By Prarthana Mitra
The 65th National Film Awards, organised by the government’s Directorate of Film and Festivals, announced an Assamese coming-of-age drama, and an adaptation of a Malayalam epic as the recipients of the country’s most prestigious film accolades on Friday, proving that regional cinema continues to dominate in terms of quality and content.
Directed by Assamese filmmaker Rima Das, “Village Rockstars” won the award for the best feature film of 2017, along with a few more awards in the editing (Das), audiography (Mallika Das) and child artist category (Bhanita Das).
Kerala’s Jayaraj won for directing an adapted screenplay for “Bhayanakam”, which is based on the first two chapters of Thakazhi Shivashankara Pillai’s epic “Kayar”. The award for the best original screenplay went to “Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum”, which was also declared the best Malayalam film on Friday.
Sridevi—the only Bollywood recipient among the four major categories—was posthumously awarded best actress for her performance in Ravi Udyawar’s rape-revenge thriller “Mom”, while Riddhi Sen received the best actor award for Kaushik Ganguly’s queer drama “Nagarkirtan”. For his immense contribution to Indian cinema, late veteran actor Vinod Khanna will be awarded the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award.
Fahad Faasil bagged the best supporting actor award for his role in “Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum”, while Divya Dutta won the award for the best actress in a supporting role for her performance in “Irada”, which also won the award for the best film on environmental conservation.
S.S. Rajamouli’s war epic “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” which broke box-offie records last year, won the award for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. The movie also aced technical categories such as action, direction, and special effects.
Virtuoso musician A.R. Rehman won his fifth national award for the background score to “Mom”. He also bagged the award for the best music director for Mani Ratnam’s Kaatru Veliyidai.
Journalist Girdhar Jha won the best critic award, while Sunil Mishra received a special mention for best writing on cinema.
In the non-fiction category, Abhishek Verma’s “Machher Jhol”, and Suresh Eriyat’s “The Basket” won the animated film awards.
Apogees of regional cinema
Pankaj Tripathi’s performance in Amit Masurkar’s “Newton” received special mention, while the film went on to win the best Hindi film award. Prasad Oak’s “Kachha Limbu” (Marathi), Chezhiyan’s “To Let” (Tamil), Sankalp Reddy’s “Ghazi” (Telugu), Atanu Ghosh’s “Mayurakshi” (Bengali), Manish Saini’s “Dhh” (Gujarati), Abhaya Simha’s “Paddayi” (Tulu), Nanjunde Gowda’s “Hebbet Ramakka” (Kannada), and Utpal Borpujari’s “Ishu” (Assamese) won the best film awards in their respective language categories.
The jury this year was led by Shekhar Kapur, and also included Imtiaz Hussain, Tripurari Sharma, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, and Rajesh Mapuskar, alongside actress Gauthami, among others.
“The point of these awards is that you go back and watch these films,” Kapur said before announcing the winners, referring to the often unrecognised and undermined gamut of regional cinema in India.
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