Guns not Roses

A noteworthy trend is that each film is a progression beyond the industry’s former centrality of boy-meets-girl-and-falls-in-love. Love does lurk around,stealthily or obviously; it enthrals,possesses,kills,even dies itself,but in unpredictable ways. Delhi Belly,with the highest number of nominations (19),is a comedy-thriller,not essentially a love story,even though a love triangle plays itself out in the film. No One Killed Jessica and Shaitan also kept romance at arm’s length. In Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara,despite two of the most attractive actors of contemporary Hindi cinema — Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif — paired with each other,the film focussed on the complex yet fond relationship between three friends and their struggles with their inner demons. The lady love in Shor,interestingly,is the chaotic,multi-faceted Mumbai city. The Dirty Picture (TDP) was the only film where the man-woman relationship was explored but even that starts simmering only after the heroine has had a series of exploitative encounters. In a curious and enigmatic manner,this film gave us a fresh on-screen couple,Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi,whose on-screen chemistry is still being talked about.

These films indicate that Bollywood seems to favour compelling life stories with crime and angst over soppy romances. Four of the six nominations,with TDP and ZNMD as the only exceptions,had crime as the backdrop for storytelling.

If crime is one plot,“character” is clearly another. Actors don’t just bamboozle us with their slick looks and digitalised dances,they are multi-layered people who we want to engage with. Shor,an ensemble film,heavily relied on characters and Pitobash as Mandook and Sendhil Ramamurthy as Abhay,shone through. Hrithik Roshan’s Arjun and Farhan Akhtar as the witty Imraan kept ZNMD lively. Vidya Balan essayed two such characters this year — the ambitious yet lonely Silk in TDP and the introvert but strong Sabrina Lall in NOKJ. Rani Mukerji made a good comeback in the same film as the feisty journalist Meera Gaity. The list could go on.

For the complete list of nominations under all categories,log on to screenindia.com/screenawards2012