Regional cinema takes the backseat at National Film Awards
New Delhi : It was Bollywood and box office biggies all the way at the 63rd National Film Awards on Monday. Southern magnum opus “Baahubali: The Beginning” was named the Best Feature Film, while the Best Actor and the Best Actress awards were secured by Amitabh Bachchan and Kangana Ranaut, for ‘Piku’ and ‘Tanu weds Manu returns,’ respectively, leading many to question why regional cinema and talent was sidelined.
Similarly, Hindi movie ‘Bajirao Mastani’ romped home with 7 of the 26 national film awards for feature films announced on Monday, including the best director’s award bagged by its director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. It was least surprising therefore that ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ of Salman Khan bagged the Rs 2-lakh best popular film award for providing wholesome entertainment
Twitter was abuzz with users commenting and questioning the credibility of the awards, the process of which is coordinated by the Directorate of Film Festivals. In fact, even director Gurvinder Singh, whose internationally acclaimed Punjabi film “Chauthi Koot” has been honoured with a National Film Award, has called the winners’ list a “complete farce”.
“All the main awards have gone to commercial films; ‘Baahubali’, which is a totally crap film, has got the Best Film award. I think it is a BJP award and not National Award,” Singh told IANS. However, that didn’t deter the winners from rejoicing over their victory. Amitabh, who has earlier won the National Film Award thrice for films like ‘Agneepath’, ‘Black’ and ‘Paa’, was honoured this time for his role of a constipated father in “Piku”.
Kangana, who has won National Awards twice earlier for ‘Fashion’ and ‘Queen,’ has this time been lauded for her superlative dual act in ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’. For the actress, who turned 29 last week, it is the “best birthday gift” ever.
The team of “Baahubali: The Beginning”, which was a box office wonder, was “overwhelmed” with the win, which was further laced by the Best Special Effects Award. Tanvi Azmi of ‘Bajirao Mastani’ won the Best Supporting Actress award.
The period drama stole the show even in the Best Cinematography category, while Remo D’Souza won the Best Choreography honour for “creating enchanting moves” for the track “Deewani mastani”, and Shriram Iyengar, Saloni Dhatrak and Sujeet Sawant won for the movie’s production design.
Another big Bollywood winner was “Dum Laga Ke Haisha”, which was not only named Best Hindi Film, but also won the Best Female Playback Singer for Monali Thakur for “Moh moh ke dhaage”. The use of “fresh, simple array of metaphors” in the song by Varun Grover was appreciated with the Best Lyrics
honour. A Special Jury Award went to Kalki Koechlin for her “realistic performance as a young woman afflicted with cerebral palsy” in ‘Margarita, With A Straw’, whereas Ritika Singh, a kick boxer-turned-actress, got a special mention for “gutsy performance of a boxer in the making” for the film ‘Saala Khadoos’.
Neeraj Ghaywan, whose unusual drama “Masaan” found critical acclaim nationally and internationally, has been encouraged with the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director for “his perceptive approach to filmmaking in handling a layered story of people caught up in changing social and moral values”.
