The 64th National Film Awards for the Indian film industry will go down in cinematic history as one of the most unconventional awards ever given to the film fraternity of India for the excellence in their respective fields. As per the tradition, irrespective of the clout of the Hindi segment of the Indian film industry, every region was given their genuine due. However, one decision that grabbed the most eyeballs, is that of rewarding the National Award for the Best Actor to Bollywood actor and a martial arts expert in himself, Rajiv Hariom Bhatia, or as we know him better, Akshay Kumar.
Akshay Kumar needs no introduction. Having come from the famous old lane of Chandni Chowk, the humble son of an illustrious military officer rose from being a waiter in the restaurants of Bangkok in Thailand, to one of the most versatile actors in the Hindi film industry. Akshay Kumar, like Nana Patekar, is one of the rare actors, who actually mean what he says. Ever since he returned to serious acting through Umesh Shukla’s ‘Oh My God’, Akshay Kumar is giving us infinite reasons to admire him, be it his affection for the soldiers, or his commitment to the benevolent policies of the national government, notwithstanding the fact that he is now an overseas citizen of India, with an additional citizenship of Canada.
So what is the controversy regarding the National Award bestowed? Whyis Akshay Kumar being castigated and hounded by many critics, who are castigating the National Awards jury for having bestowed Akshay Kumar with the honor?
However, the head of the jury which gave the award, acclaimed filmmaker Priyadarshan, clarified the reason for which Akshay was given the award. The one glitch that was usurped by scheming pseudo liberals and pseudo intellectuals to roast Akshay Kumar apart was the nomination of the film he received for. Since Akshay had starred in Airlift, which was far better, in terms of both content and Akshay’s acting, the jury was in a dilemma, and in the heat of the moment, sent the entry for the Best Actor with Rustom, and not for Airlift, for which Akshay actually deserves the National award.
One technical error, just one technical error, and that was all the anti Indian gang needed to castigate. Forget his merit [far better than the current stream of top Bollywood actors], forget his contributions, Akshay won the award just because he is a stooge of Modi. Does caring for soldiers and contributing to the benevolent government policies make you a stooge of Modi? I mean, what sort of brain insolvency these so called liberals and media personnel possess?
I never saw such an outrage when Saif Ali Khan was accorded with a National Award for Hum Tum, which is ten times worse than even Rustom in its worst state. May I know why Zaira Wasim was the sole recipient of the Best Supporting Actress National Award for her role in Dangal, when in fact Suhani Bhatnagar, Sanya Malhotra as young and adult Babita Phogat and Fatima Sana Sheikh as adult Geeta Phogat acted equally well? Why such double standards, may I know?
Speaking of the double standards, if these people are crying over Manoj Bajpai not receiving the National award for Aligarh or Randeep Hooda for Sarbjit, let me tell you what these liberals and intellectuals actually practice. They’re the same folks who’d refuse to rate ‘Buddha in a Traffic Jam’ without even watching it, just because it doesn’t suit their ideologies? They’re the same people who’ll recommend the audience to watch an ‘Azhar’ over ‘Sarbjit’, just because ‘Azhar’ has more glamor and spice than ‘Sarbjit’, and these very folks cry foul on the selection of Akshay Kumar for the Best Actor, just because he subscribes to the ideals of nationalism. Hypocrisy on a high, eh?
Is it because Akshay Kumar doesn’t subscribe to the standards set by Indian liberals? Is it because Akshay Kumar actually does what he means? To tell the truth, Akshay Kumar, despite being a Canadian [if at all he is], is far more Indian, than the so called top Bollywood actors, one of whom even thought of leaving the country, just because his wife got terrified by the crafted episode of ‘INTOLERANCE’! Does it hurt dear liberals? Maybe they want to bring him down, because their so called idols can’t even perform half of what Akshay Kumar is actually doing. Paying tributes to soldiers, awakening the masses on issues like sanitization, women empowerment, and even paying glorious visits to our sporting history, through GOLD, I doubt if the so called top Bollywood even do half of what Akshay does. The only people who can match Akshay in terms of such service are the folks from South, and to an extent, people like Manoj, Randeep Hooda, Nawazuddin as the list goes on. I hope we haven’t forgotten the likes of Rajinikanth, Mammootty, Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, have we?
To tell the truth, whatever be the case, our anti Indian brigade won’t stop stuffing their agenda into everything, their crying foul on Akshay Kumar’s nomination being the latest. Even if we sneeze right, they hate it, because it’s RIGHT! Once, lyricist and poet Shyam Lal Parshad had written a verse in praise of our national flag, ‘ Jhanda Uncha Rahe Hamara’ [Let our Flag Fly High]. Given their outrage against Akshay Kumar, I’d twist it a bit for these pseudo liberals, ‘Vijayi Vishwa Lal Salaam Pyaara, Agenda Uncha Rahe Hamara’ [What is loved is the world conquering Red Salute, Let our Agenda Fly High]