A tight spot

I am not sure what to make of the just concluded Filmfare awards. I cannot imagine Ranbir Kapoor winning the award for best actor in a year when Shah Rukh Khan had the most historic comeback in Indian cinema, not once but twice over with Pathaan and Jawan.

- NAMRAT ZAKARIA

The popular choice should have probably gone to SRK, or then to Ranveer Singh, whose endearing, goofy, beefy turn as Rocky Randhawa in Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, was a role tailor-made for him.

I cannot imagine Alia Bhatt winning best actor either, not for a film that clearly belonged to her co-star Ranveer Singh. Perhaps best reactor would have been more appropriate.

But I digress. My eyes are trained on all the superlative corsets so many ladies wore to the awards’ red carpet. Are they symbolic of maintaining a stiff upper lip and continuing with the on-camera smiles? Are they perhaps signifiers of being put in a tight spot by flying all the way to cut and dry Amdavad, when the snob value of Yash Raj Studios or the flash of the Jio Convention Centre would have worked just fine. Who knows, but skin-tight, lace-ups reigned on the red and almost dulled us with the ennui.