The 67th National Film Awards were announced yesterday in New Delhi honouring the films of 2019. While Kangana Ranaut, Manoj Bajpayee and Dhanush might have stolen the limelight, the Marathi film industry too had quite many names that bagged the honour. Though Tamil and Malayalam films bagged the most awards in the feature film category; Marathi films got major prominence as has been the legacy these past few years. These award-winning films show a wide range of stories that were told as well as technique.
The second out of four Special Mention awards went to actress Lata Kare for the Marathi film, Lata Bhagwan Kare. Incidentally, Lata Kare stars as herself, a 65-year-old labourer who ran a marathon to win the prize money to pay for her husband’s medical treatment. Director Bhimrao Mude’s ‘Bardo’ was awarded the Best Marathi Feature Film. The film is about the trials and tribulations of a teacher played by Anjali Patil, in a small village called Dhanor. While the film won in the language section, singer Savaniee Ravindrra deservingly won the award for the best playback singer female for the song Ran Petle from the same film.
To begin with, Debutant director Abhijeet Mohan Warang won a special mention for his film Picasso. The film is about the Dashavtar artists of Konkan in which actor/director Prasad Oak plays the lead. Incidentally, Prasad Oak’s directorial venture Kachcha Limbu had also won the award for Best Marathi Feature Film at the 65th edition of these awards.
It is certainly a proud moment for Marathi cinema to have won the Best Production Design for the film Anandi Gopal in a year which saw releases like Manikarnika, Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham, Saaho amongst others. Based on the life of India’s first female doctor, Dr Mrs Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi, director Sameer Vidwan’s Anandi Gopal also won the Best Film on Social Issues. The Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration went to Tajmaal in which a goat plays the titular role! Sound designer Mandar Kamalapurkar bagged the award for Best Audiography for the film Trijya.
The non-feature film category also saw a couple of Marathi winners. Director Pritam Raj More won the award for Best Debut of a director in the non-feature film category for his debut short film Khisa and director Vivek Wagh’s Jakkal based on the infamous Joshi-Abhyankar murder case bagged the award for the Best Investigative Documentary. The directorate of film festivals also honours literature based on cinema. This year the well-known film critic Ashok Rane, won a special mention award in the category Best Book on Cinema for his book Cinema Pahnara Manus (The Man who Watches Films).
Right from Shyamchi Aai which won the inaugural President’s Gold Medal for the All India Best Feature Film to Shwaas (2004), Deool (2011), Court (2014) and Kaasav (2016); Marathi films have continued to impress the jury and bag several awards across various categories. This year, especially the young brigade has been at the helm of most of the films winning awards while competing with several national contenders.
SpotboyE congratulates all the National Award winners and here's hoping to see more brilliance on the silver screen.
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