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The country’s most prestigious film awards, the 54th National Film Awards, for the year 2006 have been announced and Priyanandanan’s Malayalam film, Pulijanmam, has bagged the much coveted Best Feature Film Award. Pulijanmam, which highlights the struggle between oppressors and those who resist society’s exploitative forces, is based on N Prabhakaran’s play by the same name. It stars Murali, Sindhu Menon and Vineeth Kumar. The movie is the director’s second film after the critically acclaimed Neythukaaran. Among the other top winners it is the Sanjay Dutt starrer ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ that has bagged the maximum number of four awards. Facing tough competition from some of the country’s best cinema, the film won the awards in the Best Screenplay, Best Lyrics, Best Supporting Actor, as well as the prestigious honour, the Most Popular Film award. The sequel of the ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ 2003, ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ took the modern day approach to familiarize the youth of the country with the principles and the morals held by Mahatma Gandhi. The film that went on to state that there is more to the ‘Father of the Nation’ than just October 2, became an instant hit in not only India but also overseas.
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But as far as direction goes, Madhur Bhandarkar, has done it again, winning the Best Director award. The acclaimed director, who is known for his matter of style, won the prestigious award for his much acknowledged film ‘Traffic Signal’. The film that takes a deep look into the life on the street has won the director his third National Award. The director had earlier won the celebrated award for his films ‘Chandni Bar’ and ‘Page 3’. While the former film dealt with the issue of ‘bar girls’, the latter took a serious look at the manipulation and corruption that existed in the entertainment industry. With his third trophy the director has yet again proved that he rules the roost when it comes to social based issues and National Award. Speaking to news channels, an escalated Bhandarkar said, " The National Award is the only big award for me. It’s an honour and I could not have asked for more," Talking about his film, ‘Traffic Signal’, that won him the title, he said, "There were no big stars in the film, yet it did well.
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I drew almost the entire cast from the street to bring about a reality in the characters of my movie." Even though it was the leading Bollywood films and directors who won some of the top honours, it was the artistes from the southern film industry that earned the most coveted titles of Best Actor and Actress. Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee walked away with the Best Actor Award (his very first National Award) for his role in debutant director Suman Ghosh`s Podokkhep. The Best Actress Award went to Tamil actress Priyamani for her performance in Ameer Sulthan`s Paruthiveeran, a film on caste divide. The Indira Gandhi Award for the Best First Film of a Director went jointly to Ekantham (Malayalam), directed by Madhukaithapuram, and Kabul Express, directed by Kabir Khan. In the non-feature film category, the Best Film Award went to Bishar Blues by Amitabh Chakravarty.
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The three-member jury—Buddhadeb Dasgupta, K Bikram Singh and Madhu Jain—had submitted their recommendations to the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, early on Tuesday morning. The awards for 2007 will be announced later. The announcement of the 54th National Film Awards was delayed because of the long delay in the announcement of the 2005 awards, which was done only last year. The delay had been caused by court orders for stay obtained by a member of the jury, who had challenged the criteria for inclusion of films for consideration of awards. Best Film Pulijanmam Best Hindi Film Khosla Ka Ghosla Most Popular Film Lage Raho Munnabhai Best Director Madhur Bhandarkar (Traffic Signal) Best Actor Soumitra Chatterjee(Podokkhep) Best Actress Priyamani (Poruthiveeran) Best Supporting Actor Dilip Prabhawalkar (Gandhi in ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’) Best Supporting Actress Konkona Sen (Omkara) Best Song Lage Raho Munnabhai Best Screenplay Lage Raho Munnabhai Best Lyrics Lage Raho Munnabhai Jury Award Vishal Bharadwaj (Omkara) Cameraman Gautam Ghosh(Yatra)