Filmfare Awards Snub  Pink

Many believe Aniruddha Roychowdhury’s Pink to be the best Hindi film of 2016.  Not Filmfare,though.

At the Filmfare awards that were held on Saturday night Pink lost all the major awards including Best Director and Best Actor to the far more successful Dangal.

Technically Dangal belongs to 2017. It was released  during the last week of 2016 and therefore its outcome was  only evident in 2017. By honouring Dangal as a film that rightfully claimed 2016 as its own , the Filmfare awards sends out a clear and unmistakable signal that Dangal among all the high-profile sports/biographical films of 2016, including Dhoni: The Untold Story, Sala Kadoos and Sultan,  stood out.

This was a special snub to Sushant Singh Rajput whose performance as Dhoni is considered by many, including me,  to be the finest  by a male actor in 2016. By honouring Aamir Khan Filmfare awards won brownie points for not caring whether the actor being honoured  comes to get the awards function or not.

But we still don’t get it. Why were Sushant and Akshay Kumar not honoured for DhoniThe Untold Story and Airlift?

Manoj Bajpai walked away with two richly deserved awards for Aligarh and for Taandav in the newly-introduced category of awards for short films. I completely endorse his selection in the Critics’ category. But why was Shahid Kapoor given the critics’ award for  a  big commercial film like Udta Punjab?

The two categories in the mainstream and critics’ lists show no rationale or logic. How is Sonam Kapoor the critics’ choice for best actress when her film Neeraj was every bit more popular and commercially more successful than Udta Punjab for which Alia Bhattwon the best actress award in the mainstream category?

By the time we figure out the answers to these complex questions it may be time for the next awards season.