Last Saturday, I saw Screen awards 2009. Sajid Khan was genuinely funny as he always is, notwithstanding Ashutosh Gowariker's fuming remarks, to which I partially subscribe. Farah Khan was a big drag, trying hard and failing miserably to sound funny. Shreyas, though a good actor, is not an engaging presence. For couple of hours, I subjected myself to listless performances, how much I wish Salman Khan of late 90s and early 00s were still around. 3 hours had gone by and nothing substantial happened, not that I was exepecting anything extraordinary.
Then I heard Farah Khan calling 'diva of Bollywood' Rekha, she always looks the same, to give away the award for 'Popular Actor (Male)'. Rekha, her expressions have become so stale, announced Akshay Kumar's name, no surpises there. Anyone who can make 'Heyy Baby' and 'Singh is King' superhits has to be 'most popular'. So there was Akshay Kumar, walking as a rock star towards the podium to collect the award from his 'Khiladiyon ka Khiladi' co-star. He took the statuette, swayed a little, and then began the SPEECH. I try to recap what he said: 'I saw Ghazni, and needless to say, Amir Khan's performance was much better than mine in SIK. I refuse to pretend that I am better than him this year, and so cannot accept this award'.
Here is the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv2U3bnCGxo
Not that I didn't know this, but the enormity of the moment, and Akshay's brutal honesty made me literally cry; audience looked equally shocked. I replayed the sequence 5 times to believe that what I had just seen was for real. For someone in show business, where people have mountain-sized fragile egos, what Akshay did was extraordinary. I have been closely following Bollywood awards for 16 years now, and NEVER have I witnessed anything so spectacular. So many times, I need not recount, I saw unworthy people shamelessly accept awards and subsequently bask in glory. I am really glad that someone finally stood up, hats off to KING Akshay.
After I saw this, I began googling to find out media's response. I discovered various reasons behind Akshay's apparently noble act : 'Akshay was pissed off with organisers', 'Akshay and Amir in an unholy alliance', etc., etc. I was shocked to find such cynicism in media. Seemingly, media is uncapable of accepting that a star-without-pedigree can perform such a noble act. Rather than hailing Akshay, media is all out to prove that the act is nothing more than a stunt by the 'Khiladi'.
Not that I am certain of Akshay's intentions, but why such widespread cynicism ? Why can't I hear a single voice hailing a seemingly noble act ?
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