Southern cinema sweeps 83rd National Awards

New Delhi, May 19 (PTI) Malayalam film 'Adaminte Makan
Abu' (Abu, son of Adam), a simple yet evocative narrative of a
man's pursuit of religion, was adjudged the best feature film
and it's star Salim Kumar shared the best actor honour with
Tamil star Dhanush in a clean sweep for Southern cinema at the
83rd National Film Awards.
In the awards announced on Thursday, Bollywood was
pushed to the background this year with the Salman Khan
starrer 'Dabangg' and Naseeruddin Shah-Vidya Balan starrer
'Ishqiya' being the only two films to pick up awards in
prominent categories.
'Dabangg' won the award for best popular film
providing wholesome entertainment. Its producers Arbaaz Khan,
Malaika Arora Khan and Dhilin Mehta along with director
Abhinav Kashyap will receive the Swarna Kamal and a cash prize
of Rs 2 lakhs.
In the Best Actor category, Dhanush, the son-in-law of
megastar Rajinikanth, who starred in 'Aadukalam'-- a Tamil
film that looks at the world of cock-fighting--shared the
award with Salim Kumar, who usually essays the role of a
comedian.
"Being mostly seen as a comedian, I approached the role
very seriously with lot of preparation," a beaming Salim Kumar
said on getting the good news.
The best actress award too had two winners--Tamil
actress Saranya Ponvannan for 'Thenmerkku Paruvakkatru' and
Marathi artiste Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar for 'Baboo Band
Baaja'.
'Adaminte Makan Abu' directed and produced by Salim
Ahamed won the Swarna Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 2,50,000
for it's "simple yet evocative articulation of humanist
values".
Announcing the awards at a news conference, jury head
filmaker J P Dutta said the best direction award went to
Vetrimaran for 'Aadukalam.'
In all, 161 eligible entries were received in the
feature film category, Dutta said, adding it was the highest
number of entries received so far.
The Nargis Dutt Award for best feature film on
national intergration went to Bengali movie Moner Manush while
the Indira Gandhi award for best debut film of a director went
to Baboo Band Baaja (Marathi).
Dutta said Kannada movie Hejjegalu was adjudged as the
best children film and the best child artist award was shared
among four boys--Harsh Mayar (I am Kalam), Shantanu
Ranganekar and Machindra Gadkar for their performance in
Marathi movie Champions and Vivek Chabukswar (Baboo Band
Baaja).
The best male playback singer award went to Suresh
Wadkar (Mee Sindhutai Sapkal-Marathi) and female playback
singer award went to Rekha Bharadwaj (Ishqiya).
Rishi Kapoor starrer "Do Dooni Char" was adjudged the
best film in the Hindi language category.
The best music direction award was shared between
Vishal Bharadwaj and Issak Thomas Kottakapally for Ishqiya and
Adaminte Makan Abu respectively.
Dutta said the jury has requested I&B Minister Ambika
Soni to treat all the awardees who have shared the awards in
different categories as individual winners taking into account
their performances.

Rajinikanth starrer 'Enthiran' won the award for best
special effects and Marathi bio-pic 'Mee Sndhutai Sapkal' won
the special jury award for the "powerful cinematic
presentation of an epic journey of a living character", in
this case social worker Sindhutai Sapkal.
The Marathi film also won the best adapted screenplay
trophy while the award for best original screenplay went to
'Aadukalam'.
In the non-feature film category, Hindi movie 'Germ'
directed by Snehal R Nair was adjudged the best non-feauture
while 'Pistulya', directed by Nagraj Manjule was chosen as the
best debut non-feature film.
Vijaya Mulay's book 'From ajahs and yogis to Gandhi
and beyond: Images of India' was selected for the awards in
the best book on cinema category.
The jury for the non-feature film catergory was headed
by A K Bir.