The Razzies, the awards for the worst achievements in cinema for the year 2020, were announced this week. For those who came in late, the Razzies celebrate the “best of the worst” each year. Last year’s unanimous winner was the icky meow of a film called Cats which did to the legendary Broadway musical what Kamal Amrohi did to Razia Sultan.
This year’s nominees for the Razzies include nauseous gems like 365 Days and Fantasy Island in the Worst Picture category. The two films are indeed disgraceful to the extreme, woefully awful. But it must be remembered that 365 Days (on Netflix) made Michele Morrone (don’t read too much into the surname) into an international star with women across the globe wanting to be kidnapped and sexually assaulted by him the way the film’s heroine was shown to do. His social media follower base has resulted and how!
My point is, bad films become successes everywhere in the world. The best thing to do is to laugh about their lowdown quality. The Razzies do just that. And the stars in America are amazingly sporting enough to enjoy the trashing without getting nasty or supercilious about it. Some of them even attend these devaluation functions to claim their award. It’s good for the ego.
The Razzies this year feature distinguished stars like Anna Hathaway (double nomination for Worst Actress for The Last Thing He Wanted and The Witches), Kate Hudson (for Music, a film and performance that I personally liked) and Glenn Close who ironically has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the same film and role that she is up there vying for a Razzie in Hillbilly Elegy.
But ever wondered how would our Bollywood fraternity react if last year’s worst films were nominated for the Indian equivalent of the Razzies? We did have them a few years ago and they were called the Golden Kela Awards. Its organizers were two fearless gentlemen named Anant Singh and Jatin Verma.
But coming back to the Razzies, If I were Robert Downey Jr I would be as happy with my Razberry nomination this year for Worst Actor in Dolittle as the Oscar for Chaplin in 1993. Because the Razzie nod is an acknowledgement of how much is expected from an actor. Of course, laughing out loud at yourself once a while would do no harm.
Image source: IMDb