From Kevin Spacey to Hrithik Roshan: Six memorable IIFA moments

It’s all relative. If I hadn’t watched Mamata Banerjee’s celebration of KKR’s win in the IPL, followed by what can only be described as a 15-minute rip-off of the Indian Republic Day Parade a.k.a. the FIFA opening ceremony – I would have never appreciated the IIFA awards ceremony as much as I did. So it seems it was a smart move to telecast IIFA almost two months after it took place. We’d watched enough rubbish by then to understand its true value. My favourable disposition toward the event might also be because I didn’t watch it as it aired, but recorded it instead. So I got to zip through the mega ad breaks and any performances I found terrible. Amid the dross though, there were moments of pure television gold. [caption id=“attachment_1572731” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The expression on Spacey’s face was priceless: AFP[/caption] One, Kevin Spacey on stage. Is this what it’s come to – from the Old Vic to the IIFA celebrations at Tampa Bay. Money makes you do the darndest things – including a lungi dance, apparently. The expression on his face through out the evening was priceless though. He looked like a kid on his first visit to Sea World, encountering a bewildering variety of strange beasts. Two, John Travolta still has the moves. He danced and pranced and looked as if he’d stepped right out of Pulp Fiction. He also got an award for something. I’m not sure what. Maybe it was an award just for showing up. Three, Stephen Baldwin. Who? Exactly. The poor chap went unnoticed till attention was drawn to his presence there. He’s another one of Alec Baldwin’s unfortunate brothers, who’s never managed to make it big. But hey, we’ll give him a sitting gig at IIFA. Four, no one dances like Hrithik Roshan. Even Travolta’s jaw was hanging open watching him. He’s really brilliant as a dancer. And I’m most impressed by Shiamak Dawar’s team. They’re as good as any of the dancers at the Tonys. That was actually a performance worth watching. Two thumbs up from me. Five, Michael Jackson, oops sorry, Sridevi in the audience, who now has the same nose as Minisha Lamba and Koena Mitra. The other two though weren’t invited mainly because the IIFA organisers must have realised they’ll look like triplets in profile. Who knows, maybe that’s what happens with age. Your nose suddenly whittles down by itself and starts resembling Jacko’s. Whatever the reason, she looked a little scary. Six, they did away with the lifetime achievement award this year. Why? Have all the oldies worth giving awards to popped it or did they refuse to travel to Tampa – which is odd since Florida is just one giant retirement community. And as for the rest: Farhan and Shahid Kapoor were highly forgettable as hosts. Priyanka Chopra suddenly developed a Pitbull-accent. And kept chanting IIFAAA, IIFAAAAAAAAAAAA, which sounded a little crude by the end of it. And I realised Boney Kapoor should likely give some of his food to Sridevi. All in all, it was 3 hours not too badly spent.