The 2005 Kerala State Awards were declared last week. Mohanlal won the award for the best actor for his performance in Tanmatra and Navya Nair won the best actress award for the film Saira and Kanne Madanguka. We now have the inside story on who were their competitors and how they won.
Mohanlal’s performance in the movie, as a man in his mid-40s affected by Alzheimer’s, is scintillating. The jury said they were unanimous in awarding him the Best Actor award. At the press conference, the jury chairman and noted filmmaker Sibi Malayil said Mohanlal faced no competition at all.
Navya Nair took home the Best Actress award for her performances in two films: If she was a diffident school girl in Kanne Madanguka, she was a fiery television journalist in Saira. And the diversity gave her the edge over Meera Jasmine, who was in competition till the last round for her performance in Achuvinte Amma. This is Navya Nair’s second State Award; the first was for Nandanam, her second film.
The Second Best Actor Award went to Salim Kumar for Achanurangatha Veedu. Till the last round, the jury said Manoj K Jayan was in contention for his superlative performance in Ananthabhadram, but the award finally went to Kumar, hitherto seen only as a comedy artist [Mohanlal's film scores at state awards]
So as suspected, Salim Kumar won because he was seen as a comedy artiste doing a serious role. Poor Manoj K. Jayan lost because he was not a comedy artiste
Also Read: Jo explains why Dileep should have won the award. Kerala Talkies has an excellent critique of Tanmatra
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[...] This looking at history is nothing new in Kerala awards. Last year Salim Kumar won the second best award edging out Manoj K. Jayan because he was seen as a comedy actor doing a serious role, while the jury thought there was nothing new in the superlative performance of Manoj. We have one request to the jury – ignore the past and the future of every actor. You are given a set of movies, so please watch them and make a decision. Ignore factors like how many national or international or Asianet Ujala awards this person has won. Ignore if he was a comedy actor or a woman before. Just look at the performance and not the actors horoscope. [...]