The winners dress to the nines… and wish the Lux Style Awards had happened!

Maheen Sabeeh
Karachi

The Lux Style Awards did not take place this year. The actual event with the full fireworks of the four industries - fashion, film, music and television - that collectively stands together under one roof, for one night only was replaced. It was as if the show had been desecrated into small pieces, scattered throughout the room. 

For the first time since the inception of the Lux Style Awards in 2002, the show was cut down to a ceremonial photo shoot, which also served as a platform for the media to mingle with the winners and just the winners. No nominees were present either.

While the winners were decked up in stylish garb and holding their trophies, it was a sad state of affairs. Even as the press thronged around superstars like Shaan, the magic moment never happened. The buzz that surrounds the Lux Style Awards evaporated into thin air, leaving one wondering where the show is headed next.

And this pinch was felt by some winners as well. 

“I think the award ceremony should've happened. It's a tense situation but Karachi, I feel, is not that unsafe. By not doing the show, we are putting the unsafe stamp on everything. And if we really take that direction, than what's next? Schools and universities should be closed if it is that unsafe,” said Shehzad Roy when asked how he felt about the LSAs not going forward with an actual ceremony.

Talat Hussain, who picked up the award for Best TV Actor (Terrestrial) for his role in Kabhi Aye Na Judai echoed a similar sentiment.

“It is very unfortunate that we are so insecure in our own country. The show should've happened,” he said.

There were some plus points.

First time LSA nominee and winner Faisal Rafi, who shared the award for Best Music Director with Rohail Hyatt for Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's Charkha, dedicated the award to Ahmed Anis, the poet behind the album, and to Fateh Ali Khan and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

“This award is for them. It's a tribute to these people,” said Faisal Rafi.

Maria Wasti admitted that working in Ramchand Pakistani was a thrilling experience.“I worked with quite a few of the team before because I am a television actor. The experience was fantastic.”

When asked how she felt about the show being cancelled, Maria said, “We can look at everything in two ways. We can either shut off or we can look at the things that are happening and hope for things to improve.”

Shehzad Roy admitted that winning an award for Qismat Apnay Haath Mein, a record with heavy socio-political undertones, was an encouraging sign.

“The fact that Qismat Apnay Haath Mein can win despite being a politically charged album is encouraging and goes to show that such music can be appreciated.”

The optimistic Khawar Riaz, who picked up Best Fashion Photographer, admitted that the show should've happened. But also stated that “even if the show didn't happen, this photo-op happened and that's still something.”

Ameer Zeb Khan, who won Best Male Model for the third consecutive time, was thrilled to win. “Things are tough and the situation in the country is difficult. But one can't stop living. Things have taken a hit, but they haven't stopped and one can only hope it gets better.”

Maria Wasti got it right. One can hope it gets better…

And the winners are…

CINEMA

Film of the Year
Ramchand Pakistani

Best Film Actor
Shaan in Zille Shah

Best Film Actress
Maria Wasti in Ramchand Pakistani

MUSIC

Best Music Album
Qismat Apnay Haath Mein by Shehzad Roy

Best Music Video Director
Ahsan Rahim for 'Laga Reh' by Shehzad Roy

Best Music Director
Rohail Hyatt and Faisal Rafi for Charkha by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan

Song of the Year
'Khwabon Key Rishtey' by Najam Sheraz

FASHION

Model of the Year (Female)
Nadia Hussain

Model of the Year (Male)
Ameer Zeb Khan

Best Emerging Talent
(0-3 years)
Aaminah Sheikh

Best Fashion Photographer
Khawar Riaz

Best Hair and Make up Artist
Akef Ilyas

Achievement in Fashion
Design – Couture
Sana Safinaz

Achievement in Fashion
Design – Pret
Iman Ahmed at Body Focus

Best Menswear Designer
Ismail Farid

Best Retail Brand
Generations

TELEVISION

Best TV Serial (Terrestrial)
Thora Saa Aasmaan

Best TV Director (Terrestrial)
Shah Bilal for Nautanki

Best TV Actor (Terrestrial)
Talat Hussain in Kabhi Aye Naa Judai

Best TV Actress (Terrestrial)
Saima in Nautanki

Best TV Serial (Satellite)
Khamoshian

Best TV Director (Satellite)
Babar Javed for Jhumka Jan

Best TV Actor (Satellite)
Noman Ijaz in Khamoshian

Best TV Actress (Satellite)
Sania Saeed in Jhumka Jan

A comedy which isn’t; and great animation let down by dearth of content

Couples Retreat
Dir: Peter Billingsley
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Malik Akerman, Kristen Davis, Kristen Bell, Faizon Love

Comedy superstar Vince Vaughn and Iron Man director Jon Favreau are old cohorts having made their initial splash together with the Favreau-directed Swingers. Now they team up again to co-write Couples Retreat, ostensibly an exercise in comedic reflection on marital relationships but which plays more like every paunchy (Vaughn, Favreau, Bateman all carry substantial amounts of flesh around their middles while Faizon Love is more like a beached whale) middle-aged guy's fantasy in which he's married to a really hot chick (Malin Akerman and the two Kristen's carry not an ounce of extra flesh a fact they readily reveal in skimpy bikinis) and gets to play Guitar Hero (there's a very extended product plug sequence in the movie) all day long.

There is potential here in the set-up as four couples take off to an island retreat for some rest and relaxation as well as some couple's therapy. At least three of the couples deny that they need any counselling but are, of course, surprised to learn that there still something that they can learn about relationships. This gives us a few funny scenes and a couple of zingers aimed at married couples but ultimately the comedy ends up being forced and there is really nothing revelatory in the movie. Even comedies can provide insights about the human condition and relationships but, unfortunately, Couples Retreat isn't one of them.

Cut to chase: Had potential but has you beating a retreat by the end.

9
Dir: Shane Acker
Starring: (voices of) Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau

Visually 9 is a haunting and atmospheric - you wouldn't expect anything else from a film which boasts amongst its producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, the Russian director of Night Watch and Angelina Jolie's Wanted - post-apocalyptic tale. The feature - expanded from Shane Acker's Oscar-nominated short - boasts some brilliant animation which is fascinating in its details. The first scene is particularly effective as a human hand stitches together a rag-doll kind of creature (the 9th of 9) which will, as it turns out, hold the key to the future of humanity. There are also some lovely, lyrical moments such as when our intrepid heroes come across an old LP recording of Judy Garland's ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ which they play delightedly on an old cranked up gramophone.

However, the 80 minute film is a bit threadbare in its story details. The future scenario borrows heavily from films like Terminator where humans and machines battle it out and the humans end up on the receiving end and the content is fuzzy in the details. What exactly is “the beast”? Why did it go to sleep in the first place? How exactly are our 9 heroes going to restore humanity? These, and so many other questions linger after the film ends. This ends up putting the film in the interesting curiosity category rather than the instant classic that it could have been.

Cut to chase: Visually arresting but ultimately threadbare science-fiction animated feature.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Dir: Chris Miller and Phil Lord
Starring: (voices of) Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Neil Patrick Harris

Cloudy is theoretically based on a popular children's book from the 80s but veers substantially from the source material. The movie tells the tale of young inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) who - after many failures and partial successes - finally comes up with a winning discovery: a machine that can transform water into the food of your choice. The invention also transforms - to the delight of the gluttonous mayor - the fortunes of Flint's hometown Swallow Falls, a fishing town which has fallen on hard times with a downturn in the global sardine trade. Soon the town is awash in mountains of giant edibles and Flint starts to get carried away in the first flush of excess.

But - as all good fairytales will tell you - gluttony, greed and excess will eventually lead to your downfall if you are not careful. Will Flint learn to listen to his better instincts and to potential girlfriend, TV weathergirl Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) and rescue Swallow Falls from an invention run amok? What do you think? Or, more importantly, will you care?

You can jazz up an animated feature with splashy colours and fancy 3-D and have it voiced by popular actors but if you don't have an interesting story to tell with engaging characters and the dialogue falls flat then you don't have much of a movie. For these very reasons Cloudy becomes a chore to sit through and its 90 minutes feels more like three hours.

Cut to chase: The tedium of this movie doesn't let the sunshine in.

Email: Kmumtaz1@hotmail.com; Web: khusromumtaz.wordpress.com

From Ranbir to Imran:
Deepika moves on

Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor are together no more and Deepika is apparently working over time to fill up the loveless void in her life. She has agreed on projects with Ashutosh Gowarikar, Kunal Kohli and Pradeep Sarkar and while all are star studded, big budget films; it is Kunal Kohli's untitled project that has fired up everyone's imagination and given birth to many a scandalous headline. The reason for that is Deepika's hero in the film: Imran Khan. He is being floundered as the man to fill the loveless void in her life. That he is engaged to be married soon is just a slight inconvenience, it is being said.

Of course, this could all be vicious gossip but then again, gossip is what the cine-screen thrives on!

The interesting thing is the fact that Imran and Ranbir are best friends. So news of Deepika getting together with Imran is kind of akin to Deeps 'reuniting' with Yuvraj Singh. If you remember, the media went berserk over the smile he sent in Deepika's direction when he came on stage at an event.

In reality, as it would appear, Deepika has no time to even sit down with a box of tissues and weep through a sappy film. She has been so busy with her film schedule, cameo appearances and the many product endorsements she has taken on that she is finally ready to take a break.

A close family member of hers is getting married in the US and Deepika will soon be flying out to join her family and spend about two weeks with them before she gets back to work. She's probably hoping that the gossip mills will have found something to obsess over by the time she returns. And one doesn't see that happening until Deepika and Ranbir actually give people closure and convince them that they really have broken up.

According to a source close to the couple, the two still call up each other more than a few times a day - we have to wonder if this love boat has completely sunk yet! Expect more from the gossip mills…

Forbes lists Tom Cruise at the sixth most overpaid actor

In the last few years, Tom Cruise has been a tabloid darling for his religious beliefs and being ecstatically in love with Katie Holmes, 17 years his junior, and his views on post-partum depression. But at the moment he has more to his credit than dotty antics: he has been named number sixth most overpaid actor based on work he done in the last five years and how many theatres those films played in. Now it would seem that Tom Cruise has worked out contracts with studios where he gives up getting paid upfront but takes a huge cut of first-dollar-gross. Which basically means that whether the film bombs or not, Tom still laughs all the way to his bank while studio heads wring their hands in despair.

The studio deals Tom cuts are not the only ones which are eyebrow-raising, albeit very clever.

Though Tom's attorneys deny this, it is rumoured that his pre-nup with Katie Holmes is sort of strange - sort of like the whole Tom Cruise package itself. The 'marriage contract' allegedly states that if Katie manages to stay married to Tom for a whole seven years and produces two children with him, she will benefit from some amazing monetary perks. Its downside is that according to an 'inside source' every little bit of Katie's life is “orchestrated” by Tom and “she hates it.” Tom's attorneys stick up for their employer though and say that Tom does anything that he does for Katie's own good, as he loves her so much.

The couple have recently celebrated their third wedding anniversary early in New England which certain reports dub as romantic, while others claim Katie's first reaction upon walking into the restaurant as being “where's everyone?” However the silver lining, if Katie Holmes wants to see it, is that the seven years are halfway through and she has given birth to one of the two offspring Tom Cruise has asked for. The alimony schedule, as stated in the alleged marriage contract is reportedly a very generous one!

Marc Jacobs rubbishes the CFDA awards

It's good to know that Pakistan isn't the only country in the world riddled with fashion politics and diva behaviour. Over in the USA, acclaimed designer Marc Jacobs is behaving exactly the same way regarding the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards as we have witnessed many designers react to Pakistan's Lux Style Awards. He spoke recently at the WWD CEO Summit:

“There's now the CFDA fund, which I know is set to help young people. I had a big issue with the CFDA back in my Perry Ellis days, because I really didn't see what they were doing for the designers. I went to a meeting, and Ralph [Lauren] was there and Donna [Karan] was there, and everyone thought they should be the one to choose the best photographer of the year. I just felt this is not for me. I just didn't want to be part of their reindeer games. And I didn't feel part of this self-congratulatory American fashion industry thing. I didn't mind if they wanted to do it; I just didn't find it that interesting. But maybe in some way it gives people encouragement,” he said.

He added that he wouldn't go to the annual CFDA Awards if he didn't have to.

"My team and I, we've gone to the CFDA awards year after year after year, and we always feel we've done the best collection. That's not to say there aren't other great collections....I don't believe in these prizes. I don't watch the Academy Awards or the Emmys or the Tonys. I only go to the CFDAs because if I don't go, Anna Wintour calls up and says, 'You have to go because you're part of the American fashion industry, da da da da da,' and you can't say no to her. So you sit through this thing as everyone tells you you're going to get it, and then you don't get it, and then everyone tells you it should have been you. You're like, whatever. You go home empty handed one more time, and it's fine. We have nine of them including from years when they were perhaps not as well deserved,” he said.

It's reassuring to know that fashion designers have a common streak anywhere in the world!