National Film Awards: A tribute to Indian cinema

The entire nation became an eye-witness to the most prestigious awards ceremony of India on Friday evening when the 60th National Film Awards was held to honour our national talent in the arena of movies. President Pranab Mukherjee handed away the trophies to the announced winners, though veteran actor Pran could not make it to the event to accept the Dadasaheb Phalke award in person.

The event was hosted by Bollywood actors R. Madhavan and Huma Qureshi and also offered an evening of entertainment with some remarkable performances by Shankar Mahadevan. All-round talent of Indian cinema was honoured at the event as Bollywood, Southern, Marathi and Bengali cinema got immense recognition. Some of the Bollywood actors looked mesmerizing in Indian traditional costume like John Abraham and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. In the feature film category, 38 films from 14 languages were honoured with various awards. Bollywood films Kahaani, Vicky Donor, Paan Singh Tomar, OMG: Oh My God! and Dekh Indian Circus made it big at the ceremony. Communication and IT Minister Kapil Sibal and Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari were also present at the event, which was attended by eminent personalities from the Indian film fraternity.

Here is a list of few of the winners of 2013 National Film Awards:

• Best Film: Paan Singh Tomar
• Best Actor: Irrfan Khan (Paan Singh Tomar) and Vikram Gokhale (Marathi film Anumati)
• Best Actress: Usha Jadhav (Marathi film Dhag)
• Best Male Playback Singer: Shankar Mahadevan (Bolo na from Chittagong)
• Best Female Playback Singer: Samhita (Palakein naa moon don from Marathi film Aarti Anklekartikekar)
• Best Lyricist: Prasoon Joshi (Chittagong)
• Best Screenplay Writer (Original): Sujoy Ghosh (Kahaani)
• Best Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment: Vicky Donor
• Best Supporting Actor: Annu Kapoor (Vicky Donor)
• Best Supporting Actress: Dolly Ahluwalia (Vicky Donor) and Kalpana (Malayalam movie Thanichalla Njan)
• Best Adapted Screenplay:Bhavesh Mandalia and Shri Umesh Shukla (OMG: Oh My God!, an adaptation of a Gujarati play)
• Best Debut Film of a Director: 101 Chodiyangal and Chittagong
• Best Child Artist: Minon (101 Chodiyangal) and Virendra Pratap (Dekh Indian Circus)
• Best Dialogue: Anjali Menon (Malayalam film Ustad Hotel)
• Special Jury Award: Rituparno Ghosh (Chitrangadha)
• Best Choreography: Birju Maharaj (Tamil film Vishwaroopam)
• Best Visual Effects: Eega