Screen Award draws Border between good & the best

On to the awards, and the Best Film Award was bagged by J P Dutta’s Border, Anil Kapoor was adjudged the Best Actor; Madhuri Dixit, the Best Actress. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Suraiya, while Aishwarya Rai and Akshay Khanna were judged the Most Promising Debutants. The competition this year was pretty intense according to Ramesh Sippy, a jury member.

Other jury members included Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Bhimsain, Khayyam, Padmini Kolhapure, Ketan Mehta, Javed Siddiqui and Kiran Shantaram.

The theme of the Screen-Videocon Awards was `Life is Laughter,’ and accordingly, some of the most eminent comedians from the annals of Hindi cinema — Jagdeep, Johnny Walker, Mehmood, Mukri, Devan Verma, Asrani, Paintal, Satish Shah and Satish Kaushik — were brought together on the stage.

The evening was enlivened with lights and dances, and there was a surprise for the younger crowd in the form of Rahul Dravid who was also present at the function. Finally, the host: the inimitable Jaaved Jaffrey, with co-host Achla Sachdev.

And now, the story unfolds. The evening begins with the march of dholaks contrasting with the lazy drift of balloons in the skies. The trophy emerges from the centre of the stage, its golden glow cutting through the haze created by the billowing fog. As the crowd cheers, the stage plunges into darkness. When the lights come back, Jaffrey has appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. On putty knees, he scampers all over the stage and proclaims that comedy is his “baap ka maal” — after all, he is the son of the famous comedian, Jagdeep. The stage plunges into darkness and a spoof on Bollywood begins. It has a unique twist to its tale — the serious acting is at complete odds with the absurdity of the situations. Here, everything goes right and so the characters desperately try and correct the `error’ — by creating complications and melodrama, in true blue fillum style. A dance troupe floats in. Dressed in a combination of hats, coats and sticks, they look like Mexican imports who had a stopover in Goa on their way to Bollywood.

In fact, all dances appear to be based on the precept that when in Bollywood, do as the Bollywoodwallas do. As the dance comes to an end, a solitary plane flies over and the lights go intense. A spotlight seeks out Jaffrey on the stage. Sachdev enters, dressed in flowing white and takes her place besides Jaffrey behind the black and gold podium. Ms Goenka enters from the back of the stage and another spotlight arches across towards her. Ramesh Sippy enters from the right; the eminence and warmth on the stage compensates for the chill in the evening air. Sachdev and Jaffrey entertain the crowd with a brief display of lawni, setting the stage for the Marathi awards, which are presented by Rohini Hattangady and Leena Chandavarkar. The glint of the trophy carries across to the last rows.

The stage darkens for the spoof and dance sequel. Jaffrey dances to the Dire Straits song, Money For Nothing. He is dressed in black, with a white wig and dark glass — darker than any `Govinda glasses’. Later Shabana Azmi and Tabu present the non-film music awards. The star parade continues as Subhash Ghai takes the audience on a poignant journey with the comedians, starting with Mehmood rising like a phoenix from the centre of the stage. Despite ill health, he has made it a point to attend the function. His entry opens the floodgates as other comedians march in and spread out on the stage. The rest of the evening whizzes by as awards intermingle with dances.

The highlight of the evening was the Ramnath Goenka Award presented by a nervous Rekha to Dilip Kumar, who also received a standing ovation for his impassioned plea to fight against the strait-jacket approach of the government. The other encore was bagged by Suraiya, who was given the Lifetime Achievement award by Sunil Dutt. “It is a dream come true,” she said, summing up the feelings of all the winners.