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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SC seeks ED's response on journalist's bail plea in money laundering case
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file its response within three days on a bail plea of journalist Mahesh Langa in a money laundering case linked to an alleged financial fraud.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi also asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the jailed journalist, to file rejoinder, if needed, to the ED's response within two days of it being filed.
The top court fixed the case for further hearing on December 15.
During the brief hearing on Monday, Sibal said a journalist has been facing as many as six cases.
"The journalist is accused of extortion," the counsel for the ED said and sought a short adjournment on the ground that Solicitor General Tuhar Mehta was unavailable at the moment.
The top court on September 8 sought responses from the Gujarat government and the ED on Langa's bail plea.
While issuing the notices on Langa's bail plea, the bench asked, "What kind of a journalist is he?"
"With due respect, there are some very genuine journalists. But there are also people who on their scooter say we are 'patrakar' (journalists) and what they actually do everybody knows," the bench told Sibal.
Sibal replied that these are all allegations.
"In one FIR, he gets anticipatory bail, then a second FIR is lodged and again anticipatory bail is granted but now he is booked under a third FIR for income tax evasion. There are other things also against him," Sibal submitted.
He added that there is a background to the case also.
On July 31, the Gujarat High Court rejected Langa's bail plea in the money laundering case on the grounds that if released on bail, prejudice would be caused to the prosecution case.
On February 25, the ED said it arrested Langa in a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged financial fraud.
He was first arrested in October 2024 in a GST fraud case.
The money laundering case against Langa stems from two FIRs filed by Ahmedabad police on charges of fraud, criminal misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, cheating and causing wrongful loss of lakhs of rupees to certain people.
