Black Magic steals limelight at filmfare

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s classic Black- a searing portrait of a deaf-blind girl's struggle which mesmerized & touched the hearts of millions sweeped an unprecedented twelve awards at the 51st Annual Filmfare Awards ceremony, including the technical ones for editing and cinematography to the coveted best film, best director, best actor(Amitabh Bachchan), best actress award (Rani Mukherjee), best supporting actress for child actress (Ayesha Kapoor) alongside Best Film and Best Director (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) and all the three critics' awards as well.

Amid all that colour it was a Black evening. Superstar Amitabh Bachchan was present himself to receive the award for best actor, the first award function he was attending after being confined to bed for two months due to illness. He walked the red-carpet twice to receive the best actor and critics' award for best actor. Bhansali's speech was typically short, but moving: "I am dedicating this award to the deaf and blind whom I will call the warriors of darkness. It was a night when those who handed over the awards felt as special as those who received them.” The underline of the evening was the presence of Hollywood superstar Will Smith, presenting the Best Actress award to Rani Mukherjee.

Also making their mark at the awards were Shaad Ali’s Bunty aur Babli and Pradeep Sarkar’s Parineeta. Parineeta dominated the technical awards - winning awards for best sound design, art direction and choreography, it also won the ‘face of the year’ award as well as best female debutante award for Vidya Balan and the R D Burman award for best music director for Shantanu Moitra.

Bunty aur Babli hogged a lion share of the music awards - while veteran lyricist Gulzar won the best lyricist award for Kajra re, Alisha Chinai won the best female playback singer award for the song and Shankar Ehsan Loy won the award for best music directors for the film. Nana Patekar took home Best Performance in a Negative Role (Apaharan), Akshay Kumar for Best Actor in a Comic Role (Garam Masala), Best Supporting Actor went to Abhishek Bachchan (Sarkar) – who paid a glowing tribute to Amitabh, stating that his father was the greatest actor ever; while Shiney Ahuja (Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi) and Vidya Balan (Parineeta) grabbed Best Debut Male and Female respectively.

The glitz & glam was added to the night by marvelous performances from Abhishek Bachchan strutting to Right Here Right Now, Aishwarya Rai dancing to a remix version of Kajra Re, and a charming dance by former Bollywood Queen Madhuri Dixit.

The event was sponsored by Elder Pharmaceuticals, Sony Entertainment Television, Pantaloons, Radio Mirchi and Cineyug Entertainment.