National Awards: Malayalam movie 'Aattam: The Play' is best feature film
Sooraj Barjatya best director
New Delhi, Aug 16: Regional cinema dominated the National Film Awards announced on Friday with best feature film going to Malayalam movie "Aattam: The Play" and Rishabh Shetty bagging best actor for the Kannada hit "Kantara". The best actress prize was shared by Nithya Menen, for the Tamil film "Thiruchitrambalam", and Manasi Parekh for the Gujarati movie "Kutch Express".
The lone Bollywood presence in the top categories for the 70th edition of the national awards was "Uunchai" with Sooraj R Barjatya named best director.
The adventure film, centred on four aging friends readying to scale Mt Everest, also won Neena Gupta a best supporting actress prize.
"It is yet to sink in. I've got two National Awards in the past and I'm getting another National award after many many years, it's a big thing for me," Gupta, who bagged awards for the non-feature "Bazar Sitaram" in 1993 and for "Woh Chokri" in 1994, told PTI.
A big winner in the awards for 2022 was the Haryanvi film "Fouja", which got Pavan Malhotra a best supporting actor and won two other awards -- best debut film of a director for Pramod Kumar and best lyrics to Naushad Sadar Khan.
The awards were announced by Rahul Rawail, head of the jury for the feature film segment, and Nila Madhab Panda, who headed the non-feature film category.
"Aattam: The Play", directed by Anand Ekarshi, revolves around a theatre troupe and the changing dynamics after its only woman member alleges she has been groped by one of the men.
The Kannada blockbuster "Kantara", which explores the intricate connection between humanity and nature through its folklore-based storytelling, was also named in the category for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. Best actor Shetty plays the dual roles of a father and son.
Sharmila Tagore and Manoj Bajpayee starrer "Gulmohar", a family drama exploring the meaning of family and home, 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 Malayalam title "Kadhikan".
A R Rahman won the National Film Award for best music director (background music) for his work in Mani Ratnam's "Ponnyin Selvan-Part 1", which was also named the best Tamil film. Pritam got the award for best music director (songs) for "Brahmastra-Part 1". Arijit Singh was named the best male playback singer for the song "Kesariya" from Ayan Mukerji's "Brahmastra Part One: Shiva".
The Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt starrer also bagged the award for best film in AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming and comic) category.
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.
Besides the best actress honour for Menen, "Thiruchitrambalam", a comedy also starring Dhanush, earned the honour for best choreography for Jani Master and Sathish Krishnan. Niki Joshi won the trophy for best costume designer for "Kutch Express".
Seasoned cinematographer Ravi Varman bagged the best cinematography for Ratnam's "Ponniyin Selvan", which also took the honour 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 went to Sreepath for "Malikapurram" in Malayalam.
From Bengali cinema, "Aparajito" won the award for best make-up and best production design for Anand Adhya, while best Bengali film went to Kaushik Ganguly's "Kaberi Antardhan".
The other regional films that won awards include "Kartikeya 2" (Telugu), "Baaghi Di Dhee" (Punjabi), "Daman" (Odia), "Vaalvi" (Marathi) and "KGF: Chapter 2" (Kannada). The best Tiwa film award was won by "Sikaisal".
From the non-feature category, the top honour went to "Ayena" by director Siddhant Sarin.
Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj won the best music director for his short film "Fursat".
"Just heard about the national award for Fursat. I am deeply happy to get my 9th national award. It's the biggest award of our country. The only one that truly matters. And winning this is the greatest validation of my work! Thank you jury for this. Now I need to strive for a double digit," the director, who had earlier won the same honour for short film "1232 KMS", said in a statement.
The best film critic award went to Deepak Dua. Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar won the best book on cinema for "Kishore Kumar: The Ultimate Biography".
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Allahabad court restrains FIR order against Gandhi
Lucknow (PTI): The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has restrained its order directing an FIR against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in connection with the alleged dual citizenship controversy.
The court will now hear the parties on whether prior notice to the accused was legally required.
A bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi, which had in Friday in an oral order observed that prima facie cognisable offences appeared to be made out against Gandhi, and permitted the Uttar Pradesh government to hand over the probe to a central agency, said it would first examine the legal position on issuance of notice before passing any direction.
The development came after the bench, before signing its dictated order, came across a full court verdict mandating that notice be issued to the proposed accused in such matters.
The court noted that none of the counsel brought this legal requirement to its attention in the earlier hearing.
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The bench has posted the matter for April 20.
The order was passed on a plea filed by Karnataka-based BJP worker S Vignesh Shishir.
During the Friday proceedings, Deputy Solicitor General of India S B Pandey produced records of the Centre relating to the citizenship controversy, while government advocate V K Singh submitted on behalf of the state that the allegations prima facie disclosed cognisable offences.
After a hearing, the bench observed that material on record indicated that Gandhi had allegedly committed cognisable offences and that the matter warranted investigation.
In his petition, Shishir alleged that Gandhi was a UK citizen and had incorporated a company, M/s Backops Ltd, in August 2003, declaring his nationality as British.
The petitioner claimed that Gandhi submitted the company's annual returns in October 2005 and October 2006 listing his nationality as British, and that the firm was dissolved in February 2009.
He sought registration of an FIR against the former Congress president under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Official Secrets Act, the Foreigners Act and the Passport Act.
The complaint was initially filed before a special MP/MLA court in Rae Bareli and was later transferred to Lucknow on the petitioner's request.
