President honours cinematic excellence at 62nd National Film Award

New Delhi:  President Pranab Mukherjee today gave away trophies to the winners of 62nd National Film Award including the best feature film to debut director Chaitanya Tamhane and best actress to Bollywood star Kangana Ranaut for her role in "Queen".

Veteran actor Shashi Kapoor, this year's Dada Saheb Phalke winner, could not attend the ceremony due to ill health. The actor will be honoured in a special ceremony in Mumbai.

"My special congratulation is to Shri Shashi Kapoor, who has been honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award this year.

His contribution to cinema has been manifold and tremendous.

He is a true living legend," the President said.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Arun Jaitley, also congratulated Kapoor and praised his family's contribution to the Indian cinema.

"The contribution of his illustrious family to the Indian cinema is immense and Shri Shashi Kapoor has played a unique part by producing a number of meaningful films as well as performing in well-known international productions," he said.

The President and the Minister, while praising the film industry for its evolved content over the century, called it an integral part of India's "soft power" internationally.

Kangana, 28, won her career's second National award in the Vikas Bahl's coming-of-age drama. The actress said movie sets were her film school. She received Rajat Kamal and Rs 50,000.

"Whatever I learnt, I learnt on the movie sets as I got the opportunity to work with some of the greatest directors," the actress said before the ceremony.

Dressed in a Bibhu Mohapatra gown, Kangana was the star-attraction at the event and was constantly mobbed by eager fans for photos and autographs. She left the event just after getting her trophy from the President.

Bahl and producer Vikramditya Motwane were also awarded for "Queen" which won its second trophy for best Hindi film. Both won Rajat Kamal and Rs 1,00,000 each.

"Court", a powerful and stark depiction of the mundaneness of judicial procedure, was given the best feature film award, which carries a Swarna Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 2,50,000. Its director Chaitanya Tamhane got a special mention in the President's speech.

Vijay was conferred the best actor trophy for his poignant portrayal of a woman trapped in a man's body in Kannada film "Nanu Avanalla Avalu" (I am not a he, but she).

Vishal Bhardwaj and Sukhwinder Singh were bestowed with the award for the best music director (Rajat Kamal and Rs 50,000) and best singer (Rajat Kamal and Rs 50,000) for "Haider", a Kashmir-set modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

"Haider" won maximum five trophies, also for best costume desinger to Dolly Ahluwalia, best dialogue for Bhardwaj and best coreography to Sudesh Adhana.

"I wanted to do justice to Vishal's vision and present Shraddha as 'Kashmir ki Kali'. Shahid loved the clothes and
took one home," Dolly said.

Sukhwinder peformed "Bismil" for the audience which effectively reflects the agony and anger of the protagonist played by Shahid Kapoor.

10-year-old Uthara Unnikrishanan, the winner of best female playback singer for Tamil film "Saivam", stole the limelight with her beautiful rendition of 'Azhage azhage'.

She was praised by both the President and the I&B Minister for her talent.

"Pagdi: The Honour's Haryanvi actress Baljinder Kaur was given the best supporting actress award while Bobby Simhaa won the best supporting actor for his etched out portrayal of a mafia don in Tamil gangster film "Jigarthanda".

Priyanka Chopra-starrer 'Mary Kom', a biopic on female boxer of the same name, won best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. The producer and director of the film received a Swarna Kamal and Rs 2,00,000 each.

Indira Gandhi Award for best debut film went to director Aditya Vikram Sengupta for his critically-acclaimed Bengali film "Asha Jaoar Majhe". Sengupta and his producer received Swarna Kamal and Rs 1,25,000 each.

Another Bengali film "Chotoder Chobi" was given the award for the best film on social issues.

J Vignesh and Ramesh from Tamil movie "Kaakkaa Muttai" won the best child artist award whereas the M Manikandan-directed film and Marathi movie "Elizabeth Ekadashi" shared the best children's film.

Best original screenplay and cinematography award went to "Chotushkine". Joshy Mangalnath bagged the adapted screenplay honour for Malayalam drama "Ottal". In the regional language category, "Othello" won the best Asamese film directed by Hemanta Kumar Das, "Nirbashito" (Bengali), "Harivu" (Kannada), "Nachom-IA Kumpasar" (Konkani), "Ain" (Malayalam), "Killa"(Marathi), 'Kuttram Kadithai" (Tamil) and "Chandamama Kathalu" (Telugu) were other winners.

"Ain" (Malayalam), "Nachom-IA Kumpasar" (Konkani) and "Killa" (Marathi) and Amitabh Bachchan starrer "Bhootnath Returns" (Hindi) were given special mention by the jury.

"Khwada" (Marathi) won the award for location sound recordist while Bangali film "Asha Jaoar Majhe" won sound designer award.

Best editing award went to Vivek Harshan for the Tamil sports drama "Jigarthanda" while the best production design was won by "Nachom - IA Kumpasar".

The wins in the best languagae categories included best Assamese film "Othello", best Bengali film "Nirbashito", best Hindi film "Queen", best Kannada film "Harivu", best Konkani film "Nachom - IA Kumpasar", best Malayalam film "Ain", best Marathi film "Killa", best Odiya film "Aadim Vichar", best Punjabi film "Punjab 1984", best Tamil film "Kuttram Kadithal", best Telugu film "Chandamama Kathalu", best Haryanavi film "Pagdi The Honour", best Rabha film "Orong", a first for the language.

In the non feature film category "Tender is the sight" was awarded best non feature film for its sensitive and
lyrical portrayal of ten-year-old child who though visually challenged creates a symphony of sounds.

"Goonga Pahalwan" bagged the Best Debut film of a director for Mit Jani, Prateek Gupta and Vivek Chaudhary in this category while "Qissa-e-Parsi : The Parsi Story" won the Best Anthropological/Ethnographic Film.

In the Non Feature Film category, there were in all 171 entries, in 23 different languages.

In other categories - Best Biographical or Historical Reconstruction, "Aamaar Katha : Story of Binodini" won the
award while "Kapila" (Best Arts/ Cultural film), "Documentation of Clay image makers of Kamartuli" (Best Promotional Film), "I Cannot Give You my Forest" (Best Environment Film), "Can't Take This Shit Anymore" (Best film on Social Issues) also bagged awards.

"Komal" and "Behind the Glass Wall" (Best Educational Film), "Life Force - India's Western Ghats" (Best Exploration/Adventure Film), "Phum Shang" (Best Investigative Film), "Sound of Joy" (Best Animation Film), "A Poet, A city and a Footballer" (Special Jury Award), "Mitraa" (Best Short Fiction Film), "Towards the Silver Lining" (Best Film on Family Values), Aaranyak (Best Direction) also won awards in the Non Feature Film Category.

"Aamaar Katha : Story of Binodini" (Best Cinematography), "Tender is the sight" (Best Audiography), "Tigress Blood" (Best Editing) and "Nitya Kalyani-Oru Mohiniattam Patham" (Best Narration/Voice Over) were the other winners in the Non Feature Film Category.

"Silent Cinema" author Pasupuleti Purnachandra Rao won the best book in cinema award while special mention went to "Pride of Tamil Cinema" author G Dhananjayan. Best film critic award went to Tanul Thakur.

45 feature films and 21 non-feature films were awarded in the ceremony that was hosted by filmmaker Rajat Kapoor and  Pallavi Joshi.