Dabangg sweeps Uninor Mirchi music awards

MUMBAI: In an era when film music relies upon the formula of a continuous refrain and Sufi notes to attract listeners, a few songs towered above the rest at India’s leading music awards ceremony last night. The Uninor Mirchi Music Awards 2010 powered by Karbonn Mobiles were presented at the MMRDA Complex in Bandra on Thursday.Salman Khan’s Dabangg flexed its muscle in the music industry as well, winning awards for song of the year (Munni Badnam Hui), best music director (Sajid Wajid ), best male (Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for Tere Mast Mast) and female (Mamta Sharma for Munni Badnam) vocalists, best item song (Munni), background score (Sandeep Shirodkar) and album of the year. The eternally young Gulzar was voted the best lyricist for Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji.Mustafa Kutaone won best upcoming vocalist for Beera, while Mamta Sharma won in the same category for Munni. Shiraz Uppal was named best upcoming music director for Aashayein and the Bhadwai Village Mandali were declared upcoming lyricists of the year for Mehngai from Peepli Live.SalmanKhan Afridi and Farhad K Dadybujor won the best song engineer of the year forDil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji while Shankar Ehsaan Loy were awarded the best programmerand arranger of the year for Noor-e-Khuda. Uninor Mirchi listeners’ choiceof song of the year was Sheila Ki Jawani and the Uninor Mirchi listeners’choice album of the year was Once Upon A Time In Mumbai. Thumri from Kohram wasjudged the the best Indipop song. Kare kare badra fro Mirch won best raga-basedsong, while Sajda (My Name Is Khan) was the best Sufisong.Charanjeet Singh Channi, an instrumentalist who has worked onfilms like An Evening In Paris, was rewarded for his outstanding contribution tomusic. Bombay Ravi, the music director who gave us songs like Chaudhavi Ka Chandand those from Waqt, Humraaz and Nikaah, was given the lifetime achievementaward.Rishi Kapoor accepted the award for best album of the goldenera for Barsaat. “It’s the first time I’m accepting a baap kaaward,” joked Kapoor.In keeping with the stature of the awardsceremony, A-list artistes like Shaan and Sonu Nigam took the stage — afirst for this duo. Shaan and Sonu were also the hosts for the evening thatbegan with a bang. Bappi Lahiri danced to I Am A Disco Dancer, while Usha Uthupgrooved to Rambha Ho and the crowd conveniently forgot all about Munni orSheila. Priyanka Chopra and Akshay Kumar took the stage to promote theirupcoming films. In an interesting gimmick, Chopra arrived with sevenbridegrooms.Daler Mehndi and his brother Mika were a rage as wereVishal-Shekhar. Shreya Ghoshal drew hearty applause for her Shukran Allah act.Kailash Kher brought to life his time-tested hit, Teri Deewani. Newcomers NehaBhasin, Master Saleem, Anushka Manchanda, Neeraj Shridhar, Mamta Sharma andAishwarya lifted the tempo with a medley of songs including Kuchh khas hai,Aahun aahun, Let’s rock, and of course, Munni.Uninor MirchiMusic Awards 2010 powered by Karbonn Mobiles were enabled by a host of sponsorsincluding title sponsor Uninor, powered by Karbonn Mobiles, associate sponsorsLIC and Maruti Alto K10, music partner T-Series, partner Antiquity, news partnerTimes Now and online partner radioandmusicdotcom. The style partner wasProvogue, telecast partner Sony Entertainment Television, and the event wassupported by the Singers Association of India and the Music ComposersAssociation of India. The banking partner was Indian OverseasBank.(The Uninor Mirchi Music Awards 2010 powered by Karbonn Mobilesin association with LIC and Maruti Alto K10 will be telecast on February 13 onSony TV by Sony Entertainment Television.)