Bollywood blockbuster 'Lagaan', which lost out in the race for an Oscar, won the mostpopular film award and seven more while Kannada film 'Dweep' by Girish Kasaravalli was adjudged the best feature film inthe 49th edition of the National Film Awards announced today.
Renowned actress Tabu shared the best actress award for her sensitive depiction of a beer bar dancer in'Chandni Bar', with South Indian star Shobana for her role of a lonely mother in'Mitr-My Friend', K S Sethu Madhavan, Chairman of the Feature Film Jury said at a press conference here.
Malayalam actor Murali bagged the best actor award for his role in 'Neythukaran' (The Weaver) which revolves around acommitted political worker caught in a web of shifting values.
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B. Lenin was adjudged the Best Director for Tamil film 'Oruku Nooruper' (hundred people in a hamlet) a tale of arevolutionary who killed for his cause and was awarded death sentence.
Aamir Khan's 'Lagaan', directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar won awards for the Best Music Direction (A.R.Rahman), Lyrics (Javed Akhtar), Choreography (Raju Khan) audiography (H. Sridhar and Nakul Kamte), Art Direction (Chandrakant Desai),Playback Singer (Udit Narayan for Mitwa o Mitwa) and Costume Designer (BhanuAthaiya), besides the award for the Most Popular Film Providing WholesomeEntertaiment.
Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Chandni Bar', the poignant story of innocent girls getting trapped in a vicious circle, alsobagged the award of Best Film on Social Issues. Atul Kulkarni won the award for the Best Supporting actor in the film whileAnnanya Khare was adjudged the Best Supporting Actress in it.
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Another popular Film Farhan Akhtar's 'Dil Chahta Hai' was adjudged the Best Feature Film in Hindi for "artisticallyand humourously" portraying the growing up years of young people in modern society.
Udit Narayan was also adjudged the Best Playback Singer for 'Jaane kyon log pyaar kartehain' in the film. The Best Female Playback singer award went to Sadana Sargam for'Paatu Cholli' in Tamil film 'Udayageethavin Azhahi'.
Revathy's 'Mitr-My Friend', which has an all-woman cast, bagged the awards for Best Feature Film in English and BestEditing for Beena Paul.
This is the first time that there is a joint jury for the Indian Panorama and the National Film Awards,Sethu Madhavan said adding 'Our decisions were unanimous.'
However, there were no awards in some categories inluding Children's film, Family Welfare and Environment/Preservation. The awards comprise a cash component between Rs 50,000to Rs 10,000 and a Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) or Rajat (Silver) Kamal.
The jury selected 20 films for the Indian Panorama, 2002, which included'Mitr-My Friend', 'Chandni Bar', 'Dweepa' and 'Dil Chahta Hai'.
The Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on national Integration went to Jyoti Swarup's Kashmiri film'Bub' which explores the problems of the minority in the face of terrorist activities.
The Telugu film 'Tiladaanam' was given the Indira Gandhi Award for the Best First Feature Film of a director while H.M.Ramachandra Halkere bagged the Best Cinematography Award for the Kannada film 'Dweepa'.
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Neelkantha was adjudged the Best Screenplay writer for Telugu film 'Show' while the Special Jury Award was given toJanaki Vishwanathan for Tamil film 'Kutty' for its realistic portrayal of the transition of a girl child from rural TamilNadu to Chennai in search of livelihood.
M.J. Raju got the Best Special Effects award for Tamil film 'Aalavandaan'.
In the non-feature categories, Prakash Jha's 'Sonal' on renowned dancer SonalMansingh's life got the award for Best Film while Vinod Sukumaran's 'Diary of aHousewife' bagged the award for the Best First non-feature film of a director.
Buddhadeb Dasgupta was adjudged Best Director for 'Jorasanko Thakurban' for artistacally unfolding the historyof the Tagores.
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The Award for Best Anthropological Film went to A.S. Sharma's 'The Monpas of ArunachalPradesh', Biographical Film to V Packirisamy's 'Teejan Bai', Environment Film to ViploveBhatia's 'Holy Ganga', Film on Social Issues to Aruna Raje Patil's 'A NewParadigm', Investigative Film to Goutam Ghosh's 'Kalahandi' and Animation to Paushali Ganguly's'Pink Camel'.
The Special Jury Award was given to Bhimsain's 'Orchestra' and the Award for the Best Short FictionFilm to Kranti Kanade's 'Chaitra'. The jury made a special mention for 'Kalahandi' and'Chaitra'.
Awards were not given in several categories in the non-feature section, like the Arts Film, Scientific Film,Agricultural film, Historical film and Best Exploration.
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K.K. Kapil, Chairman of the non-feature film jury, announcing the awards resented that there were no sponsors forfilms in the category and said the jury has recommended that Doordarshan give an hour every day for screening of suchfilms.
The Chairman of Best Writing on Cinema Jury Bharat Gopy said the award for the Best Book on Cinema was shared betweenApurba Sarma for 'Asomiya Chalachitrar Chha-Pohar' and Gangadhar Mahambare for 'Moulik MarathiChitrageete'.
The Best Film critic award was bagged by Vinod Anupam while special mention was made for C.S. Venkiteswaran for hisapproach to the celluliod idiom.
PTI
