Malayalam Movies Sweep 70th National Film Awards
NEW DELHI: The 70th National Film Awards announced on Friday recognised Rishab Shetty as the best actor for the Kannada hit Kantara in the feature films category. The best actress award was shared by Nithya Menon, who got the laurel for the Tamil film Thiruchitrambalam and Manasi Parekh for the Gujarati movie Kutch Express.
Sooraj R. Barjatya was named the best director for the Hindi movie Uunchai, while the Malayalam film Aattam: The Play bagged the best feature film award.
Ayena (Mirror) won the best non-feature film award. Murmurs of the Jungle was given the best documentary award.
Pavan Raj Malhotra got the award for best supporting actor, while Neena Gupta won the best supporting actress award.
Brahmastra-Part 1: Shiva was judged as the best film in the animation, visual effects gaming & comics (AVGC) category and Kishore Kumar: The Ultimate Biography was judged as the best book in cinema.
Veteran actor Sharmila Tagore and Manoj Bajpayee starrer Gulmohar 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 the Malayalam title Kadhikan.
The national award for best music director (background music) was won by A.R. Rahman for his work in Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan-Part 1, which was also named the best Tamil film. Pritam got the award for best music director (songs) for Brahmastra-Part 1: Shiva.
The award for best male playback singer was won by Arijit Singh for his song Kesariya from Ayan Mukerji's Brahmastra Part One: Shiva. 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.
Renowned cinematographer Ravi Varman won the best cinematography award for Ponniyin Selvan, which also won the award 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 was won by Sreepath for the Malayalam film Malikappuram.
In regional languages, Kartikeya 2 (Telugu), Baaghi Di Dhee (Punjabi), Daman (Odia),