New Delhi, Feb 02: One of the country's pioneers of the new-wave cinema, Mrinal Sen received huge ovation at the 51st National Film Awards function as he received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2003 for lifelong contribution to the world of movies.
President A P J Abdul Kalam gave away the main awards at the function held at the tastefully-decorated Vigyan Bhavan in the presence of Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy and Director of Film Festivals Neelam Kapoor.
Mainstream Hindi cinema, which has already hit the bull's eye overseas, proved its resilience in a major way, bagging as many as eleven awards. Bengali films got eight and Malayalam movies were named for six awards. Among other languages, Assamese got four and Marathi three, while Tamil, Telugu and Kannada got two each. Oriya and English received one award each.
Interestingly, all the three Assamese and the lone Oriya film that made entry won awards.
Marathi movie 'Shwaas', directed by Sandeep Sawant, got the Swarna Kamal for the Best film while the Hindi Sanjay Dutt-starrer 'Munnabhai MBBS' by director Rajkumar Hirani received the award for the film providing the most popular and wholesome entertainment.
'Shwaas' is the second-ever Marathi film to notch the top award, coming half a century after 'Shyamchi Aai' by P K Atre did it in 1953.
The renowned Gautam Ghose received the best director and screenplay awards for his Bengali film 'Abar Aranya' for which veteran star Sharmila Tagore got the supporting actress award.
The best actor award went to Vikram for the Tamil film 'Pithamagan' while Meera Jasmin got the best actress award for the Malayalam film 'Padam Onnu Oru Vilapam'. The senior character actor Pankaj Kapoor won the supporting role for his work in 'Maqbool' which was an Indianised version of 'Macbeth'.
Among the non-features, the controversial filmmaker Anand Patwardhan shared the award for the best non-feature for his 'War and Peace' -- the first-ever video film to get an award - with 'Kaya Poochhe Maya Se' by producer-director Arvind Sinha. The award for the Best First Non-feature Film of a Director went to 'An Encounter with the Living' by Suja.
Delhi scribe Saibal Chatterjee received the award for the best film critic, while the Hindi 'Film Jagat main Ardh Shatabadi Ka Romanch' by Ramakrishna was named as the best book on cinema.
Bureau Report
