Regional cinema dominates National Film Awards

New Delhi: Regional cinema dominated the National Film Awards announced on Friday with best feature film going to Malayalam movie "Aattam: The Play" and Rishabh Shetty bagging best actor for the Kannada hit "Kantara". The best actress prize was shared by Nithya Menen, for the Tamil film "Thiruchitrambalam", and Manasi Parekh for the Gujarati movie "Kutch Express". 'Karthikeya 2' won the national award for the Best Regional Film in Telugu. 'Karthikeya 2,' directed by Chandoo Mondeti and co-produced by Abhishek Agarwal and TG Viswa Prasad, was a mythical thriller that focused on protaganists’ quest to find Lord Krishna’s lost anklet. The film served as a sequel to “Karthikeya”.

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, said. 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.

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. The Best actor Rishabh Shetty plays the dual roles of a father and son.

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. 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. “Aattam” won two more awards -- best screenplay (original) for Anand Ekarshi and best editing for Mahesh Bhuvanend. 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”.