Vishal Bhardwaj receives National Award for Best Music Direction from President Draupadi Murmu

Music composer-filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj has been honoured with the National Award for Best Music Direction. On Friday, President Draupadi Murmu presented the award to Vishal Bhardwaj for the song Marange Toh Vahin Jaa Kar in the documentary film 1232 KMs.

For the unversed, 1232 KMs is a documentary based on the lives of migrant workers and the impact of lockdown on them. The film hit the OTT platform Disney + Hotstar on March 24, 2021. To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, India declared a nationwide lockdown in March 2020.

Vinod Kapri was providing food and other necessities to seven migrant labourers from Ghaziabad at the time. However, after 3-4 days, they felt it was "embarrassing" to keep calling him. When their ration ran out, they chose to travel to their hamlet in Saharsa, which was 1232 kilometres from Ghaziabad.

Seven of them had left by the 27th of April. Kapri then documented their journey and created a documentary. Vishal Bhardwaj composed two songs for the film , Marenge Toh Wahin Jaakar and O Re Bidesiya. Vishal Bhardwaj received the award for the song Marenge Toh Wahin Jaakar.

This is not Vishal Bhardwaj's first National award, he is the recipient of seven national awards. His first National Award was for Best Music Director in the film Godmother in 1999. He then received his next for the film The Blue Umbrella in 2005. He received the award for the Best Children's Film category. He also has a National award for his films Omkara, Haider, and Talvar. (With inputs from ANI)