New Delhi: The love story between a hearing and speech impaired boy and an autistic girl melt the hearts of the audiences but was heavily snubbed at the National Film Awards on Monday. Despite winning accolades at almost all other award functions, 'Barfi' failed to score even a single win at Indian cinema's most respectable awards.
'Barfi!' star cast Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra did pick up several awards at various Bollywood award functions, including - Filmfare Award for best film and best actor, Zee Cine Award for best actor and actress (popular choice).
Chopra, who had won a National Award for 'Fashion' in 2009, must be disappointed to miss out on her second trophy despite a stellar performance in 'Barfi!'. In an interview to PTI, she said, "I am feeling bad that 'Barfi' did not win a National Award. But then it is up to the jury why they did not give the award".
Interestingly, 'Barfi!' was India's official entry to the Oscars and had beaten Tigmanshu Dhulia's 'Paan Singh Tomar' to make it to the Oscars list for Best Foreign Language Film category. 'Paan Singh Tomar' won the best feature film National award and Irrfan shared the best actor trophy with Marathi actor Vikram Gokhale.
Though 'Barfi!' was both a critical and commercial success, the film received flak for allegedly plagiarising certain scenes from world masters.
Director Anurag Basu had said repeatedly at that time that the film's scenes that resembled famous Hollywood and Indian films were meant as tribute to the actors who starred in it.
Though lobbying is a big part of any serious cinema awards, the National Awards jury has always been highly respected for their outlook towards progressive, original cinema. It could be one of the reasons why Barfi, despite a gripping execution, endearing premise and brilliant performances from its lead cast lost out on cinema's biggest recognition.
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