The Lux Style Awards are refreshingly in sync with the global awards season this year. Juries got together to decide nominations as soon as 2017 tuned out, instead of waiting for half the year to blow over; the awards themselves will be taking place in Lahore by the end of February.
We just received the list of nominations for the entertainment categories – film, music and television – and here are the Film Nominations, with our opinion on who we’d like to see winning. We’ll analyze the music and TV nominations for you tomorrow.
Best Film
Balu Mahi
Chupan Chupai
Na Maloom Afraad 2
Punjab Nahi Jaungi
Verna
This is a jury award otherwise we would have voted for Punjab Nahi Jaungi, undeniably the most enjoyable and solid film to release in Pakistan this year. We don’t know how Balu Mahi got in the list (or Verna, for that matter) but it was obviously due to lack of competition more than anything else. We would have preferred to see Chalay Thay Sath here instead. LSA snub: Mehrunisa V Lub U. Let’s see who the jury selects for this one!
Best Actor
Ahsan Khan in Chupan Chupai
Fahad Mustafa in Na Maloom Afraad 2
Humayun Saeed in Punjab Nahi Jaungi
Mohsin Abbas in Na Maloom Afrad 2
Osman Khalid Butt in Balu Mahi
We can’t see how Osman Khalid Butt, who we are extremely fond of, could be nominated over Shaan Shahid, who we are just as offended by these days. Shaan had a terrible anti-critic meltdown post Arth 2 BUT he is a better actor, we’ll be fair enough to admit. And although Fahad Mustafa is stellar as an actor, our vote would go to Humayun Saeed, who portrayed Fawad Khagga to perfection. LSA snub: Danish Taimur for Mehrunisa V Lub U
Best Actress
Ainy Jaffri in Balu Mahi
Mahira Khan in Verna
Mehwish Hayat in Punjab Nahi Jaungi
Uzma Hasan in Arth 2
Neelum Muneer in Chupan Chupai
At the risk of seeing Punjab Nahi Jaungi sweep the awards, we do see this going to Mehwish Hayat although it’s going to be tough competition between Mehwish and Mahira Khan. As lovely as Ainy Jafri and Neelum Munir are, we don’t see how they overshadowed Urwa Hocane in Rangreza though. Another major snub: Sana Javed in Mehrunisa V Luv U. This is a viewer’s choice award so it could be anyone between Mehwish and Mahira. Exciting!
Best Film Director
Haisaam Hussain for Balu Mahi
Mohsin Ali for Chupan Chupai
Nabeel Qureshi for Na Maloom Afraad 2
Nadeem Baig for Punjab Nahi Jaungi
Shoaib Mansoor for Verna
Balu Mahi inexplicably seems to be a favourite this year, despite the fact that it neither did well at the box office or with the critics. But from this list we’d again choose Nadeem Baig for Punjab Nahi Jaungi. Shoaib Mansoor appears to have been selected on his past history because Verna was undeniably one of the worst directed movies of the year. This is a Jury Award so it’s up to the experts to be fair.
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Best Supporting Actor
Ali Rizvi in Chupan Chupai
Faizan Khawaja in Chupan Chupai
Sohail Ahmed in Punjab Nahi Jaungi
Javed Sheikh in Na Maloom Afraad 2
Gohar Rasheed in Rangreeza
We can’t see how Zarrar Khan, one of the strongest elements in Verna, was overlooked in this category! But from this list, it’s a cinch for Gohar Rasheed in Rangreza.
Best Supporting Actress
Durdana Butt in Balu Mahi
Humaima Malik in Arth 2
Sadaf Kanwal in Balu Mahi
Urwa Hocane in Punjab Nahi Jaungi
Zhalay Sarhadi in Chalay Thay Saath
This will be a tough call between Urwa Hocane in PNJ and Humaima Malick in Arth and we personally loved both performances but are pretty confident that Urwa will pick up the award because her character was a breakthrough in the movie. ‘Help me, Durdana’ will go down in history!
Best Singer (Male) – Film
Adnan Dhool for ‘Sadqa‘ from Chupan Chupai
Haroon Shahid for ‘Sambhal Sambhal’ from Verna
Mohsin Haider Abbas for ‘Heeray’ from Na Maloom Afraad 2
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for ‘Sawaar De’ from Arth 2
Sahir Ali Bagga for ‘Murshid Jee’ from Arth 2
This is an exciting category and it boasts a diverse crop of musicians. We would do a toss between ‘Sambhal Sambhal‘ from Verna and ‘Murshid Jee‘ from Arth 2, with our personal vote for the latter, a superior song. We don’t know why Rahat isn’t listed on the nominations for it too; he was just as much part of the song.
 Best Singer (Female) – Film
Aima Baig for ‘Kaif O Soroor’ from Na Maloom Afraad 2
Aima Baig for ‘Sadqa’ from Chupan Chupai
Jonita Ghandi for ‘Bagiya’ from Rangreeza
Nirmal Roy for ‘Raunaq-e-Aashiqui’ from Punjab Nahi Jaungi
Sana Zulfiqar for ‘Aadat’ from Arth 2
These are all good songs but not any one is quite as memorable as ‘Bagiya’ from Rangreza. We’d like to see Jonita Gandhi receive this one. Vote for her people!
 - Voting for the Viewer’s Choice categories will be on www.luxstyle.pk/lsa2018/nominees/vote-now/
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