50th National Film Awards
nkdatta8839
The Hindu
27 July, 2003
Top honours for Ajay Devgan, Konkana Sen; `Devdas' bags 5 awards
By Our Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI JULY 26. Bengali cinema made a clean sweep at the 50th
National Film Awards today, walking away with a majority of the top
feature film category awards, including best film, director, actress,
screenplay and debut film.
Budhadeb Dasgupta's much acclaimed Mondo Meyer Upakhyan won the best
film award in the feature film segment, while his biographical work on
renowned painter Manjeet Bawa, Meeting Manjit, bagged the best
biographical film award.
Bollywood action hero Ajay Devgan will collect his second Rajat Kamal
for best actor in this golden jubilee year of the National Awards for
his performance in The Legend of Bhagat Singh.
Bengali actress Konkana Sen wins her first National Film Award for her
strong portrayal of a Tamil Brahmin in the film Mr. and Mrs Iyer.
Bollywood's most expensive tragedy, Devdas, bagged five awards,
including the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment,
best costume, best choreography, art direction and female playback
singer. It was awarded for its "technical finesse and its modern
re-interpretation of an enduring classic".
The mother-daughter duo, Aparna Sen and Konkana Sen, walked away with
the awards for best direction and acting for Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, which
also bagged the Nargis Dutt Award for the best film on national
integration and best screenplay.
Keerthana
In the supporting actor and actress category, Tamil actor
Chandrashekhar was chosen for the Rajat Kamal for his portrayal of a
physically challenged man in Nanba Nanba, while Rakhee's role of an
"unlikely" detective in Rituparno Ghosh's Shubho Muhurat has won her
the award.
A.K. Bir's Baaja will receive the best children's film award. Sharing
the best child artiste award will be Shweta Prasad and Keerthana for
their spontaneous and lively performance in Makdee (Hindi) and
Kannathil Muthamittal (Tamil).
The Indira Gandhi Award for the best debut film of a director went to
Bengali film makers Abhijit Chaudhari and Subhadro Chaudhary for Patal
Ghar and Prohor.
The jury announced that no film was found up to the mark in the family
welfare category.
Anwar Jamal's soon-to-be-released Swaaraj won the best film on a
social issue for its strong depiction of women's empowerment in rural
India.
Singers Udit Narayan and Shreya Ghoshal won honours for their songs
Chhote Chhote Sapne (from Zindagi Khubsoorat Hai) and Bairi Piya
(Devdas), while A.R. Rahman bagged the best music director award for
Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamittal.
Konkana Sen
Abhik Mukhopadhyaya won the best cinematography award for the Bengali
film Patalghar, while A.S. Laxmi Narayan will receive the best
audiography award for Kannathil Muthamittal, which has also won the
best editing award for Sreekar Prasad.
Devdas has earned awards for Nitin Chandrakant Desai (art direction),
Saroj Khan (choreography) and Neeta Lulla, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla
(costume designing).
In the regional category, Jahnu Barua's Konikar Ramdhenu (Assamese),
Rituparno Ghosh's Shubho Muhurat (Bengali), Raj Kumar Santoshi's The
Legend of Bhagat Singh (Hindi), Adoor Goplakrishnan's Nizhalkoothu
(Malayalam), Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukhantar's Vastupurush
(Marathi), Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamittal (Tamil), Nagabharana's
Singaravva (Kannada) won the top honours.
Prakash Belawadi's Stumble will get the best English feature film
award.
nkdatta8839
In the supporting actor and actress category, Tamil actor
Chandrashekhar was chosen for the Rajat Kamal for his portrayal of a
physically challenged man in Nanba Nanba, while Rakhee's role of an
"unlikely" detective in Rituparno Ghosh's Shubho Muhurat has won her
the award.
A.K. Bir's Baaja will receive the best children's film award. Sharing
the best child artiste award will be Shweta Prasad and Keerthana for
their spontaneous and lively performance in Makdee (Hindi) and
Kannathil Muthamittal (Tamil).
The Indira Gandhi Award for the best debut film of a director went to
Bengali film makers Abhijit Chaudhari and Subhadro Chaudhary for Patal
Ghar and Prohor.
The jury announced that no film was found up to the mark in the family
welfare category.
Anwar Jamal's soon-to-be-released Swaaraj won the best film on a
social issue for its strong depiction of women's empowerment in rural
India.
Singers Udit Narayan and Shreya Ghoshal won honours for their songs
Chhote Chhote Sapne (from Zindagi Khubsoorat Hai) and Bairi Piya
(Devdas), while A.R. Rahman bagged the best music director award for
Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamittal.
Abhik Mukhopadhyaya won the best cinematography award for the Bengali
nkdatta8839
Awards focus spotlight on new heroes
BOB ROY
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, JULY 28, 2003 02:46:15 AM ]
Adozen of the 50th National Film Awards (NFA) have come the Kolkata
way! Just cause for jubilation undoubtedly. The big winners are big
names: Aparna Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Rituparno Ghosh or even Konkona
Sen Sharma.
Alongside there are a few more names, the unsung heroes if one might
call them so, who, underplayed by the media in general and lost amidst
the glorification of the heavy weights, exist in the far flung fringes
of the mass memory; names such as Pune Film Institute trained director
Subhadro Choudhury who has won the best debut director's award for
Prohor, or ad filmmaker-turned-director Abhijit Chowdhury whose
Patalghar has been tagged the best debut film, or cinematographer
Aveek Mukhopadhyay whose work in Patalghar earned him the best
cinematographer's award. One of the best part of the Kolkata's virtual
clean sweep at the NFA is perhaps the recognition that has been
bestowed to some of the comparatively unknown, but very capable
people.
Rituparno Ghosh was very quick to respond to this fact when he said,
The awards are nothing new to me or the established directors, but I
feel very happy for those who won it for the first time." Jatin
Sarkar, director of Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, thought
that the winning of so many NFA is not a freak case. For the last one
year or so I've felt a resurgence in the quality of Bengali film. Not
just the known good filmmakers but some of the new faces are trying to
make films which aren't just creative, but are also watchable. This
flurry of NFA is a confirmation of this fact," Sarkar opined.
For Subhadro Chowdhury, this has been his second NFA award, the first
being the one he won for his diploma film at FTII. In Prohor
(adaptation of a Dulendra Bhowmik short story titled Dus Nombor Bed,
Subhadro has experimented with the filmatic form to a great extent
having used only static shots, with minimal or no dialogue, using only
the ambience sound and sound-effects coupled with a nondramatic acting
style. With a brand new, entirely debutant crew it took exactly 15
days for Subhadro to complete shooting of the film "After making
serials and telefilms for eight years, this time I somehow managed to
make a feature film. It does feel good at being recognised for ones
effort. The award will certainly help in making my next film, which is
based upon a short story by Dostoyevsky," said the director.
Patalghar's director Abhijit Chowdhury and cinematographer Aveek
Mukhopadhyay are not exactly new to the trade. Abhijit has made many a
successful national level ad campaigns. Aveek is presently working on
Rituparno's Choker Bali in Hyderabad. One undeniable aspect of
Patalghar is its production value. It has truly been a forerunner in
terms of technical standards it has set in the Bengali film arena - be
it the cinematography or use of soundeffects.
"It's a challenge to visualise this Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay fantasy.
My ad background helped though I had to unlearn a lot too," Abhijit
said. Film veteran Victor Banerjee was so impressed with the film's
technical accomplishments and its quality of cinematography that he
even said, "If films such as Patalghar can be made from Kolkata, I
think it won't be too far away when Bollywood films would start
emulating Bengali films."
But can Bengal's NFA success this year be sustained in future? "It's
very difficult," felt Buddhadeb Dasgupta after bagging his fourth
Swarna Kamal (equalling Satyajit Ray's four NFAs) for Mondo Meyer
Upakhyan. "But the NFAs don't help in creating a market for Bengali
films. Hardly a handful of films are able to recover cost," lamented
Dasgupta.
"I'm fortunate that Mondo Meyer... has fetched US$ 2.5 million in film
rights sale in the overseas market, the highest so far for a Bengali
film. But not every film will be able to manage that. So support from
a strong local audience pool and proper distribution infrastructure
are essential," he added. Prohor's executive producer, Mrigen Roy,
concurred saying, "The marketing aspect of the films needs to be
strengthened. The filmmakers have to put effort in this process. An
award will help to the extent that the film's entry to foreign film
festival will become easier comparatively, thus providing opportunity
to find markets abroad."