MUMBAI:

The Bollywood awards calendar started by showcasing and recognising the talent, charisma and style at the Nokia 14th Annual Star Screen Awards, which was presented on January 10.

Flames erupted on stage and leaped up to touch the evening sky when Shah Rukh Khan danced as he only he can to Dard-e-Disco. The glittering evening also belonged to Darsheel Safary, who so quietly lit up the screen as the little boy with dyslexia in Taare Zameen Par. Darsheel won the special jury award for best actor as well as for the best child actor. The evening belonged to Aamir Khan’s directorial debut Taare Zameen Par.

And if Aamir wasn’t there, it didn’t really seem to matter. His huge cut out watched from a seat at the Taare table.

Along with glamour was the large-heartedness of Bollywood was also on show. As he accepted the award for best newcomer (male) for son Ranbir, Rishi Kapoor graciously included his “other son” in his speech — Neil Nitin Mukesh, who had been nominated in the same category as Ranbir.

It was an evening when few were spared. The joke was on everyone, on the critics, who criticise all films that go on to become hits, and all those who caught host Sajid Khan’s merciless eye and many who didn’t.

Manoj Kumar provided the mellow moment of the awards night as he accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award. He hadn’t found the path he set out to look for, he said, but on the way, he had found so much more.

The mood of the evening was set by Amrita Arora and Dia Mirza who performed to a medley of hits from last year. Energy levels shot up when Ritiesh Deshmukh made a grand entry on top of a kitsch-kooky truck, dancing to drumbeats. He danced to Hey Babyy and Mast Qalandar.

Katrina Kaif shimmied to songs from her hit movies of the year. However, there was much more starry action in store for the audience when Shahid Kapur shook a leg to Mauja hi Mauja and Nagara nagara from Jab We Met. Kapur’s frenzy was only upstaged by someone who Rekha called “The man with 18-pack abs”, SRK himself.

Accepting the Ramnath Goenka award for best film, Parzania director Rahul Dholakia gently reminded the audience that Dara and Rupa Mody’s son, missing since the madness of 2002 from his home in Gujarat, has not yet come back home. Parzania is the story of the Modys’ search for their son.