From taare zameen par to stars on stage, cinema’s finest awards fill the glittering night

That’s why it was appropriate that flames erupted on stage and leaped up to touch the evening sky at the Bandra Kurla grounds when Shah Rukh Khan, still with pony tail, danced as he only he can to ‘Dard-e-Disco.’ And seemed to best freeze frame the evening’s spirit: celebrating a Bollywood that’s embracing new voices and new stories, rendering obsolete the old faultlines between mainstream and art, mass and niche, all without making a heavy statement of it.

The glittering evening also belonged to Darsheel Safary, who so quietly lit up the screen and made it a transparent thing, as the little boy with dyslexia in Taare Zameen Par. Darsheel won the special jury award for best actor as well as for the best child actor. The evening belonged to Aamir Khan, whose directorial debut was applauded by the audience whenever it was mentioned by anyone on stage.

And if Aamir wasn’t there, it didn’t really seem to matter. His huge cut-out watched from a seat at the Taare table. Needless to say, the actor and his moving film on children with special needs walked away with several important awards. As Shatrughan Sinha, who headed the jury, put it with his trademark flamboyance that had never rung so true: the jury was proud of Aamir, wherever he was.

It was an evening when the large-heartedness of Bollywood was also on show, alongwith its glamour. As he accepted the award for best newcomer (male) for son Ranbir who was also anointed the ‘Future of Entertainment’, a natty Rishi Kapoor graciously included his “other son” in his speech — Neil Nitin Mukesh. The grandson of legendary singer Mukesh had been nominated in the same category as Ranbir for his edgy performance in the James Hadley-esque thriller Johnny Gaddar.

It was an evening when few were spared. The joke was on everyone: On the critics, who criticize all films that go on to become hits; and all those who caught host Sajid Khan’s merciless eye and many who didn’t — from Tom Cruise, who he said must be content to play second fiddle to King Khan post-OSO, to Yashraj films who he insisted was all set to launch their own awards show so that they could make their films and award them too.

Farah Khan’s spoof-cum-homage to ‘70s Bollywood dared to poke fun at even the awesomely patriotic

Manoj Kumar who provided the mellow moment of the awards night as he accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award. He hadn’t found the path he set out to look for, he said, but on the way, he had found so much more.

The star-studded event had the last year’s best, Taare Zameen Par, Om Shanti Om, Life in a Metro, Guru and Chak De! India, ruling the ceremony.

The mood of the evening was set by Amrita Arora and Dia Mirza who performed to a medley of hits from last year’s big hits. Energy levels shot up when Ritiesh Deshmukh made a grand entry on top of a kitsch-kooky truck, dancing to drumbeats. The star danced to Hey Babyy and Mast Qalandar even as his proud father, the chief minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, looked on.

Katrina Kaif, who has had three big hits in 2007, shimmied to a song from all of them in shiny trousers. The crowd was only too happy with the star as her hits films included Namastey London, Partner and Welcome, each with a foot-tapping score.

However, there was much more starry action in store for the audience when Shahid Kapur shook a leg to Mauja Mauja and Nagara nagara from Jab We Met. Kapur’s frenzy was only upstaged by someone who Rekha called “The man with 18-pack abs”, SRK himself.

In the audience were Karisma Kapoor, who gave away some awards to, besides Rekha, Simi Garewal, Rakesh Roshan, Subhash Ghai, Gauri Khan (the fresh fashionista wore a gelled-back hairdo), Rishi and Neetu Kapoor (they accepted two awards for best debutante, male, Ranbir), Irrfan Khan (best actor in a comic role for Metro) and Yash and Pamela Chopra.

Among other honours were Deepika Padukone for best debut, female; Amole Gupte for best dialogue and best story, A R Rahman for best background music for Guru, and best music director for the same; SRK’s Red Chillies VFX for special effects, Biswadeep Chatterjee for best sound in Eklavya, The Royal Guard, Amitabh Shukla for editing (Chak De), art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai (Gandhi, My Father) and best action for Tinnu Verma (Apne). Farah Khan, too, bagged a golden statuette for her funky choreography in OSO’s Dhum Taana.

Singing sensation Shreya Ghoshal walked away with the best female playback singer award for Barso re megha of Guru while Soham lifted the statuette for the haunting Ijazat of Metro.

Accepting the Ramnath Goenka award for best film, Parzania director Rahul Dholakia gently reminded the audience that Dara and Rupa Mody’s son, missing since the madness of 2002 from his home in Gujarat, has not yet come back home. Parzania is the story of the Modys’ search for their son.

For more, watch the awards telecast on Star Plus, January 27.