M A I N   N E W S

Raveena, Anil declared best
Awards announced amid controversy
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27
Despite the controversy over the selection for the Best Actress award due to “political considerations”, Raveena Tandon was today chosen for the top acting award of the country with Anil Kapoor bagging the Best Actor award and Malayalam film “Shantham” by Jayaraj getting the Best Feature Film award in the 48th National Film Awards for the best productions of 2001.

The awards were announced here this afternoon by jury chairpersons Vyjanthimala Bali (features), John Mathew Mattan (non-features), and Bharati Pradhan although some of the jury members had resigned alleging political interference and overtones in the selection of the awards.

While Raveena is to get her award for the Hindi film, “Daman”, Anil gets the accolade for “Pukar”, directed by Rajkumar Santoshi for Anil’s father, Surinder Kapoor. The film also gets the Nargis Dutt Award for the Best Feature on national integration. “Shantham” also gets the Best Supporting Actress award for veteran K.P.A.C. Lalitha.

While Malayalam and Hindi films get the highest number of awards, nine each, Tamil film “Bharati” has been chosen for as many as four awards — the highest for any single film— best Tamil language film, female playback R. Bhavatharini for “Mail Poola Pattu”, and P. Krishnamoorthy for art direction and costume design.

The much-awarded Rituparno Ghosh bags the Best Director award for Bengali film “Utsab”.

“Rasik Priya” directed by Arun Vasan Khopkar for the External Affairs Ministry gets the Best Non-Feature award, “Sholay” in English by Anupama Chopra has been adjudged as the best book on cinema and the critic award has been shared by two: Telugu critic Vasiraju Prakasham and Delhi-based Hindi critic Suresh Sharma.

The 17-member feature jury saw through 128 films, while the five-member non-feature jury saw 81 and the three-member book jury scrutinised 20 books and the work of 19 critics. The selection was not without controversy as three feature jury members walked out in protest.

The Malayalam “Sayahnam” by R. Sarath got the Indira Gandhi award for the Best First Film of a director and the Tamil “Vanathaippola” by Vikraman got the Swarna Kamal for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment.

The Best Film on Family Welfare is the Hindi “Kal Kaa Aadmi”, made for the Health and Family Welfare Ministry by director Amol Palekar.

The award for other social issues is shared by Tamil film “Vetrikkodi Kattu” by Cheran (for tackling city migration issues) and the Kannada “Munnudi” by P. Sheshadri (for discussing misuse of Shariat), which gets the Best Supporting Actor award for M.G. Dattareya. The Malayalam “Oru Cheru Punchiri” by well-known M.T. Vasudevan Nair gets the award for environment conservation.

Shankar Mahadevan, who took everyone’s breath away with “Breathless”, gets the male playback award for the song, “Illai, Illai Solla” in Tamil film “Kandukonden Kandukonden”. The popular Anu Malik is the Best Music Director for Hindi film “Refugee”. This film also gets the Best Lyrics award for “Panchi Nadiya aur Pavan” by Javed Akhtar, who shares his award with Yusafali Kechery.

Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee gets a Special Jury Award for the film “Dekha” directed by Goutam Ghose, which also got the Best Bengali film award.

“Zubeidaa”, directed by the renowned Shyam Benegal, is the Best Hindi feature .

Ashok Mehta once again gets the cinematography award - this time for the Hindi “Moksha”, which also gets the audiography award for Anup Dev.

Awards not fixed, says Vyjayanthimala

New Delhi, March 27
Eminent danseuse Vyjayanthimala Bali may have received rave reviews as an actress, but her tenure as chairperson of the 48th National Film Awards jury is likely to get more reportage for the acrimony which resulted in the resignation of two members.

Film-makers Pradip Kishen and Shashi Anand resigned from the jury, while dancer Madhumita Raut registered her protest and walked out during the deliberations yesterday. Asked if the jury members walked out peacefully, Mrs Bali, a former Member of Parliament, retorted at a press meeting here this afternoon to announce the results, “How can any walkout be peaceful ? have you never seen Parliament proceedings ?”

Mrs Bali said it was unfortunate that members should have chosen to resign or to have gone to the press with their comments when they were sworn to secrecy about the deliberations. She denied the allegations, claiming that ‘nothing was fixed’.

However, actor Dhritiman Chatterjee, who was in the feature film jury and was present, told newspersons that the entire selection process was null and void. Another member, Ms Nibedita Pradhan, a politician from Orissa, admitted that she did not have much knowledge of cinema. PTI, UNI