Filmfare Awards 2013 – My predictions

Welcome to the 7th annual Filmfare awards prediction post by me. Hard to believe that it has been 7 years since I started doing this post. Last year was my most successful year yet since I got all my predictions right. I doubt if this year will match last year since for a change, Filmfare has actually nominated the best movies of a pretty good year for Bollywood. So let’s dive into it.

Nominations from Indicine.

Best Film
Barfi
English Vinglish
Gangs of Wasseypur
Kahaani
Vicky Donor

This is probably the best crop of nominees for “Best Film” that I have seen in the recent past. Every single one of these movies is actually nominated based on their merit rather than Box office performance. All well deserved nominees, however which “Gangs” movie has Filmfare actually nominated? Part 1, Part 2 or did they combine both movies to make a mega-movie? In the end, I think this will go to “Barfi” – the most original movie made using the most unoriginal scenes. The plot of the movie was completely original, but the way the plot was conveyed resorted to recycled scenes. Second place would be “Gangs of Wasseypur” just for the sheer scope of the project.

Should and Will win: Barfi

Best Director

Anurag Basu – Barfi!
Anurag Kashyap – Gangs Of Wasseypur
Gauri Shinde – English Vinglish
Shoojit Sircar – Vicky Donor
Sujoy Ghosh – Kahaani

Again, I have to commend Filmfare for not giving in to emotion and nominating Yash Chopra, they could have easily done it. But as it stands, this is a good bunch of nominees again, and again I think “Barfi” will take it, but would love to see Anurag Kashyap win it. What are the odds that the person presenting the award will say “And the award goes to Anurag….” and pause for 3 seconds before actually saying the surname.

Should win: Anurag Kashyap

Will win: Anurag Basu

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Male)

Hrithik Roshan – Agneepath
Ranbir Kapoor – Barfi!
Irrfan Khan – Paan Singh Tomar
Salman Khan – Dabangg 2
Manoj Bajpayee – Gangs Of Wasseypur
Shahrukh Khan – Jab Tak Hai Jaan

There are 3 deserving nominees in this list… and 3 nominees included for starpower purposes. Also, not nominating Ayushmann Khurrana is a major oversight since he was also really good as Vicky in “Vicky Donor”. Both the Khan’s were their regular selves in the movie and were playing themselves rather than acting. Manoj Bajpayee was good as “Sardar Khan” and would have probably won this any other year. However, this year saw 2 of the best performances in quite some time in Hindi movies. Irrfan Khan was the only reason “Paan Singh Tomar” worked as well as it did, his performance had that edge to it – especially in the scene where he is mourning the fact that someone else killed his “daddu” before he had the chance to exact his revenge. But, for me, the clear winner here is Ranbir Kapoor who was just amazing as Barfi, the scene where he admonishes Ileana’s character outside her house without any dialogues exchanged between the two was the scene that sealed this for me. A good year for male performances all around.

Should and Will win: Ranbir Kapoor, Barfi

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Female)

Deepika Padukone – Cocktail
Kareena Kapoor – Heroine
Parineeti Chopra – Ishqazaade
Priyanka Chopra – Barfi!
Sridevi – English Vinglish
Vidya Balan – Kahaani

Unlike the past few years, this was a good year for female performers as well. The emotional thing for Filmfare to do would be to give it to Sridevi for her comeback, but I don’t think they will, her performance was good but Priyanka Chopra as Jhilmil was just so good and inhabited the character completely that she deserves this award.

Should and Will win: Priyanka Chopra

Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Male)

Akshay Kumar – Oh My God!
Annu Kapoor – Vicky Donor
Emraan Hashmi – Shanghai
Nawazuddin Siddiqui – Talaash
Rishi Kapoor – Agneepath

The more nominations i see this year, the more i am shocked by the number of good performances that populated the year. This is another good category (in fact, this year the nominations are way more on target than not). If Nawazuddin was nominated for “Gangs of Wasseypur” i would have said he would win, but since he is nominated for “Talaash”, this award will finally go to a long time unrewarded actor for his best performance ever (and one of the best of the year).

Should and Will win: Annu Kapoor for Vicky Donor. I just hope he gives his speech in the same accent as he used in the movie.

Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Female)

Anushka Sharma – Jab Tak Hai Jaan
Huma Qureshi – Gangs Of Wasseypur
Ileana D’Cruz – Barfi!
Rani Mukerji – Talaash
Richa Chadda – Gangs Of Wasseypur

First off, Rani Mukerji in “Talaash”??? She was invisible in the whole movie and served no purpose except for to mourn her son. Also, Anushka was the best part of JTHJ, but not an award winning role. It is a tossup between the other 3, but i think the GoW vote will split giving the win to Ileana.

Should win: Any of the 2 GoW actresses or Ileana (all deserving)

Will win: Ileana D’Cruz

Best Music Director

Amit Trivedi – Ishqazaade
Pritam – Barfi!
Pritam – Cocktail
Sneha Khanwalkar – Gangs Of Wasseypur
Vishal – Shekhar – Student Of The Year

Another toss-up category, as all of them can lay claim to best album of the year. Tossing a 5-sided coin, i see the winner as:

Should and will win: Sneha Khanwalkar

Best Lyrics

Amitabh Bhattacharya – Abhi mujh mein kahin – Agneepath
Gulzar – Challa – Jab Tak Hai Jaan
Gulzar – Saans – Jab Tak Hai Jaan
Javed Akthar – Jee le zara – Talaash
Swanand Kirkire – Aashiyan – Barfi!

I think this will be the YRF category, as Filmfare will need to award their host at least once in the ceremony. Seeing that the winner here will probably be Gulzar. As to who should win, well, it is a weak field so it is truly anyone’s game, there is no standout like Irshad Kamil last year.

Should and will win: Gulzar

Best Playback Singer (Male)

Ayushmann Khurrana – Pani da rang – Vicky Donor
Mohit Chauhan – Ala barfi – Barfi!
Nikhil Paul George – Main kya karoon – Barfi!
Rabbi – Challa – Jab Tak Hai Jaan
Sonu Niigaam – Abhi mujh mein kahin – Agneepath

This will be the make-good award for the massive oversight in the “Best Actor” category. It will be well deserved though.

Should and Will win: Ayushmann Khurrana

Best Playback Singer (Female)

Kavita Seth – Tumhi ho bandhu – Cocktail
Neeti Mohan – Jiya re – Jab Tak Hai Jaan
Shalmali Kholgade – Pareshaan – Ishaqzaade
Shreya Ghoshal – Saans – Jab Tak Hai Jaan
Shreya Ghoshal – Chikni chameli – Agneepath

Should and will win: Shalmali Kholgade. Good song, good vocals, deserves this win.

Those were my predictions; let’s see how many i get right on Sunday.