are one by one shown. Also, in those Nolan films and here in Kapoor & Sons case, another common thing is the use of great bg that enhances the drama even further.
Best Choreography : Bosco-Caesar, kaala chashma (Baar Baar Dekho)
• Vishnu Deva, tung lak (Sarbjit)
• Vaibhavi Merchant, jabra fan (Fan)
• Adil Shaikh, kar gayi chull (Kapoor & Sons)
• Farah khan, baby ko bass pasand hai (Sultan)
To be honest, none of these 5 nominees are worth of winning but thats how last year was in this category. Choreographers need to come up with lot better work in 2017 for sure. Among these five, Bosco-Caesar was more likeable in Kaala Chashma. Tung Lak had nice punjabi steps, and Jabra fan also gave some funny fanatic steps on which Shahrukh danced.
Best Background Score : Sameer Uddin (Kapoor & Sons)
• Vishal Khurana (Neerja)
• Pritam Chakraborty (Dangal)
• Julius Packiam (Sultan)
• Mithoon (Shivaay)
Bg of Kapoor & Sons was very good throughout the movie, be it the humming version of Bolna (which I prefer more than the song) or the immense dramatic moments in 2nd half. Neerja's bg was great in a sense that usually suffering movies or where the people's life are in danger every second, in such movies often bg is used to manipulate emotions but not so here. One particular bg in Shivaay was really awesome, pity it was used way too often in the film thereby reducing the impact.
Best Cinematography : Aseem Bajaj (Shivaay)
• Anay Goswami (Fitoor)
• Priya Seth (Airlift)
• Pawel Dyllus (Mirzya)
• Mitesh Mirchandani (Neerja)
Shivaay had great eye-catching cinematography, wish the movie was as good too. Same applies for Fitoor and Mirzya which were really well shot. Specially loved how beautiful Kashmir looked in Fitoor, almost making it as one of character of movie, and had a song on it too 'agar jannat hai kahin toh yahin pe hai hami asto'.
Best Action : Peter Fernandes, Junaid Sheikh (Shivaay)
• Suniel Rodrigues, Kecha Kammpakdee (Rocky Handsome)
• Sham Kaushal (Dangal)
• Kecha Kammpakdee, Javed Eijaz (Baaghi)
• Franz Spilhaus, Allan Amin (Force 2)
Totally loved action sequences in Shivaay, and the special thing was the way it was shot and cut. Be it the car chasing one or mountain one (that resembles slightly with Baahubali1). Rocky Handsome action sequences reminded me lot of John Wick, fast and hand to hand combat mostly, alas the story and performances weren't on the same level.
Best Art Direction : Aparna Sud, Anna Ipe (Neerja)
• Gautam S Mondal (Kapoor & Sons)
• Rupam Paul (Udta Punjab)
• Subrata Barik, Kaushik Das (Kahaani 2)
• Tiya Tejpal (Raman Raghav2)
Neerja's art direction was great for the way they constructed the entire panem aircraft making it look real as most of the movie takes place there only.
Best Costumes : Manish Malhotra, Anaita Shroff, Samidha Wangnoo (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Niharika Bhasin, Manish Malhotra, Sanam Ratansi, Anaita Shroff, Akshay Tyagi (Fitoor)
• Arjun Bhasin (Baar Baar Dekho)
• Natascha Charak, Nikita Mohanty, Archana Walavalkar (Kapoor & Sons)
• Sheetal Sharma (Airlift)
Totally adored the costumes in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, specially the ones for Anushka, yellow costume during trip scene plan and red costume during breakup song. Katrina looked gorgeous in the red outfit in Fitoor, and Aditya Roy Kapoor also never looked as great in previous movies. Baar Baar Dekho was actually the only movie where every next scene I waited to see their costumes more than where the boring story is leading to.
Child Actors
• Suhani Bhatnagar, Zaira Wasim, Ritvik Sahore (Dangal)
• Krrish Chhabria, Hetal Gada (Dhanak)
• Ria Shukla (Nil Battey Sannata)
• Zeeshan (MS Dhoni The Untold Story)
Dangal child actors actually were the best part of the film for their cuteness 'teekha thoda kam hai papa' or their hilarious anger, and the frustration they show at their dad's stubborn behavior. In terms of akhaada wrestling scenes, Zaira Wasim looked far better though. While Krrish and Hetal shared a brilliant chemistry as bro-sister in Dhanak who rightly had unique varying celeb idols, Shahrukh and Salman, hence making a case for some funny sequences, and apart from that also, they make you love them in entire movie with their acting. Fine acting by Ria Shukla, though the way her character is, you tend to dislike her in some parts of the movie. Zeeshan very much like Sushant has ditto mannerisms like Dhoni, specially the face expression while wicketkeeping.
Neerja and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil snatching wins in 7 categories each. With Ae Dil almost sweeping Music section with exception of Female playback singer. While Kapoor & Sons and Ms Dhoni The Untold Story with 4 and 3 wins respectively.
Presenting the winners along with the list of nominees in each category. Just a reminder, its entirely my personal opinion based list.
Best Actor Male : Sushant Singh Rajput (Ms Dhoni The Untold Story)
• Aamir Khan (Dangal)
• Manoj Bajpai (Aligarh)
• Randeep Hooda (Sarbjit)
• Ranbir Kapoor (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
Not just for the brilliant mannerisms that totally resembled Dhoni, its the way Sushant handles the 1st half that deals with initial struggle of Dhoni while trying to get selected for Indian team that made me love his performance. Plus, I have loved Sushant's performance in every film he has done till date. Aamir Khan sadly comes 2nd, despite a strong performance in Dangal. While Manoj and Randeep are almost equal 3rd for me, and its a surprise that Randeep performance was hardly given due at any award shows which it deserved and I say that having not loved Sarbjit. Best actor nominee list is always incomplete without Ranbir, too good a actor to leave out. While Akshay Kumar just missed out for his good performance in Airlift (not Rustom, dear National awards). And Amitabh Bachchan has been highly over-rated at award shows for his performance in Pink, not worthy of top5 at all, I would instead prefer his Te3n act.
Best Actor Female : Anushka Sharma (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Radhika Apte (Phobia)
• Alia Bhatt (Dear Zindagi)
• Vidya Balan (Kahaani 2)
• Sonam Kapoor (Neerja)
Will come as a surprise for many, but I totally loved Anushka in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and I had tweeted too that its her 3rd best career performance since Band Baaja Baraat and NH10. There's just too much in her 'Alizeh' character, the kind of filminess, romantic, emotional, friendly, sarcastic, rude but still a lovable girl. And Minus the bald look though, only not likeable aspect of her in film. Radhika Apte was easy choice at 2nd, she was wonderfully awesome in Phobia portraying the terror she goes through as if trapped inside a room. I didn't love the character of Alia in Dear Zindagi but her performance was too good to ignore. And Sonam had to be there in list, afterall its rare when you see Sonam act, which she did in Neerja. Unfortunately, Swara Bhaskar misses out, she was awesome in Nil Battey Sannata.
Best Director : Ram Madhvani (Neerja)
• Shakun Batra (Kapoor & Sons)
• Hansal Mehta (Aligarh)
• Nitish Tiwari (Dangal)
• Karan Johar (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
It has to be some excellent direction if you get to see Sonam perform so well in acting department, Ram Madhvani uses drama and emotions very well along with the bravery act of character Neerja. Shakun Batra gave glimpse of how subtle he can be in the rom-com 'Ek main aur ekk tu', and with Kapoor & Sons, he lives upto the expectations, a film that shows a dysfunctional family, that finds it tough to be happy together. Any other director would had made it very over the top melodrama, but Shakun keeps it so subtle that at times you feel he should had kept atleast one complete breakdown scene in movie, but I am still happy without it. Nitish Tiwari got named as new Raju Hirani for a commercial entertainer movie that gives a message, would be interesting to see his work in next movie now. Meanwhile, Karan Johar gave his career's best and most matured movie, beating his last best 'Kabhi Alvida na Kehna'.
Best Film : Kapoor & Sons
• Dangal
• Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
• Neerja
• Pink
Already written on them, here
Best Supporting Actor Male : Fawad Khan (Kapoor & Sons)
• Rajat Kapoor (Kapoor & Sons)
• Rajkumar Rao (Aligarh)
• Shahrukh Khan (Dear Zindagi)
• Kumud Mishra (Airlift)
I won't go into the debate of whether Fawad should be in supporting or lead category, I loved his act in the film and thereby he wins in this category. Sadly, the political angle of our country means, we will miss him in future a lot. Rajat Kapoor was equally convincing in his performance, always been a great actor. To see Shahrukh in supporting category is in a way pleasant surprise, that means he is trying something different and it is working in terms of his performances atleast even if the films are not upto the mark. Kumud had a big role to play in Airlift even if with less screen time, think of it how the mission would had failed miserably if he didn't try to convince people at his side to help the Indians in Kuwait. Rajesh Sharma and Pankaj Tripathi were so lovable in MS Dhoni The Untold Story and Nil Battey Sannata respectively, unfortunately couldn't make to my top5.
Best Supporting Actor Female : Shabana Azmi (Neerja)
• Kirti Kulhari (Pink)
• Ratna Pathak Shah (Kapoor & Sons)
• Sakshi Tanwar (Dangal)
• Aishwarya Rai (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
Fairly easy choice, and not surprised to see Shabana Azmi win at every award show (atleast our awards are right in some category). That climax speech by Shabana where she is trying to balance her emotions at feeling proud of her daughter and missing her at same time, was alone enough to make Shabana top this category. I didn't see Kirti Kulhari to be the one I would talk of more from Pink, with Tapsee Pannu as main lead, but she was so good in almost all her dialogue scenes, specially those 2 scenes, one where she on phone changes from soft compromising tone to angry go to hell tone with Rajveer, and the courtroom scene where she ends up getting frustrated and accepting they took money. Sakshi Tanwar despite having very few dialogues in movie, you could just see her emote through her eyes all the time, and to be able to be so noticeable in a Aamir Khan movie, just tells about her performance. Aishwarya Rai, looked damn gorgerous and for a change didn't ham like her last 2 movies, for me this is her comeback movie. The scene where she tells Ayan, that its in our own hands when to end or go away from love, was her best moment from film. Yashaswini Dayama misses out in my list, she was very sweet in her friendly act of Phobia, that included a scene where her tshirt said 'bhoot raja bahar aaja'.
Best Actor in a Comic Role : Rishi Kapoor (Kapoor & Sons)
• Varun Dhawan (Dishoom)
• Akshay Kumar (Housefull 3)
• Lisa Haydon (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Piyush Mishra (Happy Bhag Jayegi)
Rishi Kapoor was hilarious throughout the movie, but the irony is his most funny scene, the one in trailer where he asks the guy if he doesn't have a mother, that laugh out loud moment didn't make me laugh at all, and kudos to Shakun for that, tension of movie is so high that a great comedy scene makes no impact. Special mention to the opening 'marne ki acting' act he does. Varun Dhawan I feel is getting typecasted in doing non-stop comedies, but then as long as he is making you laugh during the movie, you can't really complain much. Lisa Haydon's 'vaatavaran' is already a regular used word for people now. And Piyush Mishra's imaginary world where he wants plenty of well known Indian personalities to be Pakistani made for a great laugh.
Best Actor in a Negative Role : Jim Sarbh (Neerja)
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Raman Raghav 2)
• Manav Vij (Udta Punjab)
• Tahir Raj Bhasin (Force 2)
• Akshay Khanna (Dishoom)
Playing the terrorist Khaleel, Jim Sarbh was very menacing and uncontrollable for most part in the hijacked plane. Love the scene where he feels frustrated at following orders from his head as he believes other way out. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is powerful and very creepy in his act, watch out scene where he is making chicken dish while having his sister's family trapped in their own home. Tahir Raj Bhasin was good but it was such a dejavu of Mardani act, hopefully he would not make it a hat-trick of similar roles. And good to see Akshay Khanna in a movie, he had less screen-time sadly but was very impressive in it.
Best Music : Pritam Chakraborty (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Amit Trivedi (Fitoor)
• Pritam Chakraborty (Dangal)
• Clinton Cerejo (Te3n)
• Armaan Malik (Ms Dhoni The Untold Story)
Already written on them, here
Best Lyricist : Amitabh Bhattacharya, channa mereya (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Amitabh Bhattacharya, haanikarak bapu (Dangal)
• Manoj Muntashir, besabriyaan (Ms Dhoni The Untold Story)
• Irshad Kamil, jag ghoomeya (Sultan)
• Sayeed Qadri, ji huzoori (Ki & Ka)
Was tough to choose between Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Dangal, but in both cases it was Amitabh Bhattacharya's lyrics. Channa Mereya may not be my fav song like it is for most people but I did love the lyrics. Specially like the line 'dil ke sandukoon mein, mere acche kaam rakhna'. While Haanikarak Bapu had some hilarious lyrics. Manoj's lyrics in Besabriyaan were quite motivational. Irshad Kamil delivers yet again in a romantic track, while Sayeed Qadri made Ji huzoori a lot more special with his lyrics. I love Dangal title track lyrics, but it misses out in my list.
Best Playback Singer Male : Arijit Singh, ae dil hai mushkil (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Amit Mishra, bulleya (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Armaan Malik, bol do na zara (Azhar)
• Daler Mehndi, dangal (Dangal)
• Arijit Singh, salamat (Sarbjit)
The day I heard only small portion of the song in 1st teaser of the film, I knew I would love this song and probably have Arijit as my winner in this category. Along with a great composition and good lyrics, its Arijit vocals that brings additional pain to this track. Amit Mishra really excels in Bulleya, specially the high pitch part. Even though I like the composition, but if it was any other singer I won't have loved Bol do na zara as much as I did due to Armaan Malik, his voice suits soft romantic numbers to the core. Whether he shows the consistency of Sonu nigam/Kay Kay or not, remains to be seen.
Best Playback Singer Female : Palak Muchhal, kaun tujhe (MS Dhoni The Untold Story)
• Sona Mohapatra, qatl e aam (Raman Raghav 2)
• Sunidhi Chauhan, just go to hell dil (Dear Zindagi)
• Neha Bhasin, jag ghoomeya (Sultan)
• Jonita Gandhi, gilehriyaan (Dangal)
One of the rare categories, where I feel every single nominee deserves to be a winner. Palak Mucchal I choose in the end, for her vocals in Kaun Tujhe made you feel for the deep love the girl has for the guy. Sona Mohapatra voice brings calmness to an otherwise very mad track. Neha Bhasin voice gives that freshness which male version missed. And Jonita Gandhi who was singer of the year for her numerous great songs, with Gilehriyaan being one of them. Kanika Kapoor had to miss out, despite the fact that Da Da Dasse was best song of her career.
Best Debut Male : Jim Sarbh (Neerja)
• Diljit Dosanjh (Udta Punjab)
• Aparshakti Khurrana (Dangal)
• Aditya Seal (Tum Bin 2)
• Harshvardhan Kapoor (Mirzya)
Jim Sarbh was a straightforward choice here, his villaneious act in Neerja as a debut was exceptional, look forward to see him in Raabta next. Diljit Dosanjh was one of few things that I had loved about Udta Punjab. While Aditya Seal performance was the only good aspect about Tum Bin2. And sorry Harshvardhan Kapoor, only reason I had to include you in my list was, I couldn't find any other decent debut performances I had seen in the year.
Best Debut Female : Disha Patani (MS Dhoni The Untold Story)
• Fatima Sana Sheikh (Dangal)
• Shriya Pilgaonkar (Fan)
• Yashaswini R Dayama (Phobia & Dear Zindagi)
• Sobhita Dhulipala (Raman Raghav 2)
Disha Patani completely fitted the character of a innocent girl fallen in love with a new upcoming Indian cricketer on the rise. Hard to say if she would be able to pull off tough roles, but very much satisfied with her performance here. Fatima Sana Sheikh was able to give complete takkar to Aamir Khan in Dangal, be it her rebel act while being at the camp and then that standout akhaada scene with Mahavir. Shriya Pilgaonkar had a small role, but was able to leave a mark with her good performance, I specially love the way she silently reacts to Gaurav's mad obsession of Aryan as if telling how stupid this person is. Yashashwini R Dayama is so cute, and both her roles had her in friendly supporting characters, would be nice to see her in a different role next. Sobhita Dhulipala was able to give a good performance despite a character that was very weakly written. Special Mention to Manini Chadha who was quite likeable in Kahaani2.
Best Debut Director : Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari (Nil Battey Sannata)
• Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury (Pink)
Kind of wierd, but I could find only 2 eligible nominees. Ashwiny Iyer direction was terrific in a movie where she never went into melodrama territory and made sure the mood of film is mostly lighthearted. While Aniruddha Roy was also almost as good, only complaint I had was with 2nd half where the court-room drama could had been more serious with less of the entertaining bits even though it still worked mostly.
Best Story : Maneesh Sharma (Fan)
• Pawan Kripalani, Arun Sukumar, Pooja Ladha Surti (Phobia)
• Nitesh Tiwari (Nil Battey Sannata)
• Krishna Hariharan, Gauri Shinde, Kausar Munir (Dear Zindagi)
• Karan Johar (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
The film may not have worked for me, due to that messy 2nd half. But story of fan was always exciting one, me being a firm believer of worshipping an actor is plain stupid activity, and then to see a film story based on a ardent fan who worships a particular actor and can go to any extent for him. When that obsession turns into hatred, what would such a fan do, oh wish they had explored this concept, or I hope someone else in future does it. While Phobia had an interesting concept too, a real life incident forcing this girl to have a phobia where she can't step out of her house, not even open door when bill rings. And in this case, it was executed pretty well too.
Best Scene : End part of Cutiepie song to the pre Channa Mereya song (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Geeta gets into a wrestling fight with her father Mahavir in akhaada (Dangal)
• Long conversation between Aryan and Gaurav at police station where Gaurav tells Aryan that without him, Aryan is nothing (Fan)
• Professor Siras having alcohol alone at his home at night while listening to classic 'aapki nazron ne samjha' and humming it (Aligarh)
• MS Dhoni waiting at platform and takes train back to Ranchi (MS Dhoni The Untold Story)
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil's scene is not just best of 2017, but among my all time fav scenes. To see Ayan faking happiness at Alizeh wedding, then the 'Ayan weds Alizeh' mirror scene followed by how he keeps looking at Alizeh in wedding dress, admiring her and soon the thought strikes that she is about to be someone's else and becomes heartbroken. Simply outstanding entire sequence! Dangal's scene where Geeta lets her childhood anger out while fighting with Mahavir in akhaada, where her father is angry too at her current behavior, makes for a hard tough fight viewing.
Best Jodi : Ranbir-Anushka (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Krrish-Hetal (Dhanak)
• Shahrukh-Alia (Dear Zindagi)
• Naseeruddin-Kalki (Waiting)
• Manoj-Rajkumar (Aligarh)
Was a straightforward choice for me, Ranbir-Anushka pairing may not have worked well in Bombay Velvet but in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, right from that first disco/pub scene, their chemistry was too good. I think people who didn't like the film (find those ppl wierd) would also agree as how brilliant they were, almost close to the level Ranbir-Deepika have while working together. Krrish-Hetal were hilarious, and sweet playing brother-sister where sister is shahrukh fan and brother is salman fan creating some great laughing moments. Unusual pairing but Shahrukh-Alia clicked mostly because they both played their age very well.
Best Trailer : Fitoor
• Dangal
• Raees
• Fan
• Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Fitoor may have failed as a film, but it didn't in music and same the case here with trailer. I had loved the trailer, kept watching it on loop for many weeks. And even now when I have disliked the film, the trailer still looks so beautiful and romantic minus 'doodh maangoge' line. What a irony, best trailer isn't even available on youtube, makers of film deleted it, who knows if they intentionally did it. Dangal is close second, that created craze for Aamir's words regarding silver medal, Geeta and Babita's wrestling scenes looking good, and Daler Mehndi's inspirational title track. Gladly, the film lived upto the trailer's hype. Not the case though with Raees, the trailer was so fucking good, everyone including me felt its the best masala movie Shahrukh is doing since ages, all the dialoguebaazi, the angry avatar, laila item song of Sunny Leone and Nawazuddin as cop to counter Raees at every step, it was a trailer meant to be loved. Raman Raghav 2 and MS Dhoni The Untold Story miss my list, and Special mention to Kapoor & Sons, whose trailer I didn't like at all when it came, but now that I love the film, its trailer is kinda of appealing.
Best Screenplay : Saiwyn Quadras (Neerja)
• Shakun Batra, Ayesha Devitre (Kapoor & Sons)
• Nikhil Mehrotra, Shreyas Jain, Piyush Gupta, Nitesh Tiwari (Dangal)
• Ritesh Shah (Pink)
• Sujoy Ghosh (Kahaani 2)
Was a close one between Neerja and Kapoor & Sons. Neerja had slighty more gripping screenplay, keeps you engaged with the story directly focussing on night before the plane hack happens, all the emotional bonding Neerja has with her family and a guy who has feelings for her. And the simultaneous, planning of hijackers that is going on. Also, glad the past life of Neerja is shown in small flashbacks and serving a good purpose in taking the story forward. While Kapoor & Sons very well explored the dysfunctional punjabi family, and all the drama, fights and love they go through.
Best Dialogue : Ritesh Shah (Pink)
• Sudip Sharma (Udta Punjab)
• Nikhil Mehrotra, Shreyas Jain, Piyush Gupta, Nitesh Tiwari (Dangal)
• Karan Johar, Niranjan Iyengar (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Pranjal Choudhary, Neeraj Singh, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Nitesh Tiwari (Nil Battey Sannata)
Loved most of the dialogues in Pink, be it regular conversations, or the ones Amitabh gets in court-room scenes which just about manages to not have a preachy feel. Udta Punjab was able to make the already good setting of a city getting addicted to drugs look more authentic with the dialogues, and as I said in one of my blogpost, despite not loving the film, in technical department it was really good.
Best Editing : Monisha R Baldawa (Neerja)
• Shivkumar V Panicker (Kapoor & Sons)
• Namrata Rao (Kahaani 2)
• Meghna Manchanda Sen (Udta Punjab)
• Bodhaditya Banerjee (Pink)
Neerja had excellent editing, and wins from rest nominees very comfortably. Its not just the parallel cuts used at start with Neerja happily enjoying party at home against the terrorists going through final preparation on other hand. But the way a balloon burst is cut to bomb packing by terrorist. No idea if it was done intentionally during shooting or entirely edit table work. Monisha kept pace and rhthym of narration intact, I don't think a single scene felt unrequired or too long, some may argue if 'Maa' track was needed but it gives a nice feel to the already shown flashback and the tough situation in front. Kapoor & Sons is at no.2 alone for that special scene, where 3-4 parallel cuts are done, one is Tia telling Arjun about her parent incident, 2nd is Rahul finding truth about his dad, 3rd is Rahul's mom finding truth about her son. And once these 3 revealations end, we get 4th one involving truth about Rahul getting favour from her mom for a novel betraying Arjun. That entire parallel cutting was so on par with the way Nolan's editor usually cuts scenes in his films, like that interstellar sequence that begins with Matt Damon revealing his real identity. Or the famous Inception one where all dream levels from Limbo to present are one by one shown. Also, in those Nolan films and here in Kapoor & Sons case, another common thing is the use of great bg that enhances the drama even further.
Best Choreography : Bosco-Caesar, kaala chashma (Baar Baar Dekho)
• Vishnu Deva, tung lak (Sarbjit)
• Vaibhavi Merchant, jabra fan (Fan)
• Adil Shaikh, kar gayi chull (Kapoor & Sons)
• Farah khan, baby ko bass pasand hai (Sultan)
To be honest, none of these 5 nominees are worth of winning but thats how last year was in this category. Choreographers need to come up with lot better work in 2017 for sure. Among these five, Bosco-Caesar was more likeable in Kaala Chashma. Tung Lak had nice punjabi steps, and Jabra fan also gave some funny fanatic steps on which Shahrukh danced.
Best Background Score : Sameer Uddin (Kapoor & Sons)
• Vishal Khurana (Neerja)
• Pritam Chakraborty (Dangal)
• Julius Packiam (Sultan)
• Mithoon (Shivaay)
Bg of Kapoor & Sons was very good throughout the movie, be it the humming version of Bolna (which I prefer more than the song) or the immense dramatic moments in 2nd half. Neerja's bg was great in a sense that usually suffering movies or where the people's life are in danger every second, in such movies often bg is used to manipulate emotions but not so here. One particular bg in Shivaay was really awesome, pity it was used way too often in the film thereby reducing the impact.
Best Cinematography : Aseem Bajaj (Shivaay)
• Anay Goswami (Fitoor)
• Priya Seth (Airlift)
• Pawel Dyllus (Mirzya)
• Mitesh Mirchandani (Neerja)
Shivaay had great eye-catching cinematography, wish the movie was as good too. Same applies for Fitoor and Mirzya which were really well shot. Specially loved how beautiful Kashmir looked in Fitoor, almost making it as one of character of movie, and had a song on it too 'agar jannat hai kahin toh yahin pe hai hami asto'.
Best Action : Peter Fernandes, Junaid Sheikh (Shivaay)
• Suniel Rodrigues, Kecha Kammpakdee (Rocky Handsome)
• Sham Kaushal (Dangal)
• Kecha Kammpakdee, Javed Eijaz (Baaghi)
• Franz Spilhaus, Allan Amin (Force 2)
Totally loved action sequences in Shivaay, and the special thing was the way it was shot and cut. Be it the car chasing one or mountain one (that resembles slightly with Baahubali1). Rocky Handsome action sequences reminded me lot of John Wick, fast and hand to hand combat mostly, alas the story and performances weren't on the same level.
Best Art Direction : Aparna Sud, Anna Ipe (Neerja)
• Gautam S Mondal (Kapoor & Sons)
• Rupam Paul (Udta Punjab)
• Subrata Barik, Kaushik Das (Kahaani 2)
• Tiya Tejpal (Raman Raghav2)
Neerja's art direction was great for the way they constructed the entire panem aircraft making it look real as most of the movie takes place there only.
Best Costumes : Manish Malhotra, Anaita Shroff, Samidha Wangnoo (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil)
• Niharika Bhasin, Manish Malhotra, Sanam Ratansi, Anaita Shroff, Akshay Tyagi (Fitoor)
• Arjun Bhasin (Baar Baar Dekho)
• Natascha Charak, Nikita Mohanty, Archana Walavalkar (Kapoor & Sons)
• Sheetal Sharma (Airlift)
Totally adored the costumes in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, specially the ones for Anushka, yellow costume during trip scene plan and red costume during breakup song. Katrina looked gorgeous in the red outfit in Fitoor, and Aditya Roy Kapoor also never looked as great in previous movies. Baar Baar Dekho was actually the only movie where every next scene I waited to see their costumes more than where the boring story is leading to.
Special Mention -
• Suhani Bhatnagar, Zaira Wasim, Ritvik Sahore (Dangal)
• Krrish Chhabria, Hetal Gada (Dhanak)
• Ria Shukla (Nil Battey Sannata)
• Zeeshan (MS Dhoni The Untold Story)
Dangal child actors actually were the best part of the film for their cuteness 'teekha thoda kam hai papa' or their hilarious anger, and the frustration they show at their dad's stubborn behavior. In terms of akhaada wrestling scenes, Zaira Wasim looked far better though. While Krrish and Hetal shared a brilliant chemistry as bro-sister in Dhanak who rightly had unique varying celeb idols, Shahrukh and Salman, hence making a case for some funny sequences, and apart from that also, they make you love them in entire movie with their acting. Fine acting by Ria Shukla, though the way her character is, you tend to dislike her in some parts of the movie. Zeeshan very much like Sushant has ditto mannerisms like Dhoni, specially the face expression while wicketkeeping.
0 Comments