Zee Cine Awards 2006 - A review

Sorry folks, I know I promised a review on Zee Cine Awards 2006 the next day, but I just didn’t have the time to write a one. Better late than never!

Well, the first thing that I want to point out is that I thought the presentation, organization and the ‘fun package’ of the Zee Cine Awards 2006 was better than that of the Filmfare Awards 2006. I think the telecast too made a big difference. I liked the fact that before the actual award show got started, there was an hour of telecast of things like stars rehearsing, the stage being built, the stars arriving at the venue in heavy rain. Among many stars and star wives, I noticed a very strange person at the red carpet ceremony, Rosa, Saif Ali Khan’s Italian girlfriend. Sajid Khan, ‘humara host aur dost’ asked Rosa a question: What do you think are the chances of Saif winning in the category of best actor? And she went blank, completely red in the face, looking at Saif and mumbling what seemed like ‘umm,’ ‘I don’t know…’ and other things that I could not gather. That was a bit strange to see because she seemed nervous beyond my imagination.

The first performance was given by a bunch of what you might call, upcoming stars. These stars included Tusshar Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, Ritesh Deshmukh, Amrita Arora, Aarti Chabria and Dia Mirza. I liked their performance a lot. They danced to old songs heading towards new ones. It was nice to see Sharman Joshi fooling around on stage, especially after I’ve seen him in Rang De Basanti.

Then came “the original bad man” Gulshan Grover and along with him came his boring PJs. I really didn’t like what he was saying and I don’t think anyone else did either. Every time Grover told a ‘joke,’ the camera showed the audience’s reaction and they were just staring at the stage wondering if they were supposed to react to what he just said. The bad man’s part was boring. Dia Mirza came a while later, to host a segment with Gulshan Grover and that was kind of a relief.

I missed some of the show because I had to go to a family function but I resumed watching it right when Priyanka Chopra started her performance. And I have to say that it was impressive. I thought that was the best part of the show, despite the fact that Abhishek Bachchan was missing from that performance and Ganesh Hegde replaced AB baby. The replacement, undoubtedly, was a pleasure to watch. Ganesh rocked with his sleek moves while Piggy Chops danced alongside in her ‘Right Here Right Now’ costume. Then came ‘Boro Boro’ from Bluffmaster and we saw Ritesh D jumping to the fast paced number. He did a great job as well.

After this performance, it was Bunty Aur Babli’s turn. Of course, Bunty was still recovering from flu, so, Arjun Rampal replaced Bachchan junior. A fine replacement! Rani was dressed up in her ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ costume and danced naturally.

When Ritesh Deshmukh received his awards for the ‘Best actor in a Comic role,’ he made sure that he thanked a lot of people and also said that he would like to share his award with Abhishek. How nice!

Rekha got a Lifetime Achievement award and she won the hearts of her fans by making a speech consisting of one of Gulzar’s shers. Rishi Kapoor also received a Lifetime achievement award. He mentioned in his speech that if his grandfather, Prithviraj Kapoor was alive today (the day of the award function), he would have turned 100 years of age. He also said that he will be launching his son, Ranbir Kapoor and requested everyone to bless Ranbir like they’ve blessed him, his father and his grandfather.

Akshay Kumar’s performance was jaw-dropping yet a bit boring as it progressed. I wasn’t really entertained.

Also, Arjun Rampal came on the stage to co-host a segment with Karan Johar. He gave Karan a script idea for Karan’s next movie, after Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehna (KANK). He recited Karan Arjun’s story and told Karan that he should make the film and Arjun will act in it and they’ll call the film Karan Arjun. That part was hilarious.

At the end they had Shahrukh Khan give a tribute to Yash Chopra’s films and this act was done in a different way. On the screen, on the stage, they would have a scene from a popular Yash Raj film like the ‘mere paas ma hai’ scene from Deewar. After Amitji finished his dialogue (tere paas kya hai?), Shahrukh Khan turned around and said “mere paas Yashji hain.” There were more scene like that, which were digitally enhanced to make them funny.

Overall, the Zee Cine Awards 2006 was nice in terms of presentation and the quality of most jokes. But I do think that in the future, we should have something ‘different’ in our award shows. Something that would make them memorable and distinct from one another.

- Aaina.