NATIONAL FILM AWARDS

58th National Film Awards: Meet the winners

New Delhi: Veteran Tamil filmmaker K Balachander, the man behind films like ‘Iru Kodugal’ and ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’, will receive the Dada Saheb Phalke honour at the 58th National Film Awards that actor Rajat Kapoor is set to host in Delhi on Friday.

The 81-year-old writer-director-producer has directed nearly 80 films in his career and launched the career of Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth. According to senior officials in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, President Pratibha Patil would hand over the awards in a star studded ceremony in the Vigyan Bhawan here.

Director Salim Ahmed and his co-producer Ashraf Bedi would get the coveted ‘Swarna Kamal’and a cash prize of Rs 2.5 lakh each for their acclaimed Malayalam movie ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’. Winner of the best feature film and the best actor, the movie traces the desire of a man and his wife to go to Hajj in Mecca.

Bollywood celebrity producers Arbaaz Khan his wife Malaika and Director Abhinav Singh Kashyap would be awarded the ‘Swarna Kamal’and cash award of Rs 2 lakh for ‘Dabangg’, winner for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment.

Vishal Bharadwaj would also get a ‘Rajat Kamal’ for his music direction for the songs in the movie, ‘Ishqiya’ while his wife Rekha Bhardwaj, who is also performing at the ceremony, will receive the award for the best female playback singer.

The Nargis Dutt award for best feature film would be awarded by the President to ‘Moner Manush’, a Bengali film directed by Gautam Ghose.

The 58th National Film Awards brought the spotlight back on regional cinema with Malayalam film ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’, a simple yet evocative narrative of a man’s pursuit of religion, winning best feature and its lead actor Salim Kumar picking up the best actor award.

The prestigious awards recognizes exemplary work in cinema. This year’s Feature Films jury was headed by JP Dutta, the Non-Feature Films jury by AK Bir and Best Writing on Cinema jury was headed by Ashok Vajpeyi.

Bollywood was pushed to the background this year with the Salman Khan starrer

‘Dabangg’ and Naseeruddin Shah-starrer ‘Ishqiya’ being the only two films to pick up awards in prominent categories. ‘Dabangg’ won the award for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment.

Tamil actor Dhanush and Malayalam actor Salim Kumar shared the award for best actor. Dhanush and Salim were recognized for their work in ‘Aadukalam’ and ‘Adaminde Makan Abu’, respectively. The jury acknowledged the “two riveting performances that fuse character and actor into one” and praised Dhanush for his raw and nuanced portrayal of a cocky young man who learns lessons about life the hard way.

Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar and Saranya Ponvannan picked up their best actress national awards for the Marathi film ‘Baboo Band Baaja’ and Tamil feature ‘Thenmerkku Paruvakkatru’ respectively for their brilliant portrayal of two mothers concerned about bettering the lives of their children in the face of untold hardship.

The Rajinikanth starrer ‘Enthiran’, the most expensive film made in India till date, won best production design. The kudos went to V Srinivas M Mohan of ‘Enthiran’ or ‘Robot’ that won an award for best special effects for “bringing of age a spectrum of visual special effects in Indian cinema and creating a space for the practitioners of this art form on the global map.”

The Indira Gandhi award for best debut film of a director went to Marathi film – ‘Baboo Band Baaja’ – a riveting tale of a father reluctant to educate his son, a mother who fiercely believes in its liberatory value, and the son who is caught in the crossfire – and its director Rajesh Pinjani.

Director Goutam Ghose’s Bengali film ‘Moner Manush’ won the Nargis Dutt award for best feature film on national integration. The film also won Vikram Gaikwad the best make-up artist award.

Best music direction went to ‘Ishqiya’ and ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ with Vishal Bhardwaj and Issak Thomas Kottakapally directing the scores for the films respectively.