Pulijanmam is best film, Bhandarkar best director

MUMBAI: The story of an idealist who returns to his roots to wage a war against the system has bagged Malayalam film Pulijanmam the award for best film at the 54th National Film Awards that were announced in New Delhi on Tuesday. Others who notched top honours are Madhur Bhandarkar who was awarded best director for

Traffic Signal and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Lage Raho Munnabhai which swept four awards.

Besides best wholesome entertainment, the Munnabhai sequel won Abhijat Joshi and Rajkumar Hirani the best screenplay award and Swanand Kirkire the award for best lyrics.

“I am truly happy, especially for Swanand Kirkire. The lyrics were brilliant. This feels like a salute for our films. When you thought you are done with awards, this comes as a pleasant surprise,” says Hirani, the film’s director. 

This is Bhandarkar’s third national award, the earlier two being for Chandni Bar and Page 3.

“It’s really a big thing for me. This shows I have a lot of blessings from people in the industry.

It was a risky film to make with eunuchs and not-so-glamorous people. I didn’t expect this at all. I truly look at this as a motivation to make more and more realistic films.”
 
Journalist Minaxi Shedde, who was on the jury says, “What’s important is the films that look at social issues, the cinema of conscience. Traffic Signal falls in that category. We think the highest award should go to a film that successfully looks within.

Traffic Signal has a wide range of characters and the director has displayed great skill in being able to give attention to each of them, with a clear storyline.”

Ajay Devgan’s ‘Omkara’, a take on Shakespeare’s Othello, won a special jury award. It won two other awards with Konkona Sen Sharma getting the best supporting actress and KJ Singh won an award for best audiography.

The small budget film, Khosla Ka Ghosla, was adjudged the Best Hindi film. “I hope this will pave the way for more films of this kind.

I hope more and more people want to make movies which might be smaller in size but which address issues rather than go for the stereotype,” says debutant director Dibakar Bannerjee.

Actor Soumitra Chatterjee has won the best actor award for his role in the Bengali film, Podokkhep. Though Chatterjee is no stranger to international acclaim, this is his first national award. In 2001 he had refused to accept the special jury national award for his performance.

Priyamani won the best actress award for her performance in Ameer Sulthan’s Tamil film Paruthiveeran. Priyamani portrays the ferocity of a woman in love, in this melodramatic film.