The nominations for the 65th Filmfare Awards are out, and even as the nominated stars get ready to walk the red carpet at the awards show to be held on 15 February in Assam, here’s looking at who we think could actually emerge winners.
Best Film and Best Director
Considering that Gully Boy was India’s official entry to the Oscars and that it snapped up the top four awards (Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress) at the recently held Star Screen Awards, it isn’t difficult to say that Gully Boy remains the most popular choice for Best Film (popular) and Best Director (popular) at the Filmfare Awards too.
Apart from Gully Boy, the only other film that has an outside chance in the Best Film (popular) category is Vicky Kaushal-starrer Uri: The Surgical Strike, which was lapped up by the audiences.
What surprises us though is that five films have been nominated in these two categories, and while War makes it to both, Bala does not find a place in either. Wonder why the film couldn’t make it when most other categories have six nominations each. Leaving out, Bala, which was both a commercial and critical success, is definitely a big miss.
Since most awards are known to often find a compromise between two good contenders, the Best Film and Best Director awards could also go to Uri and Zoya Akhtar for Gully Boy, respectively.
In the Best Film Critics category Anubhav Sinha’s Article 15 and Abhishek Chaubey’s Sonchiriya have the best chance to score a win, with Sinha having a slight edge.
Best Actor and Actress
The Best Actor Award category is stacked with some good performances, including Ayushmann Khurrana in Bala, Hrithik Roshan in Super 30, Shahid Kapoor in Kabir Singh, Ranveer Singh in Gully Boy and Vicky Kaushal in Uri.
Even though Shahid’s was a great performance in Kabir Singh, the gender politics of the film, which has come in for a great amount of criticism, may work against him. Ranveer remains the top choice to win this one as the boy from Mumbai’s slums who went on to become a rap star. But we wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up sharing it with Ayushmann (Bala).
For the Best Actor Critics, Ayushmann seems to be the clear winner for Article 15.
Alia Bhatt is currently a clear favourite to win the Best Actress Award for her spunky act as Safeena in Gully Boy as her performance has come in for unanimous praise. We don’t see Filmfare go against the tide and give the trophy to other nominees with commendable performances - like Priyanka Chopra for her brilliant portrayal of a resilient mother to an ailing teenage girl in The Sky Is Pink or Rani Mukerji for her powerful act in Mardaani 2.
The Best Actress Critics though is a tough one to call with Bhumi Pednekar (Sonchiriya, and Saand Ki Aankh) and Taapsee Pannu (Saand Ki Aankh), among others. We may get a tie between Bhumi and Taapsee for their turn as 60-something shooters in Saand Ki Aankh.
Best Supporting Actor
With due respect to the veteran actors, it is surprising to see Kamini Kaushal and Seema Pahwa get a nomination for their roles in Kabir Singh and Bala, respectively, which didn’t have much to them. Yami Gautam being snubbed, despite a good performance in Bala is a miss. Among those who did manage to make it to the nominations, and If we go purely by performance, it should ideally be Zaira Wasim for The Sky Is Pink or Amruta Subhash for Gully Boy.
Among the Best Supporting Actor (Male) the nominations include Gulshan Devaiah for Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota, Manoj Pahwa for Article 15, Ranveer Shorey for Sonchiriya, Siddhant Chaturvedi for Gully Boy and Vijay Verma Gully Boy. We expect Siddhant or Vijay (or both!) to pick this one. My choice though would have been Manoj Pahwa in Article 15 or Gulshan Devaiah in Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota for their powerful performances.
Music
In the music categories, I expect Gully Boy and Kabir Singh to rule, considering they were the two most successful albums of the year.
2019 has not been the best year for Bollywood when it comes to music; instant remixes were dished out in every other film, with very few quality original songs, coming out, forget a whole album!
In this scenario, the Best Music Album should go to Ankur Tewari and Zoya Akhtar for Gully Boy for their out of the box collection of rap and other songs, while the lyrics is a toss up between Divine and Ankur Tewari for Apna Time Ayega (Gully Boy) and Irshad Kamil for Bekhayali or Mithoon for ‘Tujhe Kitna Chahne Lage’ from Kabir Singh.
The Best Singer female could be the only exception, where Shreya Ghoshal could take the award home for Ghar More Pardesiya from Kalank.
Others
Considering how award shows like to even it out, if Siddhant Chaturvedi gets the Best Supporting Actor award, Abhimanyu Dassani could receive the Best Male Debut for Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota. If not, then its Siddhant’s award all the way.
In the Best Debut Actress category Ananya Pandey is a sure fire winner for Student of the Year 2, since she doesn’t really have much competition in the category.
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