The Malayalam director is also pleased about the fact that he beat off competition from none other than film legend Adoor Gopalakrishnan, also from Kerala, who won his seventh National Award, the Best Director nod for his film Naalu Penungal. “Adoor is a legend and the fact that I will receive an award in the same ceremony itself is a thrilling thing. And to top it off I also beat him as a competitor, What could be better,” says Priyadarshan who said that the awards came as a surprise. [This award proves all the naysayers wrong: Priyadarshan]

Next, Ousepachan. Finally he won his first national award, apparently after missing it narrowly for Unnikale Oru Katha Parayam and Freaky Chakra. The uniqueness of the music for Ore Kadal was:

that are all composed in one raga – Shuba Panthuvarali. The evocative, poignant numbers sung by singers like Bombay Jayashri, flautist Naveen Nair, Sujatha, G. Venugopal and youngsters Vineeth Sreenivasan and Swetha, and the composer himself, had enhanced the mood of the film and the theme.

The music composer is all praise for the director of the film, Shyamaprasad, who suggested that he compose all the songs in one raga to retain and accentuate the mood of the theme. To ensure that the songs did not sound monotonous, he “decided to vary the shruti and tempo” of the songs.

“It was a challenge for me. It is not a difficult task to compose songs in certain ragas like Mohanam or Kalyani but Shuba Panthuvarali is a difficult raga and so the director wondered if it would prove to be a difficult task. But, surprisingly, I took only three minutes each to compose four of the songs. It was the title track sung by Naveen that I had to work on,” recalls Ouseppachan. [The Hindu : Friday Review Thiruvananthapuram / Interview : Scoring a winner]

For the same film, Shyama Prasad won the third national award for the best film in Malayalam

“It has been an evolution that has seen me grow as a director and as a filmmaker,” says Shyamaprasad. He adds that although he was disappointed when his film was passed over by the State film awards jury last year, he has no complaints “as awards are elusive and each jury differs and these things happen. However, I did feel bad for Ouseppachan when he did not win an award for his work then. His songs and background score were exceptional and conveyed the story so well. It was an organic part of the film. It was his spontaneity that impressed me.”[The Hindu : Friday Review Thiruvananthapuram : Waves of applause]

Adoor too won the National Award, but that is like saying – the sun rises in the east. Naalu pennungal also won the award for the best editing.

It is a very good feeling [laughs]. I make a film after a long gap. So, every time I make a film, I forget what had happened before. It is a new experience for me every time. So, when I win an award, it makes me very happy. For me, every award is fresh and new. [It's not just another national award for Adoor Gopalakrishnan: Rediff.com movies]

Less mentioned is the fact that Vipin Vijay won the Special Jury Award for a non-feature film for ‘Poomaram’

The award-winning ‘Poomaram,’ is Vipin’s tribute to Judy Grahn’s radical Metaformic theory and is based on several aspects of her book ‘Blood, Bread and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World.’ “It is a ‘mythographic’ audio-visual observation of the interconnection between ancient menstrual rituals and the development of agriculture, mathematics, writing, calendars (the lunar calendar apparently bears similarities to menstrual cycles) and other realms of knowledge, science and arts,” explains the filmmaker. [The Hindu : Friday Review Thiruvananthapuram / Interview : Accolades for experiments]

Interestingly the best actor award went to Prakash Raj and not Mohanlal for Pardesi. If you look at it, Pardesi handled a sensitive issue and had all those words which would appeal to a jury – alienation, thrisanku swargam, homelessness etc. Also Mohanlal portrayed, with Pattanam Rasheed’s help, three stages in the life of a character. Long time back the finalists for the best actor award as Nedumudi Venu for Minnaminunginte Nuruguvettam and Kamal Haasan for Nayakan. The jury gave the award to Kamal since he portrayed the life span of a character whereas Nedumudi was old throughout the movie. This time that logic did not fly.

Velu writes:

This is a film that turns out to be significant not merely for its singular plot, but for the tower house performances of its leading cast as well. It starts off with a series of vivacious shots of its protagonist making love; and in conversation, looking harried and a tad jaded. Mammootty lets go of an alleged reticence and is at ease being the unfussy womanizer; the slipshod gait or the unyielding gaze as he words those hazy lines in an outlandish accent lingers around as a trademark of a seasoned actor who knows his way about a job that he simply loves.Meera builds up her feat not out of grand gestures, but out of countless subtle little moments of growing love; the frenzy and the fury of a hapless woman caught in the midst of a surge of passion that leaves her devastated has been dexterously captured. Bela is an otherwise uncomplicated persona that should throw no fresh challenges to the fantastic actor in Ramya Krishnan. But the kind of anguish that she carries somewhere deep inside reflects particularly in her hazel eyes that refuse to shed a tear. The obstinacy and sturdiness of a bruised heart is all too evident in a staunch stare or a casual smirk.

Naren as the mystified spouse confidently underplays his part to perfection as well.The vital tale simply glows and demands a genuine attention to the nuances of voice and gesture. This is an account that could so easily be vulgarized, could be reduced to obvious elements of seduction, sex and melodramatic parting. Mammootty and Meera weave a spell, and it is based on that particular knowledge of love and self that transcends all ages and time.

Sify.com comments:

Dr S R Nathan ( Mammootty) is a renowned social economist, who is also a well known writer on the social inequalities in the country. He is basically a loner, alcoholic and a womanizer (whenever physical need arises!), who has a long standing relationship with a high class call girl Bella (Ramya Krishnan). Nathan has hardly any human feelings or emotions when it comes to matter of love. He is in love with himself, his work and says- “It’s economics that rules, not emotions”.But fate has something different for Nathan, when he helps a lady staying in his apartment complex with a sick child in arm, who has no money for treatment! Nathan comes to know that Deepti’s ( Meera Jasmine) husband is unemployed and she has no money even to pay her rent! ( Nathan: “In India the biggest problem that the middle class is facing is unemployment, there are 20 million unemployed people in the country.”).Soon Nathan takes a fascination for her, which ends in bed, nothing new to him, but it opens a whole new world for Deepti. She is drawn emotionally to him, as her husband Jayan (Narain) is still looking for a job! Nathan, on Deepti’s pleading, gets him a good job, which makes her more indebted to him emotionally; though he makes it clear he has no time or inclination for any kind of feelings or love.

India Glitz.com writes:

Told poetically and uncompromisingly by the director, once again employing an extractive style and imagery that transcends realism. Ore Kadal is a sensitive tale of Deepti, a middle class housewife, who is irresistibly drawn to a radical, forthright intellectual, Nathan, who is a renowned social scientist, more comfortable with his theories. Dr Nathan a loner and alcoholic, who is studying the inequalities of the Indian society, hardly recognize any feelings of life as he finds economics, as what that rules the world. He often shares his values with high class call girl Bela, who is his only friend and who often shares everything with each other for “Being happy for the moment, which is your life and realizing that there are no mistakes in life, only things you do and don’t do”. He doesn’t believe in relationships, or any kind of emotional bonding, rather than the needs of the hour. The movie also delves with the changing value systems of the middle class in this age of globalization, where the dividing lines between right and wrong, honesty and deceit, loyalty and betrayal, are increasingly narrowing down. It may be the same self-torture that the two protagonists are exposed to live with..