M A I N   N E W S

Jagir Kaur to appear at Akal Takht
Tribune News Service

AMRITSAR, Feb 15 — In all probability, Bibi Jagir Kaur, president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee will appear before Akal Takht after the Nawanshahr byelection scheduled for February 17.

Mr Avtar Singh Hit, president Shiromani Akali Dal, New Delhi and Dr Puran Singh Jassi, a former Director Health Services who held long meeting with Giani Puran Singh, Jathedar Akal Takht for the third consecutive day today left for Nawanshahr to meet Mr Badal who is camping there and give him a detailed report of their meeting.

Though Dr Jassi refused to divulge details he confirmed that the talks were held in congenial atmosphere. He, however, hoped that the talks would yield results and an amicable solution be found soon.

Sources said both Giani Puran Singh and Bibi Jagir Kaur had softened their respective stands.

B.R. Chopra gets Phalke award
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Feb 15 — Indian cinema’s highest national honour the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for lifelong contribution to the medium was today presented to Bollywood’s living legend B.R. Chopra at the 46th National Film Awards function here.

The award was given away by President K.R.Narayanan in the presence of Information and Broadcasting Minister, Arun Jaitley at Vigyan Bhavan. The President also gave away the other awards for top performances in Indian cinema for 1998.

Speaking on the occasion, both called upon film makers to be sensitive to the sensibilities of the public.

While filmmaker, Shyam Benegal’s Hindi film ‘Samar’ received the award for the best film of 1998, the award for the best director was given away to Rajeevnath for the Malayalam film ‘Janani’ while Ajay Devgun shared the best actor award which he won for his role in “Zakhm” directed by Mahesh Bhatt with popular Malayalam star Mammootty who got it for playing the title role of Bhim Rao Ambedkar in the English film “Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar” directed by Jabbar Patel. Shabana Azmi bagged the award for her performance in “Godmother” directed by Vinay Shukla.

The 1998 blockbuster “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” by Karan Johar bagged the award for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment while the Malayalam film “Daya” by Venu was selected for the Indira Gandhi award for the first film of a director. The Nargis Dutt award for the best film on national integration is ‘Zakhm’, which was produced by actress Pooja Bhatt who also enacted the main role.

In fact, a majority of the 17 awards and mentions bagged by Hindi films have gone to mainstream commercial cinema. The films include the controversial “Godmother” which won the largest number of awards, a total of six, for any single film, including best feature film in Hindi language category, and an award for best lyric “mati re mati re” by Shabana’s husband Javed Akhtar.

The supporting acting awards were bagged by Hindi films, Manoj Bajpai in Ramgopal Verma’s “Satya” and Suhasini Mulay for Gulzar’s “hu tu tu”, her second film as an actress after her debut in “Bhavan Shome” in the late 70s.

“In the Forest Hangs a Bridge” by Sanjay Kak won the best non-feature film award, while “Cinemaee Bhasha Aur Hindi Samvaadon Ka Vishleshan” by Kishore Vaswani was selected as the best book on cinema with Meenakshi Shedde being chosen as best film critic. There was also a special mention of Gaston Roberge for the book “Communication Cinema Development”.

The Dadasaheb Phalke award, the highest national honour in cinema presented every year to senior film personalities for their contribution to the growth and development of the art, comprises a sum of Rs 2 lakh apart from a citation and a shawl. This award has been decided by the government, while the other awards were selected by a 17-member feature film jury, a five-member non-feature jury, and a three-member book jury. Apart from the Swarna Kamal and the Rajat Kamal, the cash component of the awards ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 for feature films and Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 for non-feature films.Other Hindi films awarded were “Kabhi Pass Kabhi Fail” by Virendra Saini as the best children’s film, and “Dil Se” which won two awards, including one for best audiography for H. Sridhar. While Hindi led with 17 awards, Malayalam was next with seven, followed by Tamil with four Bengali, English and Telugu with three each and Assamese, Kannada, Punjabi, Oriya and Marathi with one each.“Godmother” won three other awards: best male playback for Sanjeev Abhyankar for “Suno Re Bhaila”, Renu Saluja for its editing, and Vishal Bhardwaj for music. Alka Yagnik won the female playback for the title track of “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”. Bengla film “Samar” got an award for best screenplay for Ashok Misra. The film “Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar” also received an award for best art direction which was presented to Nitin Desai, while S.B. Satheesan got the costume award for “Daya”.Perhaps for the first time in the history of the national film awards, an individual won two awards each in consecutive years and each award is for a different film. Renowned cameraman Santosh Sivan, who had received the regional language film award for “The Terrorist” and for cinematography for “Iruvar” in the national awards for 1997, got the award for environmental conservation film “Malli” and for cinematography in “Dil Se”. Child actress baby Amma (Shwetha) got the award for best child star for “Malli”.The awards, which should have been in normal course presented in the mid-year last year, could not be given away due to various reasons including the prevailing political situation in the country.