Regional cinema shines at National Film Awards with 'Aattam' and 'Kantara' leading the pack

REGIONAL cinema took centre stage at the National Film Awards announced on Friday, with Malayalam film Aattam: The Play winning Best Feature Film and Rishabh Shetty securing Best Actor for the Kannada hit Kantara. The Best Actress award was shared between Nithya Menen for the Tamil film Thiruchitrambalam and Manasi Parekh for the Gujarati movie Kutch Express.

The lone Bollywood presence in the top categories for the 70th edition of the national awards was Uunchai with Sooraj R Barjatya named best director.

The adventure film, centred on four aging friends readying to scale Mt Everest, also won Neena Gupta a best supporting actress prize.

"It is yet to sink in. I've got two National Awards in the past and I'm getting another National award after many many years, it's a big thing for me," Gupta, who bagged awards for the non-feature "Bazar Sitaram" in 1993 and for Woh Chokri in 1994, told PTI.

A big winner in the awards for 2022 was the Haryanvi film Fouja, which got Pavan Malhotra a best supporting actor and won two other awards - best debut film of a director for Pramod Kumar and best lyrics to Naushad Sadar Khan.

The awards were announced by Rahul Rawail, head of the jury for the feature film segment, and Nila Madhab Panda, who headed the non-feature film category.

Aattam: The Play, directed by Anand Ekarshi, revolves around a theatre troupe and the changing dynamics after its only woman member alleges she has been groped by one of the men.

To win three National Awards for his maiden film as a director was "incredibly motivating", said Ekarshi who also won the best screenplay trophy.

"It is extremely motivating and I’m thrilled. People were saying that National awards are going to be announced and something should happen... This is incredibly amazing. Everyone is on cloud nine," he told PTI.

The film's third win was for best editing for Mahesh Bhuvanend.

The Kannada blockbuster Kantara, which explores the intricate connection between humanity and nature through its folklore-based storytelling, was also named in the category for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. Best actor Shetty plays the dual roles of a father and son.

"I am truly overwhelmed by the honour of this National Award for Kantara... The audiences have made this film what it is and their support fills me with a deep sense of responsibility. I am committed to working even harder to bring an even better film to our viewers," Shetty, who co-wrote and directed Kantara, said in a statement.

Sharmila Tagore and Manoj Bajpayee starrer Gulmohar, a family drama exploring the meaning of family and home, was judged best Hindi film with its director Rahul V Chittela taking home the award for best dialogue writer with Arpita Mukherjee.

Tagore said the team is very happy and are planning a get together to celebrate the film's wins at the National Film Awards.

"Gulmohar received a lot of love from audience and got so many awards from so many media platforms that it has been such a wonderful journey. Now, this National Award is icing on the cake, I feel over the moon. I’m so happy," the veteran actor told PTI.

Bajpayee also got a special mention along with music director Sanjoy Salil Chowdhury for Malayalam title Kadhikan.

A R Rahman won the National Film Award for best music director (background music) for his work in Mani Ratnam's Ponnyin Selvan-Part 1, which was also named the best Tamil film. Pritam got the award for best music director (songs) for Brahmastra-Part 1. Arijit Singh was named the best male playback singer for the song Kesariya from Ayan Mukerji's Brahmastra Part One: Shiva.

The Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt starrer also bagged the award for best film in AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming and comic) category.

Padma Shri awardee Bombay Jayashri won the award for best female playback singer for the track Chaayum Veyil for Saudi Vellaka CC 225/2009, which also won the best Malayalam film award.

Besides the best actress honour for Menen, Thiruchitrambalam, a comedy also starring Dhanush, earned the honour for best choreography for Jani Master and Sathish Krishnan. Niki Joshi won the trophy for best costume designer for Kutch Express.

Seasoned cinematographer Ravi Varman bagged the best cinematography for Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan, which also took the honour for best sound design for Anand Krishnamoorthi.

The award for best action direction(stunt choreography) went to Anbumani and Arivumani, jointly known as Anbariv.

The best child artist award went to Sreepath for Malikapurram in Malayalam.

From Bengali cinema, Aparajito won the award for best make-up and best production design for Anand Adhya, while best Bengali film went to Kaushik Ganguly's Kaberi Antardhan.

The other regional films that won awards include Kartikeya 2 (Telugu), Baaghi Di Dhee (Punjabi), Daman (Odia), Vaalvi (Marathi) and KGF: Chapter 2 (Kannada). The best Tiwa film award was won by Sikaisal.

From the non-feature category, the top honour went to Ayena by director Siddhant Sarin.

Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj won the best music director for his short film Fursat.

"Just heard about the national award for Fursat. I am deeply happy to get my 9th national award. It's the biggest award of our country. The only one that truly matters. And winning this is the greatest validation of my work! Thank you jury for this. Now I need to strive for a double digit," the director, who had earlier won the same honour for short film 1232 KMS, said in a statement.

The best film critic award went to Deepak Dua. Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar won the best book on cinema for Kishore Kumar: The Ultimate Biography. (PTI)