Filmfare awards show promises mega surprises

mumbai: one's a native of switzerland, the other has showcased the alpine country in innumerable bollywood films. and by that logic, it makes perfect sense for them to share a stage. this distinctive event__the felicitation of veteran film-maker yash chopra by sixties' hollywood bombshell ursula andress__will take place on saturday, february 16, at the 47th annual manikchand filmfare awards.and it's just one of the numerous surprises lined up for the mega-event. the dr no sex symbol (now a dignified sexagenarian), who's being brought down by swiss consul general joseph rengli, has several more global performers for company. for starters, there's the british pop duo, right said fred, which is in india courtesy bmg crescendo and will open the show with its chartbusting numbers, among them the current fave `love song'. then there's luma, the spellbinding lumiere show from the u.s. that sculpts light into dynamic forms that dance, spin, orbit and twirl__it promises, in its own words, an enchanting journey into a world `where fireflies dance, gods of lightning do battle, moon maidens spin above the clouds and underwater creatures depict the cycle of life and death'. the desi starlight comes from the bollywood brigade, where a clutch of stars from akshay kumar and fardeen khan to urmila matondkar and amisha patel are scheduled to perform. akshay and bipasha basu will boogey to the rumbustious mehbooba, mehbooba from ajnabee, while fardeen and urmila will recreate kambakht ishq.. from pyar tune kya kiya. debutants arjun rampal and diya mirza are set to groove to a selection of numbers from their films deewanapan, moksh and pyaar, ishq aur mohabbat, while the petite amisha patel, in a departure from award-night tradition, will perform a global pop medley. if the filmfare awards are like a bollywood extravaganza, the naach-gaana isn't complete without the comedy track. and so you have johnny lever doing the famous aslam bhai song from love ke liye kuch bhi karega and a couple of skits along with aftab shivdasani. complementing lever's comic genius with his own razor-sharp wit is the irrepressible jaaved jaaferi, who's mcing the show along with archana puran singh. but, again, this isn't the usual sutradhar act, there's a twist here too. amidst the merriment, there's a tad of sobriety in the form of a tribute to the late ashok kumar. an audio-visual on his life and work will be screened as filmfare's homage to one of hindi cinema's most enduring legends. as for the awards themselves, they're being contested by veterans, top-of-the-pops and freshers alike. karan johar's star-loaded kabhi khushi kabhie gham has as many as 12 nominations, while aamir khan and ashutosh gowariker's oscar-nominated lagaan and anil sharma's gadar follow with eight each. debutant farhan akhtar's dil chahta hai has seven nominations, while santosh sivan's asoka has four. remains to be seen who snaps up the actual statuettes. the manikchand filmfare awards nite will be telecast live on sony entertainment television from 9 p.m. onwards. don't forget to tune in.