Hello Miss Malini Peeps!
So I have seen the live IIFA show at home, uncut and unedited (it was a whopping 4 hours, without commercials!) So I’m here with ALL the dish. I am not revealing the winners, just my thoughts on the show. Be warned, this is a LONG post and there are *SPOILERS* ahead.
Firstly, the show started an hour behind schedule as the celebrities were late to the red carpet. Shah Rukh Khan surprised everyone by bringing along the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty. A bigger surprise was the Hollywood factor. Cuba Gooding Junior made a big appearance (with lots of dancing) and Anil Kapoor was accompanied by Hilary Swank herself!
When the show finally began, the hosts Riteish Desmukh and Boman Irani began with some cheesy one liners about how the show sold out (the venue was the Rogers Centre, a baseball stadium for the Toronto Blue Jays). Their jokes included one on how David Dhawan needed two seats while Kareena Kapoor (who was not there) needed half a seat due to her size zero figure. Shah Rukh Khan hopped on stage next and ridiculed the hosts, but even his ribbing could not save their act.
A bigger shock was when Inder Goyal, a Brampton area real estate agent (I believe) rushed the stage and fell to Shah Rukh Khan‘s feet, and begged for help in becoming a movie star, yes he begged. I was shocked and thought it was an act, until you saw the shock on Shah Rukh‘s face, he was quite shaken. Shah Rukh actually told the fan he was hurting his knee (recently fractured). After a few long seconds, security came upon stage and Shah Rukh was ushered off stage. It was so surreal.
Another highlight was Dharamendra, who pulled out some CRAZY dance moves to Yamala Paagala Deewana with both Sunny and Bobby Deol onstage (Sunny Deol of course did not dance). However, Anil Kapoor came on stage and asked Dharam-ji to speak a few words. His speech is a must-see! My favourite quote: “This show business is now the show-off business.” He also plugged daughter Esha Deol‘s new film, Tell Me O Khudda. Sharmila Tagore was also recognized, but I was disappointed that Saif Ali or Soha did not come.
Later on, Lisa Ray was another presenter, and she made a mistake! She announced Anushka Sharma as Anushka Shanker (cue to Anushka’s bemused face). Thankfully, Karan Johar corrected her. Then, Boman and Riteish launched a skit, looking for “Ruby”, the item dancer of 2011, in response to Munni and Sheila. It was not funny, I recommend you guys take a bathroom/snack break when that part comes on.
Performance-wise, it was a tad disappointing. While Kangana Ranaut can overact at times in her roles, she really should have brought that enthusiasm to her Tanu Weds Manu performance. Bobby Deol danced to a medley of tunes from his movies, and lets just say, the background dancers really shined, and out-danced him. Bipasha Basu danced to a bunch of item songs, and it was fine I guess, nothing great. Priyanka Chopra danced to a medley of classic Bollywood songs, and it was a great selection of tunes, from classics to musical hits like Rangeela and Taal. Shah Rukh did not dance much, as his knee was fractured, but did banter with the audience.
My favourite performance was Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha (I’m kind of biased). Ranveer danced to a medley from Band Baaja Baaraat, and was great as usual, bringing back his Bittu Sharma moves. Later on, he brought up Sonakashi Sinha, and they danced to some Dabangg songs and finally danced to Dinka Chinka from Ready. Both actually looked happy to perform, in contrast to the other performances. They even brought Cuba Gooding Junior to his feet.
My favourite skit was with Riteish Deshmukh as Thakur from Sholay Boman Irani as Saif Ali Khan. Boman Irani imitated Saif Ali Khan‘s voice and his English Hindi accent PERFECTLY, and it contrasted brilliantly with Deshmukh‘s armless Thakur. This was definitely the funniest part of the night. Another good one was when they showed some comedic videos before the Best Film category, with the theme: “What if Bollywood film classics were directed by someone else?”. For example, what if Lagaan was made by Sanjay Leela Bhansali? The result was hilarious!
On final note MissMalini Peeps, I will not give any other details, it was a long show (hence the long post). Let me know if they edit out that SRK crazy fan moment when the awards air on Indian television.