53rd National Film awards were announced today after a delay of almost one year. Understandably the awards were announced without much fanfare. Malayalam films were conspicuos by their absence in the winners list.
| Category | Winner |
| Best Film | Kaalpurush-Memories in the mist(Directed by Directed by Budhadeb Dasgupta) |
| Best Director | Rahul Dholakia(Parzania) |
| Best Actor | Amitabh Bachan(Black) |
| Best Actress | Sarika(Parzania) |
| Best Supporting Actor | Naseeruddin Shah(Iqbal) |
| Best Supporting Actress | Urvasi(Achuvinte Amma) |
| Special jury award for outstanding performance | Anupam Kher(Maine Gandhi ko nahi mara) |
| Best Child Actor | Sai Kumar(for Telugu film – ‘Bommalata-A bellyful of dreams’) |
| Best popular film providing wholesome entertainment | Rang De Basanti |
| Indira Gandhi award for the best first film of a director | Pradeep Sarkar(Parineeta) |
| Best feature film on national integration | Daivanamathil |
| Best Film on Family Welfare | Thavamai Thavamiranthe(Tamil) |
| Best Children’s film | Blue Umbrella(director-Vishal Bharadwaj) |
| Best feature film in Hindi | Black(Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali) |
| Best feature film in Malayalam | Thanmatra(Directed by Blessy) |
| Best Editing | P. S. Bharathi (Rang De Basanti) |
| Best Audiography | Nakul Kamte(Rang De Basanti) |
| Best Cinematography | Madhu Ambat(Sringaram – Tamil) |
| Special Effects Award | Tata Elexi(Anniyan – Tamil) |
| Best Screenplay | Prakash Jha, Shridhar Raghavan and Manoj Tyagi for the Hindi film ‘Apaharan’ |
| Best Art Direction | C. B. More for ‘Taj Mahal – An Eternal Love Story’ |
| Best Choreography | Saroj Khan(Sringaram – Tamil) |
| Best Costume Designer | Anna Singh for ‘Taj Mahal and Sabyachi Mukherjee for ‘Black’ |
| Best Music Direction | Lalgudi Jayaraman for ‘Sringaram’ |
| Best Lyrics | Barguru Ramachandrappa for songs in Kannada film ‘Thaayi’. |
| Best Male playback singer | Naresh Iyer(‘Roo Ba Roo’ in ‘Rang De Basanti’) |
| Best Female playback singer | Shreya Ghosal( ‘Apne Aansoo Peene Ke Liye’ in ‘Paheli’) |
| Best film on social issues | Iqbal |
| Best Film critic | Bharadwaj Rangan |
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Two things that strike me:
1. Why are there so many best film categories? (Best film for family welfare???)
2. Does “Tanmatra”‘s selection as best malayalam film indicate the extent of decline of quality malayalam cinema? Or did the selectors/jury make the mistake. I dont know coz I havnt followed all the movies released in recent years. But Tanmatra was purely an OK movie.