Indian Film Festival Day 2!

So, in case you follow me on Twitter of on my Facebook, you are already aware of my adventures in this years Indian Film Festival (IFFLA).  I'm getting a chance to volunteer this year in many different areas of the festival...which adds even more excitement to my life!  Plus I got to see Omi Vaidya {From 3 Idiots!} but I got too nervous to approach him...oh, well...he'll probably come back for the 3 Idiots screening on Friday night!

The festival has been hosted every year at the fabulous Arclight theater, located in the heart of fabulous Hollywood, CA.  For any of you unlucky people whom have never been inside and experience the magic of this theater, let me tell you there's none like it.

Most of the Hindi films I have watched have been in the local theater which are the most beautiful theaters and sound and picture quality are just good.  So, to see them in this theater was just AMAZING!  I'm starting to sound like an ad...oh Gosh!  Now onto the films!  I actually didn't think I would get a chance to watch any films based on my volunteer hours...so when I was told I could...I was just ecstatic to say the least.

The first film I really wanted to see was Harishchandrachi Factory.  This was the first ever Marathi film I ever saw, and it was fantastic to say the least.  I have never laughed so much in my life, this was a great film to start off my festival experience with.

The story of H. Factory is that of Dadasahed Phalke, also known as the Father of Indian Cinema, and his struggles of creating the first ever Indian film, the epic story of Raja Harishchandra.  The movie follows him and his family as they struggle to pursue this dream and all the craziness that follows from trying to find and shoot in exotic locations to casting the main 'female' lead of the film.

I would say that the only fault in this film is that everything happened too quickly in that there was no real struggle in getting the money for the film, the actors, etc., there was always way in which the main character just got everything very easily.  This really keeps the film from actually being realistic, but overall an absolutely  fantastic film.

 Next movie I saw was Road Movie, with my newest obsession Abhay Deol *swoon*, unfortunately I missed the first 15 minutes so I need to find an online link and watch to truly feel like I have watched the whole thing, soo I will post up my thoughts once I get to that.

In case there are any of you Los Angelenos {?} that are not aware of the festival, hurry up! There's still time to buy tickets, but I will warn that most of the Bollywood films are getting sold out very quickly!!! As of right now there are still tickets available for tonight's Bollywood film, Kaminey.  So enjoy!

Nominations for 55th Idea Filmfare Awards 2009

BOLD: The Ones that Might Win.
Underline: My Picks.

Best Film
3 Idiots
Dev D
Kaminey
Love Aaj Kal

Paa

Wake Up Sid

Best Director
Anurag Kashyap - Dev D
Ayan Mukerji - Wake Up Sid
Imtiaz Ali - Love Aaj Kal
R Balakrishnan - Paa
Rajkumar Hirani - 3 Idiots
Vishal Bharadwaj - Kaminey

Best Actor In A Leading Role - Male
Aamir Khan - 3 Idiots
Amitabh Bachchan - Paa
Ranbir Kapoor - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Ranbir Kapoor - Wake Up Sid
Saif Ali Khan - Love Aaj Kal
Shahid Kapoor - Kaminey

***Please don't give this award to Aamir Khan!***

Best Actor In A Leading Role - Female
Deepika Padukone - Love Aaj Kal
Katrina Kaif - New York
Kareena Kapoor - 3 Idiots
Kareena Kapoor - Kurbaan
Priyanka Chopra - Kaminey
Vidya Balan - Paa

Best Actor In A Supporting Role - Male
Amol Gupte - Kaminey
Boman Irani - 3 Idiots
Neil Nitin Mukesh - New York
R Madhavan - 3 Idiots
Rishi Kapoor - Luck By Chance
Sharman Joshi - 3 Idiots

Best Actor In A Supporting Role - Female
Arundhati Naag - Paa
Divya Dutta - Delhi-6
Dimple Kapadia - Luck By Chance
Kalki Koechlin - Dev D
Shahana Goswami - Firaaq
Supriya Pathak - Wake Up Sid

Best Music
A R Rahman - Delhi-6
Amit Trivedi - Dev D
Pritam Chakraborty - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Pritam Chakraborty - Love Aaj Kal
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy - Wake Up Sid
Vishal Bharadwaj - Kaminey

Best Lyrics
Gulzar - Kaminey - (Kaminey)
Gulzar - Dhan Te Nan - (Kaminey)
Irshad Kamil - Aaj Din Candya - (Love Aaj Kal)
Javed Akhtar - Iktara - (Wake Up Sid)
Prasoon Joshi - Masakali - (Delhi-6)
Prasoon Joshi - Rehna Tu - (Delhi-6)

Best Playback Singer - Male
Atif Aslam - Tu Jaane Na - (Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani)
Javed Ali-Kailash Kher - Arziyan - (Delhi-6)
Mohit Chauhan - Masakali - (Delhi-6)
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan - Aaj Din Chadheya - (Love Aaj Kal)
Sonu Niigaan-Salim Merchant - Shukran Allah - (Kurbaan)
Sukhwinder Singh-Vishal Dadlani - Dhan Te Nan - (Kaminey)

Best Playback Singer - Female
Alisha Chinoy - Tera Hone Laga - (Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani)
Kavita Seth - Iktara - (Wake Up Sid)
Rekha Bhardwaj - Genda Phool - (Delhi-6)
Shilpa Rao - Mudi Mudi - (Paa)
Shreya Ghoshal - Zoobi Doobi - (3 Idiots)
Sunidhi Chauhan - Chor Bazaari - (Love Aaj Kal)

I wonder who the host(s) will be this year...

Saif + Shahrukh

 Imran + Ranbir

16th Annual Star Screen Awards!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen....


16th Annual Star Screen Awards
Here are the nominations:

Best Film

3 Idiots

Dev D

Kaminey

Love Aaj Kal

Paa

Best Actor
Aamir Khan (3 Idiots)
Amitabh Bachchan (Paa)
Ranbir Kapoor (Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani)
Ranbir Kapoor (Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year)
Saif Ali Khan (Love Aaj Kal)
Shahid Kapoor ( Kaminey)

Best Director
Rajkumar Hirani
Vishal Bhardwaj
R. Balki
Imtiaz Ali
Anurag Kashyap

Best Actress
Priyanka Chopra (Kaminey)
Priyanka Chopra (What's Your Rashee?)
Vidya Balan (Paa)
Kareena Kapoor (3 Idiots)
Katrina Kaif (New York)
Deepika Padukone (Love Aaj Kal)

Best Supporting Actor
Rishi Kapoor (Love Aaj Kal)
Rishi Kapoor (Luck By Chance)
Abhimanyu Singh (Gulaal)
R. Madhavan (3 Idiots)
Sharman Joshi (3 Idiots)

Best Female Supporting Actor
Arundhati Nag (Paa)
Divya Dutt (Delhi 6)
Gauhar Khan (Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year)
Neha Dhupia (Raat Gayi Baat Gayi)
Shahana Goswami (Firaaq)

Best Actor in a Comic Role
Om Vaidya (3 Idiots)
Paresh Rawal (De Dana Dan)
Sanjay Mishra (All The Best)
Vinay Pathak (Raat Gayi Baat Gayi)

Best Actor in a Negative Role
Boman Irani (3 Idiots)
Kay Kay Menon (Gulaal)
Mahesh Manjrekar (Wanted)
Manish Chaudhari (Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year)

Best Music
Pritam (Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani)
Pritam (Love Aaj Kal)
Pritam (Tum Mile)
A. R. Rahman (Delhi 6)
Vishal Bhardwaj (Kaminey)

Best Background Score
Amit Truvedi (Dev D)
Shantanu Moitra, Atul Raninga and Sanjay Wandreker (3 Idiots)
Vishal Bhardwaj (Kaminey)
Illayaraja (Paa)
Salim Suliaman (Rocket Singh Salesman of The Year)

Best Female Playback Singer
Kavita Seth (Iktaara, Wake Up Sid)
Rekha Bhardwaj (Genda Phool, Delhi 6)
Shreya Ghoshal (Zoobie Doobie, 3 Idiots)
Shilpa Rao (Mudi Mudi, Paa)
Sunidhi Chauhan (Mere Sang Chal Zara, New York)

Most Promising Debut Director
Ayan Mukjerjee (Wake Up Sid)
Nandita Das (Firaaq)
Pankaj Advani (Sankat City)
Zoya Akhtar (Luck By Chance)
Shivajee Chandrabhushan (Frozen)

Most Promising Newcomer Male
Amole Gupte (Kaminey)
Chandan Roy Sanyal (Kaminey)
Navin Kaushik (Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year)
Om Vaidya (3 Idiots)

Most Promising Newcomer Female
Mahie Gill (Dev D)
Kalki Koechlin (Dev D)
Jesse Randhawa (Gulaal)
Gauhar Khan (Rocket Singh Salesman of the Year)
Giselle Monteiro (Love Aaj Kal)


*** I must point out that Ranbir Kapoor should have gotten his nomination his outstanding performance in Wake Up Sid and not Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani.

***I also feel that Abhay Deol really got snubbed for Dev. D ...this was one of the best performances of the year, at least in my opinion, and he received no recognition for it.  {I mean, Ranbir is great but he did not deserve to get 2 nominations}

I really hope that Filmfare does a better job of nominating those performances that truly deserve it...