India announces National Film Awards
New Delhi: Tigmanshu Dhulia’s ‘Paan Singh Tomar’, that narrates the gritty story of a national athlete forced to live the life of an outlaw, was announced the best icture at the 60th National Film awards as its lead protagonist Irrfan Khan shared the best actor trophy with Vikram Gokhale for his Marathi film ‘Anumati’.
‘Paan Singh Tomar’, that also starred Mahie Gill, was testimony to how a good script can trump a big ticket film with huge stars at the helm. The same could be said of the delightful ‘Vicky Donor’, directed by Shoojit Sircar that won in the category Best Popular film for wholesome entertainment.
A new generation of filmmakers made their presence felt last year with fresh ideas and innovative scripts, helped by a talented cast and crew. Director Sujoy Ghosh was declared the best original screenplay writer for his widely lauded film ‘Kahaani’ while ‘Oh My God’ won the best adapted screenplay for Bhavesh Mandalia and Umesh Shukhla. ‘Kahaani’ was also named the best edited film (Namrata Rao) of the year.
An ecstatic Shoojit Sircar did what he described as a ‘sperm dance’ in his room in Hyderabad after he heard his film Vicky Donor has shared a National Award for the Best Popular Film for providing wholesome entertainment with Ustad Hotel (Malayalam).
Produced by Sunil Lulla, John Abraham, Ronnie Lahiri and Ram Mirchandani, Sircar’s Vicky Donor is the narrative of the life of a sperm donor in Delhi.
In this context, a special mention is must of two of Vicky Donor’s brilliantly talented cast members. The award for the best Supporting Actor has been conferred on Annu Kapur, for portraying a bumbling infertility specialist running his business from a rundown clinic. The Best Supporting Actress was shared by Dolly Ahluwalia and Kalpana for the film ThanichallaNjan (Malyalam).
Ahluwalia played the domineering mother of Vicky (Ayushmann Khurana).
Bollywood dominated in the special jury award with Aamir Khan starrer ‘Talaash’, ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, ‘Kahaani’ and Dekh Indian Circus’ being named in the category with Bengali film ‘Chitrangada’.
In other categories, Usha Jadhav was named the best actress for her portrayal of a rustic housewife in Marathi film ‘Dhag’, whose filmmaker Shivaji Lotan Patil was declared the best director.
Bollywood films shared the spotlight with Malayalam and Marathi cinema in the key categories at the awards this year. Bedabrata Pain’s debut Hindi film ‘Chittagong’, about Chittagong uprising, shared the Indira Gandhi award for best debut film with Siddhartha Siva’s Malayalam film ‘101 Chodiyangal’.
‘Bolo Na’ from ‘Chittagong’ won the best lyrics for Prasoon Joshi and best male playback singer for Shankar Mahadevan. Aarti Anklekar Tikekar was named the best female playback singer for ‘Palakein Naa Moondoon from Marathi film ‘Samhita’. ‘Ustad Hotel’ was also recognised for best dialogue for Anjali Menon.
‘Thanichalla Njan’, apart from its supporting actress win, was also named in the Nargis Dutt award for best feature film on national integration category. Malayalam film ‘Spirit’, which deals with the topic of alcoholism, was named as the best film on social issues.
Another Malayalam film ‘Black Forest’ was declared the best film on environment conservation/preservation.
Hindi film ‘Dekh Indian Circus’ was best children’s film and its lead Virendra Pratap shared the best child actor honour with ‘101 Chodiyangal’. Nikhil Advani directed ‘Delhi Safari’ was named the best animation film.
Kamal Haasan’s controversial film ‘Vishawaroopam’ won best production design and best choreography for Pandit Birju Maharaj. Poornima Ramaswamy was named best costume designer for Tamil film ‘Paradesi’ while Raja won the best make-up artist award for Tamil movie ‘Vazakkuenn 18/9’.
Best cinematography honour went to ‘Ko:YAD’, a film in Mising language. Best audiography award was shared by Malayalam film ‘Annayum Rassoolum’, ‘Shabdo’ and ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’. Malayalam film ‘Kaliyachan’ and Marathi film ‘Samhita’ shared the best music direction award. Telugu film ‘Eega’ was named in the best special effects category.
The prestigious 60th National Film Awards for the year 2012 were announced at a joint Press Conference addressed by the Chairpersons of the three juries, Basu Chatterjee for Feature Films, Aruna Raje for Non-Feature Films and Swapan Mullick for Best Writing on Cinema.
In non-feature film category, the award for the Best Film was conferred to Shepherds of Paradise (Gojri & Urdu) produced and directed by Raja Shabir Khan. In the category of Best Writing on Cinema section, the book Silent Cinema in India – A Pictorial Journey (English) written by BD Garga and published by Harper Collins Publisher India has bagged the top honour, whereas PS Radhakrishnan has been conferred the award for the Best film Critic.
In the Feature Film category, a total of 38 films from 14 languages were selected for the Awards. -PTI
