Skip to main content

South dominates in 55th Indian National Film Awards

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 MUMBAI: It was the South Indian film industry that dominated the 55th National Film Awards for 2007. Priyadarshan's Tamil film Kanchivaram, a period drama about silk weavers of the south, was chosen as the best movie at the 55th National Film Awards. On the other hand, Tamil actor Prakash Raj was declared the Best Actor for his role in the film Kanchivaram thus beating off competition from Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. Raj had earlier won the Best Supporting Actor award for Iruvar in 1998 and also a special Jury Award in 2003.Adoor Gopalakrishnan bagged best director for the Malayalam film Naalu Pennungal making it his seventh national award. Umashree received the best actress award for her performance in Girish Kasaravalli's Kannada film Gulabi Talkies.While the films from the South took away most of the awards, the Hindi film industry was not far behind. Yash Raj Films' Chak De! India bagged the award in the Wholesome Entertainment category and Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par in the Family Welfare category. TZP also bagged awards for the song Meri Maa, which was awarded to playback singer Shankar Mahadevan and the best lyricist, which was won by lyricist Prasoon Joshi. Anil Kapoor's Gandhi My Father has won three awards - director Feroz Abbas Khan got the National Award for best screenplay, Darshan Zariwala won the best supporting actor for portraying Gandhi, while Kapoor bagged the special jury award for the film. Choreographer Saroj Khan received an award for the song Yeh Ishk Hai from Jab We Met. Actress Shefali Shah was awarded the best supporting actress award for her performance in The Last Lear. Bhavna Talwar's directorial debut Dharm won the Nargis Dutt Award for best film on national integration. The best child actor award went to Sharad Goekar for his role in the Marathi film Tingya. The Indira Gandhi Award for best first film of a director was awarded to Shanker Raman for Frozen, which also won the best cinematography award.Sushil Rajpal's Antardwandwa won best film on social issues; whereas Foto, produced by Children's Film Society of India and directed by Virendra Saini, bagged the best children's film award. Ruma Sengupta won the best costume designer award for the Bengali film Krishnakanter Will. The best music award went to Ouseppachan for the Malayalam film Ore Kadal. Best makeup artist award went to Pattnam Rasheed for his work in the Malayalam film Paradesi. The best feature films in various languages were Ballygunge Court (Bengali), 1971 (Hindi), Gulabi Talkies (Kannada), Ore Kadal (Malayalam), Nirop (Marathi), Periyar (Tamil) and The Last Lear (English). The jury considered 102 feature and 106 non-feature films before it made its selection. The jury for the Feature Film was headed by Sai Paranjpye. Thirteen other members of the jury were involved in judging the 92 entries for feature film categories for the 55th National Film Awards.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Cuba's world-famous cigar festival closes in Havana

Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo...

Snake bite deaths

Monday, July 06, 2009 COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government recorded some 33,000 snake bites in 2008, with most of the victims coming from remote villages.The Department of Government Information said in a statement that most of the snake bite cases could be fatal if neglected.The statement said snake bites are often neglected in Sri Lanka as victims do not seek treatment at hospitals where advanced medication is available. Instead, the victims rush to traditional type of treatment which could be a risk, reports Xinhua.Snake bites death at domestic level, outside hospitals, go unrecorded, said the statement.Most victims of snake bite are from the rural and remote villages where there is no electricity after dusk.Statistics show that Sri Lanka has over 90 species of snake with around 10 species possessing venom capable of killing a human being.In Sri Lanka the annual death rate due to snake bite envenoming is one of the highest in the world being 6 in 100,000 population.

Berlin Celebrates the Day the Wall Fell

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 BERLIN: World leaders and partying Germans are descending on Berlin Nov. 9 to mark the 20th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall was breachedIt is a day for celebrations and commemorations, for festivities and sober reflection. Berlin is marking 20 years since the fall of the Wall on Monday with a series of events, big and small. Leaders from around the world are descending on the German capital to help celebrate the momentous events of Nov. 9, 1989, a date that has come to symbolize the end of communism in Eastern Europe. The main focus of events will be the historic Brandenburg Gate, where 20 years ago, joyful East and West Berliners gathered together to dance on top of the wall and celebrate the sudden opening up of the Iron Curtain. The iconic gateway had once stood in the midst of no man's land, surrounded by barbed wire and machine guns. Now 20 years on, a concert and fireworks display will recall those heady moments. A line of 1,000 foam dominoe...