Thiruvananthapuram: Vidhu Vincent’s Manhole, a searing realistic account of manual scavenging in the state, won big at the 47th State Film Awards. The film won both the best film and the award for the best director. The jury led by cinematographer and director A.K. Bir ignored mainstream films. Maheshinte Prathikaram was the only commercial film that won a top award; best script for Shyam Pushkaran.
Vinayakan beat competition from none other than Mohanlal to emerge the best actor for what the jury terms his “believable” portrayal of Ganga who is on the verge of insanity in Rajeev Ravi’s Kammattipadam.
“He could achieve an amazing balance between his violent body language and his internal weaknesses,” the jury noted.
‘Ottayal Patha’, directed by brothers Santhosh and Satish Babusenan, was adjudged the second best film. Interestingly, the film was not selected to any category at the last IFFK. ‘Manhole’ and Dr Biju’s ‘Kaadu Poookkunna Neram’ were the Malayalam films in IFFK competition. A.K. Kaladharan who played a self-sacrificing father in ‘Ottayal Patha’ received a special jury mention.
Dr Biju’s film, though it did not win any top awards, cornered some of the top technical awards; best cinematographer (M J Radhakrishnan), best sync sound (Jayadevan Chakkadath), best sound mixing (Pramod Thomas), best sound design (Jayadevan Chakkadath), and best colorist (Henroi Messia). The other major technical awards were bagged by ‘Kammattipadam’; best editor (B Ajith Kumar), best art director (Gokuldas A V/S Nagaraj). Virtually all the music awards were swept by Vinod Mankara’s musical ‘Kambhoji’; best music (M Jayachandran), best lyrics (O N V Kurup), best singer-female (K S Chithra).
