The Nominations for the Film Categories of the 18th Lux Style Awards have been announced and they feature a change in the format. Some categories have been melded together while the others featured surprise nominations.
The nominations for Best Actor Male include the golden boy of Pakistani cinema Fahad Mustafa for “Load Wedding” and film debutante Ali Zafar for “Teefa in Trouble”. Adnan Malik and Mohammad Ahmed have both been nominated for their respective roles in “Cake”. However, the biggest surprise is Ahmed Ali Butt’s nomination for “JPNA 2” instead of Humayun Saeed. Now Mr. Butt’s inclusion makes these nominations seem all the more different. And they’re a welcome change to the list of nominees we’re used to seeing year on year. One reason for this unconventional nomination is that the ‘Supporting Actor/Actress’ categories have been removed altogether.
The Best Actor Female nominations feature Sanam Saeed and Aamina Sheikh for “Cake”, Sohai Ali Abro for “Motorcycle Girl”, Mehwish Hayat for “Load Wedding”, and Hajra Yamin for the critically acclaimed “Pinky Memsaab”. The list is filled with actresses playing roles of strong, independent women, some fictional and some based on real events.
The nominees for Best Playback Singer (male and female) have been melded together in to one category. The iconic Arif Lohar is nominated for “Tillay Waali Jooti” from JPNA 2, Atif Aslam is nominated for Parwaz Hai Junoons song “Thaam Lo”, Mulazim Hussain and Missal Zaidi have been jointly nominated for singing “Rangeya” in Load Wedding, and The Sketches and Natasha Baig have been nominated for “Meri Duniya” in Cake.
The odd one out here is Shuja Haider for singing “Donkey Raja” in The Donkey King which just looks like a filler nomination for an otherwise unremarkable song. We beleive, Azhar Abbas for “Kooch Na Karin” in Load Wedding, Shiraz Upal for “Behka Re” from JPNA 2 and Aima Baig for Teefa in Trouble’s could have been nominated instead.
The Best Director category contains no surprises at all. Ahsan Rahim has been nominated for “Teefa in Trouble”, no doubt for his groundbreaking action choreography in Pakistani cinema. Asim Abbasi has been nominated for “Cake”, for delivering a sombre, realistic atmosphere to story worth telling. Haseeb Hassan has been nominated for “Parwaz Hai Junoon” for showcasing the lives of the pilots in the Pakistan air force. Nabeel Quraishi is nominated for “Load Wedding”, for hitting it out of the park again with a socially conscious comedy drama, and Nadeem Baig has been nominated for “JPNA 2” for delivering an out and out entertainer for the masses.
The nominations for Best Film include “Cake”, “JPNA 2”, “Load Wedding”, “Teefa in Trouble”, and “Motorcycle Girl”, mirroring expectations all around. However, the list should’ve included “The Donkey King” for not only delivering the highest grossing animated film in Pakistani history as well as being the surprise hit of the year, but also for delivering a very clever political satire in the form of a children’s film.
There are still no awards for Cinematography, Special Effects or Choreography which is understandable since those aspects aren’t exactly hot topics in Pakistan. However, a Special Mention award or a Jury Award should be designated for special achievements each year, such as Teefa in Trouble’s action choreography, or great strides in animation such as “3 Bahadur: Rise of the Warriors” or “The Donkey King”.
18th Lux Style Awards main event will take place in Karachi on July 7.
