KJo-Sajid rock at Zee Cine Awards

Article by Buzz18.com

By the time one gets set to watch the third major award function of the year (we aren't even counting the ones that get launched each year and don't last more than a season), it's pretty much clear, who all going to bag the trophies. And this year's Zee Cine Awards were no different.

Chak De! India and Taare Zameen Par shared the top honours, while Guru, Om Shanti Om and Jab We Met shared the rest. But if that's the case what makes award functions tick? A true Bollywood fan will tell you that there's nothing to beat the sight of seeing all your favourite stars under one roof. And with Bollywood's ever improving style quotient, the stars also make the effort to turn up in their glam best.

But in recent years, stage performances and celeb compeers have become the main draw. Like most recent shows this one too was designed for the television audiences. So, out go the long acceptance speeches and thank you sessions.

The awards in fact looked like fillers for an extended Bollywood concert. Among the front-benchers were Shah Rukh-Gauri, Govinda, Anil Kapoor, the RK family including Karisma and Sanjay Kapur and Rekha. Ranbir and Deepika sat separately and dedicated their debut awards to each other. Arjun Rampal was visibly emotional while collecting his Best Villain trophy for OSO. While Rahman also made a surprise appearance to collect his Guru award. But there were some pointless trophies like the Style Icon one for SRK (even he didn't know how to react) or the Fun Entertainer of the Year for Riteish Deshmukh.

Neil Nitin Mukesh who has been losing out to Ranbir, got a jury award for his unconventional debut. The opening act was by Zee's reality show winners who paid a tribute to the senior citizens of the industry by singing some evergreen numbers. Things picked up with the entry of Sajid Khan and Karan Johar.

Initially their smart talk looked like a poor imitation of the SRK-Saif banter at the Filmfare awards. But gradually the duo came into their own. The two however promised to leave RGV and Ranbir Kapoor's towel dance out of their jokes. The Filmfare awards might have offended many industry folks, but there seems to be no place for spoilt sports in Bollywood.

KJo and Sajid went all out to pull everyone's leg and perhaps with very passing year even stars have learnt to laugh at themselves. The highlight was of course Karan's dig Lara's alleged romance with Dino. He said, "Lara's favourite song has to be the Metro number In Dino, Aye Dino".

And when Sajid wanted to dedicate the Qurbani song "Aap Jaisa Koi" to Riteish Deshmukh, Karan stopped him saying, "Don't sing for Riteish, they'll start believing the rumours".

The performances were kicked off by Vidya Balan - who might have the hit songs, but certainly lacks the grace or body to carry an act on her shoulders. For pointers she should have checked out Katrina Kaif's sizzling Race medley. We don't know about acting skills but as far as dancing goes Kat is getting better with each performance.

Saif has now become a pro at stage shows. He can just sleepwalk through any performance with his trademark moves and guitar strumming. The biggest crowd puller was without doubt SRK, who came on stage in a swanky car and danced to the OSO title song. Soon he was joined by Saif and Kareena. And the three did a hilarious love triangle on stage with SRK being the other guy in Saifeena's life.

Soon they were joined by Katrina, Arjun Rampal, Dia Mirza, Minissha Lamba, Neha Dhupia, Chunkey Pandey and even Gulshan Grover. With more than a dozen stars on stage, Shah Rukh once again asserted the changing power equations in the industry. Even good friends Karan and Sajid did their bit by crowning Gauri as the Queen Khan.

Though everyone from Dimple to Deepika were there, some prominent absentees were – Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Rani Mukerji and the Bachchans – who seem to have developed an award phobia this year.

All in all the Zee Cine Awards made for perfect weekend tele viewing. It was like a Bollywood blockbuster with a bit of everything. The winners were same and the format was predictable, but who cares as long as we have the song n dance!