New Delhi: Bollywood marked its stamp on the 57th National Film Awards as Amitabh Bachchan won the best actor award for his performance in "Paa" and Aamir Khan- starrer "3 Idiots" was adjudged the best popular movie but it was Malayalam drama "Kutty Srank" which walked away with five awards, including the best feature film.
"Kutty Srank", with Mammoothy in the lead, also won awards for best cinematography, best screenplay, best costume and a special jury recognition, which it shared with Bollywood hit "Kaminey" and Malayalam film "Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja". Raykesh Omprakash Mehra's "Delhi 6", shot in the bylanes of Old Delhi, bagged the Nargis Dutt award for best feature film on national integration while Shyam Benegal's "Well Done Abba" was chosen as the best film on social issues. R Balki's "Paa", was also named the best Hindi film, besides winning recognitions in the best supporting actress category (Arundhuti Nag) and best make-up (Christein Tinsley and Dominie Till). Amit Trivedi got the best music director award for Anurag Kashyap's "Dev-D", a modern take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic "Devdas". The emotional number 'Behti hawa sa tha woh' from "3 Idiots" bagged the best lyrics award for Swanand Kirkere. Ananya Chatterjee was named the best actress for her role in the Bengali film "Abohoman", which also fetched the best direction award for Rituparno Ghosh and best editing for Arghyakamal Mitra, besides being adjudged the best Bengali movie. Farooq Sheikh was named the best supporting actor for his role in Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan's "Lahore", which also won the 'Indira Gandhi Award for best debut film. Rupam Islam was chosen as the best male playback singer for his rendering of 'Kolakata' in the Bengali film "Mahanagar" while the best female playback was awarded to Nilanjana Sarkar for another Bengali movie "Houseful".
While producer Reliance Big Picture and Director Shaji N Karun of "Kutty Srank" will get the Swarna Kamal and Rs 2,50,000 each, the producer and director of "3 Idiots" -- Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raj Kumar Hirani -- would get the Swarna Kamal and Rs 2,00,000 each. Bachchan would get a Rajat Kamal and Rs 50,000. The awards were announced by chairpersons of each of the three juries for feature films, non-feature films and film writing. Ramesh Sippy, chairperson of the jury on feature films, said the system adopted for selection of movies this time was a two-tier one in which a regional jury first screened the films from five regions after which a central jury went through them. He said that based on discussions, the jury had decided to recall five films which had not made it in the first list at the level of the regional juries. Out of these, two -- "Natrang" (best film in Marathi) and "Houseful" (best female playback) won awards.
The best children's film award was shared by "Putaani Party" in Kannada and "Keshu" in Malayalam. Jeeva and Anba Karaus share the best child actor award. Telegu film "Magadheera" bagged awards for special effects and choreography. Well known music director Ilayaraja got the award for the award best background score for "Kerala Verma Pazasi Raja". The Best audiography award was shared by Oscar winner Resool Pookutty for "Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja', Subash Sahoo (location sound) for "Kaminey" and Anup Dev (re-recordist of the final missed track) for "3 Idiots". Effusive in his praise for Bachchan, Sippy said, "To portray Auro's role was not easy" and compared to the rest of the performances, there was hardly any discussion on it." Bachchan had earlier won national awards for his performances in "Black" (2005, best actor), "Agnipath" (1990, best actor) and "Saat Hindustani" (1969, best newcomer). Sippy said that for most of the decisions, there was no tussle. "We did deliberate, but fortunately it was not very difficult. Almost every decision was unanimous". PTI
