The 9th Royal Stag MIRCHI MUSIC AWARDS: An unforgettable night of music and ‘masti’

By

Sharada Iyer

Being a die-hard fan of Hindi films and an ardent lover of Hindi film music, I was thrilled to get an opportunity to attend this year’s Mirchi Music Awards held on 18^th February, 2017. Though this was the 9^th year of these awards, this was the first time the function was thrown open to the general public and the tickets were sold online through ‘BookMyShow’.

For those who may not be aware, the Mirchi Music Awards were instituted by the FM radio station ‘Radio Mirchi’ in 2009 to honour both the artistic and technical excellence of the professionals in the Hindi film music industry of that particular year. The awards are given in seventeen different categories and include awards like Best Arranger, Best Sound Engineer, Best Song Mixing, etc. apart from the usual ones like Best Lyricist, Best Composer, Best Singer, etc. These winners are chosen by an eminent team of jury members which include lyricists, composers, singers and film directors and the jury this time was headed by veteran lyricist, writer and poet Javed Akhtar.

Source: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirchi_Music_Awards)        (http://www.mirchimusicawards.com/?rm983=mma)

A night to remember:

Unlike the innumerable Bollywood award shows held throughout the year where the film stars hog the entire limelight, here the focus was only on the music fraternity of Bollywood- the inimitable veterans, the upcoming young talents and the current top-notch favourites…

I have seen so many award shows on Television and YouTube but nothing can match up to seeing the actual event live.Indeed it is not every day that one gets to attend such a unique award show…so not wanting to miss out on any part of the fun, I had booked my ticket well in advance and procured a seat in one of the front rows- the ‘Diamond’ row!!!

The show was being held at NSCI Dome, Worli (National Sports Complex of India). As I reached an hour ahead of the show time, the excitement at the venue was palpable. Each person entering was greeted with a huge smile making us feel like a celebrity and there were plenty of volunteers to guide us personally to our seat…

The atmosphere inside the dome was charged, the stage decoration looked exciting and the fabulous semi-circular seating arrangement of the dome ensured that the stage would be visible beautifully from wherever one was seated. A surprise gift in the form of an attractive hamper of pastries and cookies had been kept on the chairs for people seated in the first few rows of the seats…and yes, my ‘Diamond’ row was one of them !

While some last minute final touches were being done for the show to begin, the previous year’s programmes were being screened on two giant TV screens on either side of the stage. Finally the programme commenced around 8.00 pm with a medley of the hit songs of 2016 with the younger generation of singers like Amit Mishra ( ‘Bulleya’ song) Aman Trikha ( ‘Jaaneman aah’ song ), Jonita Gandhi (‘Break-up’ song), Aditi Singh Sharma (‘High heels Te Nachhe’ song) singing their hit songs while dancers from Shiamak Davar’s dance troupe performed energetically to these songs.

Sonu Nigam who was the host of the evening conducted the program excellently and with his magical voice he regaled the audience with many superb songs. He also had a good sense of humour and turned out to be great mimic as well. With a line-up of artistes which included the legendary Usha Uthup who walked away with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ to the current heart-throb of the music industry Arijit Singh who won the ‘Best Male Vocalist’ of the year for the song ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’, the evening turned magical with every performance…

When Karan Johar was called on stage to be honoured with ‘Mirchi Make it Large’ award for his immense contribution to Bollywood music, many of the older lot of singers like Shaan and Udit Narayan, music director Jatin Pandit and Sonu Nigam himself sang a few lines of  some  of the melodious songs from his films.

The young sensational musical duo of Armaan Mallik and Amaal Mallik (Anu Mallik’s nephews) sang superbly and so did newcomers Jubin Nautyal, Papon, Jonita Gandhi, Neha Bhasin and Aditi Singh Sharma. The King of Rap- Badshah and veteran Sukhvinder Singh brought the house down with their unique style of rendering.

Amaal Mallik and Armaan Mallik

Usha Uthup received a standing ovation when she took her award from Anandji (of Kalyanji-Anandji fame). Incidentally they were the ones who first gave her an opportunity to sing in Hindi films with a small part in a song from Purab aur Pashchim.

The two young sensations- Sartaj and Sarvar Khan Barna– discovered by music director Pritam and who sang the immensely popular track ‘Haanikaarak Bapu’ from the film Dangal were awarded the ‘Best Upcoming Male Artistes of the Year’. When they sang their award-winning song, there was no doubt in anybody’s mind regarding the magic in their voices.

The film ‘Basant Bahar’ (1956) received the award for the ‘Best Album from Golden Era’ and as a special gesture any one family member (son/daughter/wife) of the people associated with the album were invited on the stage to receive the award. So Pallavi Jaikishen, Shahid Rafi, Dinesh Shailendra, and Kishwari Jaipuri were all invited on stage and as the audience welcomed them with resounding applause and with the songs of the film being played in the background, everyone present felt a tinge of nostalgia remembering the music of the days gone by…

Some film promotions also took place. We had the young stars Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan (to promote Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya) as well as Anushka Sharma and Diljit Dosanjh ( to promote Phillauri) on the stage dancing and announcing some awards. Alia Bhatt- one of the finest talents to enter the industry in recent times looks even more youthful, charming and petite in person than she does on the screen and all in the audience went crazy just looking at her…

We had directors Ramesh Sippy and Subhash Ghai, actors Jimmy Shergill and Shilpa Shetty and even cricketer Virendra Sehwag called upon to give some of the awards.

Not surprisingly, the film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil won most of the honours- Album of the Year, Best Music Director, Best Song , Best Male Vocalist and Best Lyricist…

Here is the audio of Channa Meriya with lyrics …it won the ‘Song of the year’ and  Amitabh Bhattachrya won the’Best lyricist of the Year’…

‘Listener’s choice Song of the year award went to ‘Soch Na Sake’ from Airlift…

Female Vocalist of the Year–Jonita Gandhi for the song ‘Gilehriyaan’ from Dangal:

The program went on till almost 2.00 am but neither the enthusiasm of the audience nor the energy level of the performers waned. As the program came to an end I carried with me memories of an unforgettable night and it was a surreal feeling of having been part of the glitz and glamour of the film world albeit for a short time…

An afterthought:

Songs have always been an integral and inseparable part of our films and yet the people associated with the music of films- the lyricist, the arranger, the sound engineer, the composer and the singer take a backseat as compared to the stars acting and doing the lip-synching in the film. Kudos to  Radio Mirchi  for instituting these awards exclusively for acknowledging and encouraging the music fraternity!

For those who are interested, here is a link to a blog-post I had written on the best songs of 2016: ( https://myviewsonbollywood.wordpress.com/2016/12/)