Kanchivaram wins best movie at National Film Awards

Filmmaker Priyadarshan's Tamil film Kanchivaram, a period drama about silk weavers of the south, was chosen as the best movie at the 55th National Film Awards announced here.

Tamil actor Prakash Raj beat off competition from Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan to bag the Best Actor award for his role in Kanchivaram, which depicts the lives of silk weavers of Kanchipuram during the pre-Independence era.

Raj had earlier won the Best Supporting Actor award for his Iruvar in 1998 and also a special Jury Award in 2003.

Veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan has got the Best Director's award for his Malayalam film Naalu Pennungal. This will be his seventh national award.

He was named among the host of other winners of the National Film Awards announced for the year 2007 by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting here today.

Actress Umashree has bagged the Best Actress award for her performance in Girish Kasaravalli's Kannada film Gulabi Talkies, which depicts the transformation of the people of a small fishing village after their exposure to colour television.

The Best Child Actor award has gone to Sharad Goyekar for his role in the Marathi film Tingya.

Actor Darshan Zariwala has won the best supporting actor award for his role in Feroz Abbas Khan's film Gandhi- My Father, which is the only Hindi film to bag two more awards for Best Screenplay for Khan and Special Jury award.

Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Chak De India bagged the national award in the Wholesome Entertainment Category, while Aamir Khan-directed Taare Zameen Par won the award in Family Welfare Category.

Playback singer Shankar Mahadevan won the award for the song Maa in the film Taare Zameen Par, while Prasoon Joshi won the award for the Best Lyrics for the same song.

Filmmaker Sai Paranjpe headed the jury for feature film category, documentary filmmaker Ashoke Viswanathan chaired the jury for the non-film category and writer Namita Gokhale chaired the jury for best writing on Indian films.

The winners were selected from among 102 films and 106 non-feature films.

Sources in the ministry said though the list had been finalised last week, the announcement was deferred due to the death of Andhra Pradesh chief minister YSR Reddy.

Among other notable winners was Hindi film Frozen, which won the Indira Gandhi award for the Best Debutante Director for Shivajee Chandrabhushan. The film also won the best cinematography award.

Another Hindi film Dharm won the Nargis Dutt award for Best Feature Film on national integration. The film was directed by Bhavna Talwar and starred Pankaj Kapoor.

Foto (Hindi) won the Best Children's Film award, while Inimey Naangathaan (Tamil) won the Best Animation Film award.

Actress Shefali Shah won the Best Supporting Actress award for English film The Last Lear and Shreya Ghoshal won the Best Female Playback Singer award for the film Jab We Met. The movie also won the award for best choreography for the song Yeh Ishq Hai....

Om Shanti Om won the award for Best Art Direction. Malayalam film Naalu Pennungal won the Best Editing award.

Hindi film 1971 won the best audiography award and the Best Film in Hindi under the language specified in schedule VIII of the Constitution category.

In the same category, Bengali film Ballygunge Court won the best film award, while Gulabi Talkies was named the best Kannada film.

Ore Kadal won the Best Malayalam film, Nirop won the award for Best film in Marathi. Periyar got the award for Best film in Tamil, while The Last Lear won the award for the Best film in English.