Bollywood round-up: 2005

The awards IMHO should go as follows:

Movie of the year - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi

Best actor - Shreyas Talpade (Iqbal)

Best actress - Chitrangada Singh (HKA)

Best supporting actor - Naseerudin Shah (Iqbal) and Nana Patekar (Bluffmaster)

Best supporting actress - Shweta Prasad (Iqbal)

Best director - Sudhir Mishra (HKA)

Best music director - Shankar Ehsaan Loy (Bunty aur Babli)

Best male singer - Sonu Nigam (Dheere Jhalna, Chup Chupke, Soona Man Ka Aaangan)

Best female singer - Shreya Ghoshal (Piya Bole, Agar Tum Mil)

Best cinematographer - Ravi K Chandran (Paheli)

Critics award

Best actor - Shiney Ahuja and KK Menon (HKA)

Best actress - Konkana Sen Sharma (Page 3)

Best director - Amol Palekar (Paheli)

Just a few more personally sponsored awards:

Torture of the year: Mangal Pandey

Could-i-get-on-ur-nerves more performance of the year: Mallika Sherawat in Bachke Rehne re baba and Arjun Rampal in Ek Ajnabee

Whats-in-a-name movie of the year: Padmashree Laloo Prasad Yadav - its rumored that Laloo really wanted to make the movie tax free and even advised schools to take the young students to an excursion for this movie as he had a guest role but thankfuly better sense prevailed in the end.

"So-we-are-supposed-to-actually-act?" couple of the year: Zayed Khan and Aishwarya Rai in Shabd

Movies to watch out in 2006

# Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna - just curious to see how more downhill can KJ go ?

# Rang De Basanti - Rakesh Mehra's next after that promising but enigmatic opener Aks

# Fanaah - Kashmir, Aamir and trying to guess 'inspirations' should make this one a fun watch

# Munnabhai meets Mahatma - will the sequel be as good as the original ?

# Sanjay Leela Bhansali's next whether it is Bajirao Mastani or Saawariya

Jungle Masti@Bhimeshwari

November 10th - An outbound trip - a mad gang of 15 - a day in the wilderness - river rafting and trekking - sleeping in hammocks listening to birds chirping - total masti

Can life get better than this ? Check out snaps below

The events of the day

Flora and Fauna

Sights for sore eyes

Loghuts and Lunch

The Hammock Heros

Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh

HE - Mithilesh Shukla
AGE: Wrong side of the thirties
HEIGHT: 157 cms
FEATURES: sadly nondescript
In short, just another face in the multitude

SHE - Veena
AGE: that magical 30 - not a day more, not a day less
HEIGHT: 165 cms
FEATURES: Strikingly simple yet enchanting
To sum up, the woman of every man's dream

So what happens when HE meets SHE, of course in the presence of a million relatives? Obviously there is no physical chemistry and quite clearly this is not LOVE-AT-FIRST-SIGHT...but still there is magic...

What happens next is that HE marries SHE and they settle down to a life of marital bliss till HE starts having these trips of guilt whether he really deserves her only for the film to end on a happy note.

What to look out for:
The brilliant Rajpal Yadav who elevates every single frame he appears in to dizzy heights

Well etched performances by Rituparna Sengupta and Kay Kay Menon and commendable support from all the supporting cast

An enjoyable first half punctuated by a witty screenplay and delightful dialogues (not to forget Naseerudin Shah's miss-not voice over)

A light hearted family entertainer

What is missing:
Pace in the second half

Verdict:
If you've had enough of watching

a. wannabe entertainers taking you through sight seeing trips of Down Under under the guise of making a comment on serious societal trends (OR)

b. lewd comedies with tonnes of skinshow

then MMPAW is just about what the doctor ordered for you. Two Thumbs up to Chandan Arora and MMPAW.