5 National Awards for namma film industry

The 64th National Film Awards announced on Friday brought much cheer to the

Kannada

film industry, which bagged five awards in various categories. While

Allama

, released this January, got two awards, Reservation took home the Best Feature Film award in the regional languages category (Kannada).

The Best Child Artiste award went to Manohara for his superlative performance in Railway Children. Tulu movie Madipu was adjudged the Best Feature Film in regional languages category (Tulu).

Allama, directed by T S Nagabharana is a musical drama and stars Dhananjay and Meghana Raj in the lead.The film bagged two awards — Best Makeup Artist (MK Ramakrishna) and Best Music Direction (Bapu Padmanabha). “It's my first national award and it's come as a big surprise. This is yet to sink in. My efforts as a makeup artist have finally paid off and I thank everyone,“ said Ramakrishna.

Nikhil Manjoo, director of soon-to-be-released Reservation, said he is elated about his first national award. “I am happy that an effort to make a good movie has been recognized. This time the competition was tough in the Kannada films category as there were movies by noted directors like P Sheshadri and T S Nagabharana. This film deals with the issue of misuse of reservation in our society. The plot is set in Kundapura, a coastal town. We are planning to release it May,“ he added.

Manasi Sudhir, who played the lead role in Reservation, took to Facebook to share her thoughts.

“Hearty congratulations to Nikhil Manjoo sir, the best director that I have worked with, and

Yakub Khadar Gulvadi

sir for producing such a wonderful film. Support the team by watching the movie which will be released soon in theatres,“ she wrote.

Nikhil was adjudged the best actor at the 2013 Karnataka State Film Awards for his role in

Hajj

, which he had also directed.

Madipu is all about faith: Director
“'I was definitely not expecting to win a national award for my directorial debut. But as a director, I was hoping against hope the film should get an award for its content and subject treatment,'' said Chethan Mundadi, whose first directorial venture Madipu (Spirit's Voice) won the national award for best feature film in the regional languages.

Madipu rests on the premise that belief or faith is stronger than religion or caste. The film focuses on Tulu culture, especially Bhootharadhane or Bhootha Kola, and the relationship between Hindus and Muslims.

Interestingly, the idea for the story came about from Chethan's own predicament of being an atheist. “My father once saw me not offering obeisance to God. He then told me, `the entire human life rests on faith.How do you know I am your father? Is it because your mother said so? When you can accept that I'm your father, why can't you accept that God exists?' This got me thinking. I also saw a Muslim doing Bhagavathike at a Yakshagana programme.We have the example of KJ Jesudas who visits Kollur temple to sing keerthanas of Saraswatidevi, the goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. These inspired me to make Madipu.“

“I explained my line of thought to my friends Chethana Theerthahalli, Vinu Balenja, Dilwar Ramdurg, Jogi (Girish Rao Attavar), Nitin Kukkuvalli and the story was born,'' he said.