National Awards: South cinema sweeps the board; Salman Khan’s Dabangg wins best popular film

National Awards: South cinema sweeps the board; Salman Khan’s <i>Dabangg</i> wins best popular film

Bollywood has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to quality cinema. So it seems from the announcement of the 58th National Film Awards.

The National Award for the Best Feature Film goes to Malayalam film ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ (Abu, son of Adam), a simple yet evocative narrative of a man’s pursuit of religion. The film’s lead actor Salim Kumar shared the Best Actor honour with Tamil star Dhanush who was awarded for his performance in ‘Aadukalam’- a Tamil film that looks at the world of cock-fighting.

The only consolation for Bollywood came in the form of the Best Popular Film award to the Salman Khan starrer Dabangg. Vishal Bhardwaj shared the Best Music Direction award for Ishqiya with Issak Thomas Kottakapally for ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’.

List of winners of 58th National Awards winners:

Best Feature Film: Adaminte Makan Abu (Malayalam)

Best Actor: Shared by Dhanush and Salim Kumar

Best Actress: Shared by Tamil actress Saranya Ponvannan for ‘Thenmerkku Paruvakkatru’ and Marathi artiste Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar for ‘Baboo Band Baaja’

Best Direction: Vetrimaran for ‘Aadukalam’

Best Film in Hindi: Do Dooni Chaar

Best Popular Film: Dabangg

Nargis Dutt Award for best feature film on national integration: Bengali movie Moner Manush

Indira Gandhi award for best debut film of a director: Baboo Band Baaja (Marathi).

Best Children Film: Kannada movie Hejjegalu

Best Child Artist: Shared among four boys - Harsh Mayar (I am Kalam), Shantanu Ranganekar and Machindra Gadkar (Champions) and Vivek Chabukswar (Baboo Band Baaja).

Best Music Director: Shared by Vishal Bharadwaj and Issak Thomas Kottakapally

Best Male Playback Singer: Suresh Wadekar (Mee Sindhutai Sapkal-Marathi)

Best Female Playback Singer: Rekha Bhardwaj (Ishqiya)