A report on why IIFA 2012 turned out to be a lukewarm affair

Marred by the lack of the A-listers, long rambling speeches and self-plugging, IIFA 2012 turned out to be a lukewarm affair. Here is a report:

Vanakkam Singapore
After the applause actors Kamal Haasan and Sharathkumar got wherever they went in Singapore and the enthusiasm of watching Shahid dance to South Indian songs, everyone decided to try out Tamil in their announcements.

First A R Rahman cheekily revealed the best actor's name in Tamil, then co-presenter Rekha took the cue and made another remark in the same language.

Then, when Sridevi was called upon to present the best film award, she also meekly talked in her mother tongue. The audience was maha-impressed.



Papa and puttar
Ranbir and Rishi decided to burn the stage with some fun moves with their songs. It turned out to be a fantastic performance. Except the two accidentally ended up wearing each other's jackets throughout the act. But so consummate is this papa-puttar jodi that they carried off the faux pas with great style.



The long and Shotgun of it
Shatrughan seemed to be on his own trip when he was invited to present Rekha the Lifetime Achievement Award. Instead of focusing on the recipient of the award, he kept talking on and on about himself and his own upcoming film with Rekha.

He even showed its trailer right at the time of presenting the award

. That's not all, he even invited the director of the film and eklauti biwi and producer Poonam on the stage! Poor Rekha looked like she didn't know where to look, especially when Shatru addresses her as ‘the old, gold, bold and beautiful Rekha.'



Wow Vidya
Vidya Balan turned up in a black silk saree and a ponytail and spent the evening in good humour. The lass' good manners made sure she touched Rekha's feet after the veteran received her award. And when Vidya got her own award from Kamal Hasan, she touched his feet too.

Meow meow?
While talking about how the divine Rekha has been inspiring most young actresses like herself and Sonakshi and so on, Madam Priyanka left out mentioning Vidya's name from the list. Freudian slip, maybe?



Too much plugging
Piggy Chops and Shahid Kapoor took advantage of every opportunity to plug their upcoming film. So much so that they even included their film synopsis as part of their act.



Liv talk
International actress Liv Ullman was also felicitated by Shabana Azmi. Liv turned emotional and talked about how at a dinner she had raved about Shabana's beautiful outfit. She later found that Shabana had changed out of her outfit and gifted it to her.



Sippy soppy
Veteran director Ramesh Sippy's thanksgiving speech turned out to be a long-winded affair. First Javed Akhtar talked, then Rishi Kapoor went on, then Kamal Haasan was called on stage to talk about Sagar. Then Sippy talked and talked himself. The walk down memory lane took quite sometime... phew!

Boman Irani did a good job of fielding hosts Shahid and Ayushmann's funny jibes about the dwindling Parsi community