The Padma Awards - are they any good

The Padma Awards have become a joke and have lost its prestige and value. Padma Awards have been creating more controversy every year. The Padma Awards have become more like a tender. There are far too many recipients for Padma Awards. Lot of them have not done enough to be awarded with Padma awards. It is a shame. They have not been fair in their judgments and undeserving has got the award. I don't understand their criteria of selection. Let's take an example of actor Saif Ali Khan. Does he really deserve Padma Shri? His body of work has not been exceptional. He was earlier awarded National Award for the movie 'HumTum' with the support of Sharmila Tagore in the board. You are awarding National Award for such a cheap role. He is a divorcee and has been having affairs with several women.

Is he a right role model? He is also in a criminal case for being involved in Black Buck case. He had no solo hits in first ten years of his career and he has only mostly been successful in multi starrers. Take another example, Rekha is being awarded Padma Shri now and Aishwariya Rai has been given before her. Rekha has great body of work. Whereas Aishwariya Rai is still not considered good actress by lot of critics and people. Bachan Parivaar would have used their clout? In next 2 years, Abhishek Bachan would be getting Padma Shri. Anything can happen in our Padma Awards.

I am also surprised with Aamir Khan winnng Padma Vibhushan so soon. He was awarded with Padma Shri 5 years back. I agree, he has been part of cult films like Rang De Basanti. Taare Zameen Par and 3 Idiots in last 5 years. But he didn't deserve Padma Vibhushan so early. He also doesn't have enough body of work. Let me come out of film industry. So many people shouldn't be awarded Padma Awards. The quantity has to reduce and quality has to improve. The individual winning Padma Awards should have good body of work.

-Pankaj Kumar Sinha