3 Idiots Best Film, Bachchan Best Actor for Paa

From the time Shahid Kapoor was unceremoniously unbundled from a white Maruti Omni that boldly rolled onto the stage at the Nokia 16th Annual Star Screen Awards at Mumbai's Bandra Kurla MMRDA complex on Saturday evening and he began lisping like Guddu from Kaminey, the celebrations had begun.
Of, as Shahid hinted, the year of the end, at last, of the Perfect Hero. Of a year in which it became cool to say "Main fa ko fa bolta hoon". 2009 was a brave year.
Though the formula kicked back sometimes, and repackaged itself in shiny and seductive ways, the year ended with the story of the imposter who gave the nation its anthem to carry into the new year: "All is well..." It was the story of the imposter, the wrong guy with his heart in the right place. Accepting one of the several awards for 3 Idiots, Rajkumar Hirani, who had earlier made the Munnabhai series, which gave us the lovable tapori who could teach the System a thing or two, dedicated it to "those teachers who teach from the heart rather than from the book". It was the movie in which we all saw, in which we all wanted to see, a bit of ourselves.
Accepting his award for best supporting actor for another film, Zoya Akhtar's Luck by Chance, Rishi Kapoor declared, "I am the original idiot of their film". The film also won the Best Ensemble Cast award.
Accepting his award for best story for Love Aaj Kal, Imtiaz Ali said, "Raju, this one has come out of your kitty to mine". Vidhu Vinod Chopra said the biggest idiot is Dev Anand, who was also there, because "he keeps making films he believes in".
"What drives you, sir?" asked Chopra. Quite simply, "Be yourself," said Anand.
2009 was the year when nominations for Best Director still didn't include a woman. But each of the five men who figured in it, were till five years ago, on the periphery of the Bollywood Big Boys Club. R Balki, Anurag Kashyap, Rajkumar Hirani, Vishal Bhardwaj and Imtiaz Ali. None of them belongs to a "film family". Each has broken the formula, taken liberties with the "mainstream" in terms of subject matter and storytelling.
Rajkumar Hirani got the award for best director for 3 Idiots, which was also judged the best film. It also picked up the award for Best Screenplay and Best Dialogue. Newcomer Omi Vaidya won the Most Promising Newcomer award and Best Actor in a Comic Role for his portrayal as Chatur Ramalingam in the film, while Boman Irani won the award in the Best Actor in a Negative Role.
This was also the year when a director made an Amitabh Bachchan film and had the temerity to declare that he had set himself the challenge of making a film in which, as he put it, the audience didn't see Amitabh Bachchan even in one frame of the film. R Balki got away with it, Paa was a success, Bollywood's Big B took second place to the child-man with a rare disease and sense of humour, Auro. Bachchan got the Best Actor award for the film. The movie, in fact, almost swept the acting categories with Vidya Balan winning the Best Actor (Female) award for her role as a beleaguered single mother, Arundhati Nag winning the Best Actor in a Supporting Role (female) award and Pratik Katare the Best Child Artiste award for the same film.
But at the awards evening, Bachchan's familiar baritone was reassuringly back. With his dialogues from his forthcoming Teen Patti, filling the air, there he was, a white suit, with a red scarf, as giant cards turned and swayed-a king of diamonds, the queen of hearts. "Jo hai who nahi hai, jo nahi hai wo ho sakta hai", he said. We believed him.
And we clapped for Shahid, when the lights dimmed for dhan te nan. In pink light, with flames leaping from stage, accompanied by gun-toting dancers in dark uniforms, he danced in army fatigues and dark glasses, right till the time he sped off the stage on a motorbike. A few minutes later, the flames leapt up from the stage, this time for Kareena. She received the Best Actress award in the popular category for 3 Idiots while Shahid got the Best Actor award in the popular category for Kaminey.
When Javed Akhtar received the Lifetime Achievement Award, it was a moment to freezeframe: He got it from Amitabh Bachchan and Yash Chopra-the three tasted success together in Zanjeer, then Deewar and so many more. "A circle has been completed today," he said.
He recalled the time when he bought Screen magazine for 25 paise. "My relationship with Screen is older than my relationship with the film industry."
Shah Rukh Khan and Shahid Kapoor conducted the show for the last segment, poking fun at each other and others, declaring themselves Jodi No 1, before announcing the award for Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan. "I am a bit worried," said Abhishek "This is my second consecutive Jodi No 1, and both times it has been with guys." Last time, he got it with John Abraham.
Then came the most magical moment in the star-spangled evening: With Amitabh showing how, Shah Rukh, Amitabh, Abhishek and Shahid danced Auro's dance in Paa.
Could Amitabh please do it, said Shah Rukh, so that he could copy him better, and Shahid said he wanted to copy the copy.
The Ram Nath Goenka Award went to Nandita Das for Firaq, beating Sikander, Gulal, Rocket Singh. The consensus was on Firaq, said The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta, because it explored with sensitivity and grace, the personal and collective guilt after Gujarat 2002. She also won the best Debut Director award.