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'Lagey raho Munnabhai' sweeps National Film Awards

New Delhi (PTI): Sanjay Dutt starrer 'Lagey Raho Munnabhai' which brought to fore 'Gandhigiri' by invoking the values of Mahatma Gandhi, swept the 54th National Film Awards for 2006, by winning four honours, including for best popular film.

It thus became the first Hindi film sequel to repeat the feat of winning the award as "Munnabhai MBBS" had bagged similar honour in 2003.

Veteran Bengali film actor Soumitra Chatterjee won the best actor award for the Bengali film "Podokkhep", while Tamil actress Priyamani won the best actress award for the film "Paruthi Veeran".

Madhur Bhandarkar won the best director award for his film 'Traffic Signal', while 'Khosla Ka Ghosla' won the award for the best Hindi film.

Malayalam film 'Pulijanmam' directed by Priyanandanan, won the honours for the best feature film. "Kabul Express" directed by Kabir Khan shared the honours with Madhu Kaithapuram's Malayalam film 'Ekantham', for the Indira Gandhi award for the best first film of a director.

There has been no announcement on the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for outstanding contribution to Indian Cinema.

Announcing the winners of the 54th National Film Awards 2006, chairman of the jury for feature films, Budhhadeb Dasgupta told reporters here that 'Lagey Raho Munnabhai' won awards for other categories like best lyrics (Swanand Kirkire), best screenplay (Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abhijat Joshi), and best supporting actor (Dilip Prabhavalkar, who portrayed Mahatma Gandhi in the film).

Incidentally it was a double bonanza for Prabhavalkar, who also won the award for best supporting actor award for Marathi film 'Shevri'. He had played a benign middle class clerk in Shevri and the award was given to him for portraying two diverse and equally challenging characters.

Vishal Bharadwaj directed 'Omkara' received the Special Jury award for being an outstanding film that synergises an international treatment with an earthy rooted sensibility.

Omkara also brought the best supporting honour for Konkona Sensharma. It won the best audiography award for K J Singh and Subhash Sahoo.

Punjabi film 'Waris Shah-Ishq Da Waris', an evocative portrayal of the rich, musical, Sufi tradition, won four national awards for the best film in Punjabi, best art direction (Rashid Rangrez), best costume designer (Manjit Mann) and best male playback singer for Gurdas Mann.

The young director of the film Manoj Punj incidentally had died soon after the film's release in late 2006.

The best female playback singer award went to noted vocalist Aarti Anklekar Tikekar for Konkani film 'Antarnad', which also won the best music direction award for Ashok Patki, as also the best feature film in Konkani.

The film also brought Divya Chahadkar, the best child artiste award for portraying a talented child overshadowed by a celebrity mother.

English film "Quest", which boldly addresses issues of sexuality got the award for the best film in the language. The film has been directed by noted film maker Amol Palekar.

Famous film director Goutam Ghose won the award for best cinematography for Hindi film 'Yatra'.

Nargis Dutt award for best feature film on national integration was won by Kannada film 'Kallarli Huvagi'.

Under the non feature film category, "Bishar Blues", directed by Amitabh Chakraborty, won the award for best non-feature film.

The best first non-feature film of a director award was won by Jacob Varghese for 'Andhiyum'.

Best biographical/historical reconstruction/compilation film award jointly went to M R Rajan directed 'Minukku' and Aribam Syam Sharma's 'Guru Laimayum Thambalngoubi Devi'.

Under the national award for best writing in cinema category, award for the best book on cinema 2006 was given to Jerry Pinto for his book, "Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb (English)".

The award for best film critic 2006 has gone jointly to G P Ramachandran (Malayalam) and Rafique Baghdadi (English), while Utpal Datta (Assamese) won a Special Mention for his sensitive interpretation of films and trends in cinema.

The awards were announced by head of jury for feature films category, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, head of jury for non-feature films category K Bikram Singh and Madhu Jain, who headed the jury for best writing on cinema.

Director (Directorate of Film Festivals) Neelam Kapur told reporters that the award ceremony for distributing the awards would be held as soon as a suitable date is confirmed from Rashtrapati Bhawan.

She said that national award nominations were running a year behind schedule due to a controversy surrounding them, which was later resolved by the Supreme Court.

In 2006, documentary film maker Anand Patwardhan had filed a petition in Bombay High Court, challenging the entry criteria for national awards, which does not allow films without a censor certificate.

The Bombay High Court had upheld the petition in July 2006, but Directorate of Films had later challenged the decision. However, in April 2007, the Supreme Court verdict had put aside the Bombay High Court's decision.

Kapur said that from 2006 onwards, only films with proper censor certification were allowed to enter the competition. "Earlier till 2005, even films from Pune Film Institute and Kolkata's Satyajit Ray Film Institute were allowed by only showing a letter from the institute's director. We did away with that criteria, which led to delay arising out of the subsequent court battles," Kapur said.

Chief of the jury for non-feature film category K Bikram Singh, however, felt that "already there is too much censorship in films, therefore films from educational institutions should be kept away from censorship. However, it is my personal view and not that of the jury".

Dasgupta said that the criteria of the jury was to focus on new and fresh names and works so as to recognise emerging talent.

The feature film category witnessed 105 entries, while the non-feature film category received 67 entries. There were 25 entries for best writing on cinema, while there were 20 nominees for best film critic category.