Popular Bollywood stars Anil Kapoor and Raveena Tandon get the acting awards, while Malayalam film "Shantham' by Jayaraj bags the best feature award in the 48th National Film Awards for the best productions of 2000.
The much-awarded Rituparno Ghosh bags the best director award for the Bengali film 'Utsab'. While Raveena is to get her award for the Hindi film 'Daman', Anil gets the accolade for 'Pukar', directed by Rajkumar Santoshi for Anil's father Surinder Kapoor. The film also gets the Nargis Dutt Award for the best feature on national integration. 'Shantham' also gets the best supporting actress award for the veteran K.P.A.C. Lalitha.
While Malayalam and Hindi films get the highest number of awards - nine each, the Tamil film 'Bharati' has been chosen for as many as four awards -the highest for any single film: best Tamil language film, female playback R. Bhavatharini for 'Mail Poola Pattu', and P.Krishnamoorthy for art direction and costume design.
The awards were announced here this afternoon by jury chairpersons Vyjayanthimala Bali (features), John Mathew Mattan (nonfeatures), and Bharati Pradhan. While 'Rasik Priya' directed by Arun Vasan Khopkar for the External Affairs Ministry gets the best non-feature award, 'Sholay' in English by Anupama Chopra has been adjuged as the best book on cinema and the critic award has been shared by two: Telugu critic Vasiraju Prakasham and Delhi-based Hindi critic Suresh Sharma.
The 17-member feature jury saw through 128 films while the five-member nonfeature jury saw eightyone, and the three-member book jury scrutinised twenty books and the work of nineteen critics. The selection was not without controversy as three feature jury members walked out in protest. The awards include Swaran and Rajat Kamal and cash components between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000.
The Malayalam 'Sayahnam' by R. Sarath got the Indira Gandhi Award for the best first film of a director and the Tamil 'Vanathaippola' by Vikraman got the Swarna Kamal for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. The best film on family welfare is the Hindi 'Kal Kaa Aadmi' made for the Health and Family Welfare Ministry by director Amol Palekar, who got an award last year for the Health Ministry produced 'Kairee'.
The award for other social issues is shared by the Tamil film 'Vetrikkodi Kattu' by Cheran (for tackling city migration issues) and the Kannada 'Munnudi' by P. Sheshadri (for discussing misuse of Shariat) which also gets the best supporting actor award for M. G. Dattareya. The Malayalam 'Oru Cheru Punchiri' by the wellknown M. T. Vasudevan Nair gets the award for environment conservation.
'Gharaksharangal' (cussed letters) produced and directed by Salim Padiyath Malayalam received the Best Children's film award. The best child star is Master Udayaraj for the Tamil film 'Nilaa Kalam'.
Shankar Mahadevan who took everyone's breath away with 'Breathless' gets the male playback award for the song 'Illai, Illai Solla' in the Tamil film 'Kandukonden Kandukonden'. The popular Anu Malik is the best music director for the Hindi film 'Refugee' which marked the debut of Abhishek Bachchan. This film also gets the best lyric award for 'Panchi Nadiya aur Pavan' by the highly-award Javed Akhtar who shares his award with Yusafali Kechery who wrote the song 'Gayam Hari Nama Dhayam' for the Malayalam 'Mazha - the Rain'.
The veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee gets a Special Jury Award for the film 'Dekha' directed by Goutam Ghose which also got the best Bengali film award. 'Zubeidaa' directed by the renowned Shyam Benegal is the best Hindi feature. The other regional language awards have gone to: Kannada - 'Mathadana' by T. N. Seetharam; Malayalam - 'Sayanam' by M. P. Sukumaran Nair and 'Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal' by Sathyan Anthikkad (which gets the choreography award for G.Kala); Manipuri - 'Chatledo Endee' by Makhonmani Mongsaba; Marathi - 'Astitva' by Mahesh Manjrekar (also released in Hindi), Telugu - 'Nuvve Kaavaali' by K. Vijaya Bhaskar; and the animation film 'The Pandavas' by Pentamedia Graphics.
Ashok Mehta, who has won the award before, once again gets the cinematography award - this time for the Hindi 'Moksha' which also gets the audiography award for Anup Dev. The eminent Bharati Rajaa gets the screenplay award for the Tamil film 'Kadal Pookkal', and Suresh Pai and Apurva Asrani share the editing award for the English film 'Snip !'.
The best first nonfeature of a director is 'Meena Jha' by Anjalika Sharma for the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Insitute in Kolkata and this film also gets a special mention for its cameraman Amal Neerod C.R.
A special mention has also been made of Haimanti Banerjee who directed 'Balbandharv'. The nonfeature 'Rasik Priya' also gets the newly-instituted best director award and the best cinematography award for Prasann Jain. The veteran Usha Khanna gets the music
direction award for the nonfeature 'Ajeeb Ghar'. Kannada film 'Scribbles on Akka' by Madhusree Dutta gets the best anthropological film, while the Malayalam 'Devanarthakan' by Sudhish Gopalakrishnan is the best biographical film. The best scientific film is 'Vedic Mathematics' by K. Jagjivan Ram, the environmental award goes to 'The Nest' by Supriyo Sen, and the promotional award is for Bappa Ray's 'Pashmina Royale'.
The Films Division gets eight awards: the best arts film 'Tribal Women Artists' by Braj Bhushan, agricultural film 'Vermi Culture' by A. R. Sharief, historical reconstruction 'From the land of Buddhism to the land of Buddha' by Shalini Shah, social issues award for 'Infilterators' by Urmi Chakraborty, educational film 'Tulasi' by Rajgopal Rao, investigative film 'Wearing the Face' by Joshy Joseph,family welfare award for 'Mahananda' by Manik Das, and animation film 'The Landscape' by Ravi Jadhav.
The Special jury Award has gone to 'A memory of the sea' by Lygia Mathews which also gets the award audiography for Hari Kumar. The best short fiction is 'Bhor' by Ritubarna Chudgar, the family welfare award also goes to 'Allareninnu' by T. Sunil Kumar, Susmitham and Pallimalakunnu; and Sankalp Mehsram gets the editing award for the nonfeature 'Lokpriya'.
These awards and that for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award to be announced later are to be given away by President K. R. Narayanan some time in June or July this year.
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