Bollywood shines with top honours,’Barfi!’, India’s official entry to the Oscars, doesn’t bag a single award.
It’s celebration time across India as the 60th edition of the National Film Awards announced some well deserved names earlier today for their contribution to cinema.
Irrfan Khan bagged the Best Actor award for his stellar portrayal of a sportsman turned dacoit in ‘Paan Singh Tomar’; the UTV-produced film also won the Best Feature Film.
Meanwhile, Khan shared the award with Marathi film actor Vikram Gokhale, for his performance in ‘Anumati’.
Marathi film actress, Usha Jhadav, took the Best Actress award home for her sensitive performance in ‘Dhag’.
The Best Direction award also went to the same film for Shivaji Lotan Patil.
The John Abraham-produced ‘Vicky Donor’ took home the prize for Best Film – Wholesome Entertainment, which was also shared by the Malayalam film, ‘Ustad Hotel’.
‘Vicky Donor’ also bagged two other awards, with Annu Kapoor winning the award for Best Supporting Actor, while Dolly Ahluwalia won for Best Supporting Actress, which she shared with actress Kalpana for the Malayalam film ‘ThanichallaNjan’.
The Best Child Artist award was also shared by Virendra Pratap for ‘Dekh Indian Circus’ and Minon for the Malayalam film, ‘101 Chodiyangal’.
Bollywood wins big
Bollywood continued to shine with Best original screenplay going to Sujoy Ghosh for ‘Kahaani’, while the Best Screenplay (adapted) went to the Akshay Kumar produced ‘Oh My God’.
The critically praised ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ bagged Best Sound Recording, while Kamal Hassan’s ‘Vishwaroopam’ took home Best Choreography for Birju Maharaj, along with Best Art Direction.
Director Nikhil Advani’s ‘Delhi Safari’ wins Best Animation film award.
The surprise announcement was the Special Jury Mention for newcomer Parineeti Chopra for her feisty role in ‘Ishaqzaade’.
Among the regional language selections, the Best Film on social issues went to the Malayalam film ‘Spirit’.
‘VazhakkuEnn18/9’ won two awards, for Best Tamil film and Best Make up, while director Bala’s critically acclaimed ‘Paradesi’ won the award for Best Costume designer for Poornima Ramasamy.
‘Eega’ won Best Telugu film, along with Best Visual Effects.
The Best Music Direction (Original Score) was won by BijiBal Manayil for ‘Kaliyachan’, (Malayalam), while singer Shankar Mahadevan, who performed in Dubai earlier this month, bagged the award for Best Playback Singer Male for ‘Bolo Na’ in ‘Chittagong’; Samhita won Best Female in that category for the Marathi film, ‘Aarti Anklekar Tikekar’ for the song, ‘Palakein Naa Moon Don’.
Continuing in the music category, the award for the Best Lyrics was conferred on Prasoon Joshi for the song ‘Bolo Na’.
‘Chittagong’ and ‘101 Chodiyangal’ also shared Indira Gandhi award for Best Debut Film of a Director.
While, special jury awards were handed out to Bollywood’s Nawazuddin Siddiqui for his stellar performances in films such as ‘Kahaani’, ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, ‘Dekh Indian Circus’, ‘Talaash’ and the Bengali film, ‘Chitrangadha’.
He shared the award with acclaimed filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh.
Non-feature films
In the non-feature film category, the award for the Best Film was taken home by ‘Shepherds of Paradise’ produced and directed by Raja Shabir Khan.
Vikrant Pawar took home the Best Director award for the Marathi film, ‘Kaatal’.
For the Best Writing on Cinema section, the book ‘Silent Cinema in India – A Pictorial Journey’, written by B.D. Garga and published by Harper Collins Publisher India, bagged the top accolade
Other awards in this category included Lipika Singh Darai Best Debut Film of a Director honour for the Odia-language film, ‘Eka Gachha Eka Manisa Eka Samudra’; Special Jury Awards were handed to Vasudah Joshi for ‘Cancer Katha’ and Shumona Goel and Shai Heredia for the film ‘I Am Micro’.
‘Timbaktu’ was awarded as the Best film in the Environmental category and ‘Dreaming Taj Mahal’ bagged the award for the Best Promotional film.
Meanwhile, PS Radhakrishnan took the award for Best Film Critic.
A little bit of controversy
Within minutes of the awards being announced, controversy soon reared its head with no award been given to ‘Barfi!’, which was selected as India’s official entry to this year’s Oscars, over movies such as ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ and ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’.
Social media was abuzz in wake of the announcement, with many taking to Twitter to comment that “serious lobbying” was the only reason why ‘Barfi!’ was selected over others.
Meanwhile, despite regional language films ruling this year, many still voiced their displeasure with the number of awards Bollywood took home.
