Tag Archives: Raksha Bandhan

MovieTalks

The Dark Knaik’s 9th FilmFair Awards 2022

INTRODUCTION

I welcome all of you to my 9th edition of Bollywood’s Best for a calendar year. An effort I have been making for my own version of Filmfare since 2014.

The reason for blogging this particular material for the past eight years is because I and surely most of you have understood for a long time that the most prestigious award which is Filmfare has lost its credibility for some decades. The deserving people most of the time do not even get nominated or if they do, they do not win. Many potential films are least considered or perhaps not at all for Filmfare. Why? A few bullet reasons can be a failure at the box office, or a not-so-well-known cast leading to a lack of interest despite having a potential story.

So, with such yearly disappointments, I got annoyed and felt I had had enough of this nonsense. And someone has to take the initiative. I do not claim that I am the first to start my own Filmfare but it has now become a part of my nature to honor and recognize with the highest possible accuracy in my decisions every year.

I promise and guarantee that my picks will not sound reward but an award. My decisions will not be biased but simply on my judgment scale. Many of my finalized nominations and winners are about to surprise you like every year.

From 2014 until 2021, click any report below you would like to visit.

2014  2015  2016  2017  2018  2019 2020 2021 

And since I have become a vlogger, a content creator, and a YouTuber, I am happy to inform all my readers that for the first time in 9 years, my annual report is transformed into a vlog. If you want to watch instead of reading, click below.

 

And I will no longer call my annual reports “My Bollywood’s Best of” whatever year. From this 9th edition, I am renaming it “The Dark Knaik’s FilmFair Awards”.

Note: “The Dark Knaik” is my avatar and the name of my YouTube channel. Subscribe to my channel here: https://youtube.com/@thedarkknaik

HOW FILMFAIR AWARDS ARE SHAPED?

Like every year, I present my nominations and winners for each category by dividing all the categories into three major sections.

The first is the ‘Musical Section’ that will have 6 categories.

Then the next is the ‘Technical Section’ that will consist of 12 categories.

And the last one is the ‘Major Section’ which will have 6 categories.

So, there will be 24 winners from 24 categories. And each category will have a maximum of 5 nominations.

Also, I will rank all the nominations of all the categories.

HOW WAS MY EXPERIENCE FOR 2022’S BOLLYWOOD?

I was generally disappointed after watching around 45 films from 2022. Bollywood had not much to offer, to be honest. There were several good stories but most of those failed due to bad execution. And then Bollywood’s mainstream aesthetics do not change. Unstoppable uninspiring musical scores, mentioning Salman Khan, needless songs, forced humor, unknown extras or unrelated characters knowing the dance steps in all the songs, stereotypical portrayals of hazuris and janabis, concluding the film on a terrible note, and many more.

THE DARK KNAIK’S 9TH FILMFAIR AWARDS

Readers!

The wait is over…

Allow me to honor Bollywood’s artistic and technical excellence in 2022.

MUSICAL SECTION

BEST BACKGROUND SCORE

CLINTON CEREJO (COBALT BLUE)

2nd. Kabeer Kathpalia (Gehraiyaan)

3rd. Tanuj Tiku (Laal Singh Chaddha)

 

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

GANESH ACHARYA – DANCE KA BHOOT (BRAHMĀSTRA)

2nd. Bosco–Caesar – Rangi Saari (JugJugg Jeeyo)

3rd. Kruti Mahesh – Dholida (Gangubai Kathiawadi)

 

BEST MALE PLAYBACK SINGER

SHAHID MALLIYA – NIRBHAU NIRVAIR (QALA)

2nd. Arijit Singh – Deva Deva (Brahmāstra)

3rd. Arijit Singh – Kesariya (Brahmāstra)

4th. Shadaab Faridi – Tur Kalleyan (Laal Singh Chaddha)

5th. Kanishk Seth – Rangi Saari (JugJugg Jeeyo)

 

BEST FEMALE PLAYBACK SINGER

KAVITA SETH – RANGI SAARI (JUGJUGG JEEYO)

2nd. Sireesha Bhagavatula – Phero Na Najariya (Qala)

3rd. Lothika Jha – Doobey (Gehraiyaan)

 

BEST SONG & LYRICS

KESARIYA – PRITAM, AMITABH BHATTACHARYA, ARIJIT SINGH (BRAHMĀSTRA)

2nd. Ghodey Pe Sawaar – Amit Trivedi, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Sireesha Bhagavatula (Qala)

3rd. Rangi Saari – Kanishk Seth, Kavita Seth (JugJugg Jeeyo)

4th. Aadhi Kahani – Vishal Mishra, Raj Shekhar, Jubin Nautiyal (Nazar Andaaz)

5th. Aadmi Bhutiya Hai – Shantanu Moitra, Rahgir (Sherdil)

 

BEST MUSIC

AMIT TRIVEDI (QALA)

2nd. Pritam (Laal Singh Chaddha)

3rd. Kabeer Kathpalia, Savera Mehta (Gehraiyaan)

4th. Pritam (Brahmāstra)

5th. Achint Thakkar (Monica, O My Darling)

TECHNICAL SECTION

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

SHEETAL IQBAL SHARMA (GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI)

 

2nd. Veera Kapur EE (Qala)

3rd. Priyanka Agarwal (Thar)

4th. Darshan Jalan & Neelanchal Ghosh (RK/RKay)

 

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS

DNEG & REDEFINE (BRAHMĀSTRA)

 

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

PREETISHEEL SINGH D’SOUZA (GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI)

2nd. Seema Mane, Rihead Ronni Jr. (Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2)

3rd. Serina Tixiera (Thar)

4th. Nusrat Abbas Rizvi, Kajol Kanther (Cobalt Blue)

 

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

MEENAL AGARWAL (QALA)

2nd. Subrata Chakraborty, Amit Ray (Gangubai Kathiawadi)

3rd. Amrita Mahal Kahai (Brahmāstra)

4th. Wasiq Khan (Thar)

5th. Sanjeev Khandekar, Vaishali Narkar (Cobalt Blue)

 

BEST SOUND DESIGN

KAAMOD L KHARDE (ANEK)

2nd. Bishwadeep Dipak Chatterjee (Brahmāstra)

3rd. Baylon Fonseca (Drishyam 2)

4th. Bishwadeep Dipak Chatterjee (Runway 34)

5th. Anthony B Jayaruban (Jalsa)

 

BEST EDITING

NITESH BHATIA (GEHRAIYAAN)

2nd. Sumeet Kotian (A Thursday)

3rd. Sandeep Francis (Drishyam 2)

4th. Aarti Bajaj (Thar)

5th. Dharmendra Sharma (Runway 34)

 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

TIYASH SEN (SHERDIL)

2nd. Kaushal Shah (Gehraiyaan)

3rd. Sudeep Chatterjee (Gangubai Kathiawadi)

4th. Vincenzo Condorelli (Cobalt Blue)

5th. Ravi Varman (Salaam Venky)

 

BEST ACTION

SALAAM ANSARI (THAR)

2nd. Stefan Ritcher, Riyaz & Habib (Anek)

3rd. Vikram Dahiya (A Thursday)

4th. Dan Bradley, Diyan Hristov, Parvez Shaikh (Brahmāstra)

 

BEST STORY

R. BALKI (CHUP: REVENGE OF THE ARTIST)

2nd. Rajat Kapoor (RK/RKay)

3rd. Anirudh Iyer (An Action Hero)

4th. Prajwal Chandrashekhar, Suresh Triveni (Jalsa)

5th. Sunil Gandhi (Uunchai)

 

BEST SCREENPLAY

RAJ SINGH CHAUDHARY (THAR)

 

2nd. Ayesha DeVitre, Sumit Roy, Yash Sahai (Gehraiyaan)

3rd. Aamil Keeyan Khan, Abhishek Pathak (Drishyam 2)

 

BEST DIALOGUES

RAJAT KAPOOR (RK/RKAY)

2nd. Kanika Dhillon, Himanshu Sharma (Raksha Bandhan)

3rd. Srijit Mukherji, Sudeep Nigam, Atul Kumar Rai (Sherdil)

4th. Yash Sahai, Wajid Shaikh (Gehraiyaan)

5th. Vijay Maurya (A Thursday)

 

BEST SCENE

NIKO WITNESSING ARRESTS AND FIRE IN VILLAGE IN ONE-SHOT SCENE (ANEK)

 

2nd. Pushkar trying to eat a biscuit during a lamenting poetry from a distance (The Kashmir Files)

3rd. Alisha speaking about life and relations with her father (Gehraiyaan)

4th. Rookie Gangu’s first day at work on the door (Gangubai Kathiawadi)

MAJOR SECTION

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

ANUPAM KHER (THE KASHMIR FILES)

2nd. Shrikant Yadav (Jalsa)

3rd. Sanjay Dutt (Toolsidas Junior)

4th. Atul Kulkarni (A Thursday)

5th. Vijay Varma (Darlings)

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

SHEFALI SHAH (JALSA)

2nd. Mona Singh (Laal Singh Chaddha)

3rd. Sheeba Chaddha (Doctor G)

4th. Sayani Gupta (Sherdil)

5th. Simone Singh (Maja Ma)

 

BEST ACTOR

KUMUD MISHRA (NAZAR ANDAAZ)

2nd. Siddhant Chaturvedi (Gehraiyaan)

3rd. Akshay Kumar (Raksha Bandhan)

4th. Kartik Aaryan (Freddy)

5th. Pankaj Tripathi (Sherdil)

 

BEST ACTRESS

DEEPIKA PADUKONE (GEHRAIYAAN)

2nd. Alia Bhatt (Gangubai Kathiawadi)

3rd. Vidya Balan (Jalsa)

4th. Tabu (Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2)

5th. Madhuri Dixit (Maja Ma)

 

BEST DIRECTOR

RAJ SINGH CHAUDHARY (THAR)

2nd. Sachin Kundalkar (Cobalt Blue)

3rd. Shakun Batra (Gehraiyaan)

4th. Suresh Triveni (Jalsa)

5th. Abhishek Pathak (Drishyam 2)

 

BEST FILM

DRISHYAM 2

2nd. Thar

3rd. Gehraiyaan

4th. Jalsa

5th. Cobalt Blue

TABLE OF MULTIPLE WINS & NOMINATIONS

MULTIPLE WINS & NOMINATIONS
WINS NOMS FILMS
3 9 Brahmāstra
3 8 Thar
3 6 Qala
2 12 Gehraiyaan
2 7 Gangubai Kathiawadi
2 3 Anek
1 7 Jalsa
1 6 Cobalt Blue
1 5 Sherdil
1 5 Drishyam 2
1 4 JugJugg Jeeyo
1 3 RK/Rkay
1 2 Nazar Andaaz
1 2 The Kashmir Files
1 1 Chup
4 Laal Singh Chaddha
4 A Thursday
2 Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2
2 Runway 34
2 Raksha Bandhan
2 Maja Ma
1 Monica, O My Darling
1 Salaam Venky
1 An Action Hero
1 Uunchai
1 Doctor G
1 Toolsidas Junior
1 Darlings
1 Freddy

Thank you for reading my annual Bollywood honors report. I will return with a new report next year. Share your opinion below.

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Raksha Bandhan (2022)

STORY

Lala and Sapna are childhood lovers but Lala is delaying getting married to her because he promised his dying mother that he will settle after marrying his four sisters into suitable homes.

INTRODUCTION

Raksha Bandhan brings back the lost essence in Bollywood which is the traditional and family values. What made my mind to add Raksha Bandhan to my watchlist was the plot that highlights a very critical social problem which is marrying your daughters, and your sisters in the best possible families. A responsibility, the heaviest in weight and socially one of the significant scrutinies that hold the most critical center of attraction. This a much-needed storytelling in today’s Bollywood to bring awareness of how tough it is for a father or a brother particularly in middle and lower-class families to search for the most suitable man and give their girl to him.

BOX OFFICE

Raksha Bandhan was released with Laal Singh Chaddha on the same date and both failed to make any impression. On ₹70 crores of the production budget, the film grossed only ₹52 crores at home. Was the film that bad? It surely was a disappointment but I think the reason for failure was more political than economic.

REVIEW

One of the good aspects of the writing is that the story didn’t waste time in showing Lala and Sapna falling in love and dancing on the streets with all the pedestrians joining them in dancing in Sri Lankan rain, Swiss snow, Egyptian pyramids, Piccadilly Circus, or Time Square. Because it was unnecessary and better focused on the central plot.

Despite the fact that the film’s intention to showcase the social problem is in the right direction, the directional value rotates back to entertainment and misses a large part to emphasize. Three of the four sisters have particular traits. One is manly, the other is dark-skinned, and another is fat. The latter two carry critical concerns as a girl being dark or fat brings more difficulty in making her case acceptable to the boy’s family than the boy’s. And both the issues of color and weight surprisingly don’t get stretchy content in the film.

The problem with Raksha Bandhan revolves around screenwriting. It is a comedy-drama but a very important issue slips the element of realism due to its being too entertaining. And needless songs and story arc of Lala-Sapna eat the screen length.

Director Aanand L. Rai has a habit of running the film on a high musical score that disturbs the momentum and triggers the seriousness of the sequence. In the most shocking moment of the film, the death in the family, is madly ruined by loud music in the background. This was a jaw-dropping scene because development occurred out of nowhere and here, Aanand Rai must have collapsed the tone instead of making it a melodrama.

Raksha Bandhan confuses and messes with the story development. Lala goes physical on the harassers when they whistle his sisters but doesn’t even lift his hand on the in-laws of his sister. Sisters really don’t have much to add to the screen time. They are mostly together with typical dialogues and backing their brother. A film that is fully based on them fails to give them their screen importance.

And then Bollywood’s biggest predicament, fatal conclusion. Yet again, the writer-director fails to finish the film on a high note. Outrageous final fifteen minutes! And the final scenes that were about how the sisters progressed later were what should have been a significant portion connecting the main plot in the first place.

WHY ARE OLD LEADING ACTRESSES NOT CONSIDERED?

Although Bhumi Pednekar fitted into the role and did her part well. But a kind of story that followed with Lala keeping his girl waiting to marry for almost a decade. I wondered if 55-year-old Akshay Kumar can play the part of an assumingly fifteen years younger man, then why not the leading actress in the same capacity can get her role? After all, the role of Bhumi was of someone who was waiting for years. So she definitely wasn’t playing the role of a girl in her 20s but older than that.

And this is where Bollywood is beyond my understanding. How come the actors in their 50s and 60s get to play the role of the man in his 30s and 40s but actresses of the same age bracket mostly get ignored to fill in a young actress? Why the heroines of the ’90s are heavily ignored in Bollywood?

PLUSES

I thoroughly enjoyed the comedy. After a long time, I watched a film that really had funny dialogue and that too without making it sleazy. The collective performances were impressive, particularly Neeraj Sood, he was fabulous. Impressive anger and comic timing. Observe his performance when he humiliates Lala after his sister’s wedding.

The biggest plus of the film, the only reason for which I can easily recommend you to watch is Akshay Kumar. After so many years, I have watched that hilariously troubled Akshay Kumar of the old times making me laugh. And not just his comedy, this was an incredible performance.

Just watch him when he gets the news of his sister’s wedding. His reaction and the entire walk of honor, pride, and joy. And then when he gets the shocking news that makes him leave the house and cries in the first fifteen seconds of running on the streets. And then the scene after the funeral after he opens the shop and goes mad. Raksha Bandhan is definitely Akshay Kumar’s best performance since Pad Man and one of the best of his career.

CLOSING REMARKS

Raksha Bandhan is a missed opportunity that couldn’t do justice to a social message due to bad writing and unimpressive aesthetics. The film relied on Akshay Kumar instead of a promising plot. It is a one-timer but a blessing for the eyes of Akshay Kumar fans.

RATINGS: 4.5/10

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