Prakash Raj, Umashree win national film awards

While Raj won the Rajat Kamal for Best Actor for Priyadarshan’s sensitive Tamil film “Kanchivaram”, which has won the Swarna Kamal for Best Feature Film, Umashree bagged the Rajat Kamal for Best Actress for her power-packed portrayal of a village woman caught in a socio-political whirlpool in Girish Kasaravalli’s Kannada film “Gulabi Talkies”, which also got the award for the Best Regional film in Kannada.  Adoor Gopalakrishnan has won the Best Director Award for his Malayalam film “Naalu Pennungal (Four Women)”.

The awards for the year 2007 were announced following an unavoidable delay because of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s death even as the award selection process was getting over. The jury headed by veteran director Sai Paranjpe selected Shimit Amin’s Shah Rukh Khan-starrer “Chak De! India” as the Best Popular Film providing wholesome entertainment, while Aamir Khan’s “Taare Zameen Par” won the Best Film on Family Welfare Award. Shankar Mahadevan won the Best Singer (male) Award for the song “Meri Maa” from TZP.

The Best Child Actor Award has been given to Sharad Goyekar for the Marathi film “Tingya” over Darsheel Safary of “Taare Zameen Par”. “The little boy in Tingya won hands down,” said Paranjpe while announcing the awards here on Monday.

Feroze Abbas Khan’s Anil Kapoor-produced “Gandhi My Father” has won three awards — Special Jury Award, Best Screenplay Award for Khan and Best Supporting Actor award for Darshan Jariwala, who portrayed Mahatma Gandhi in the film. Shefali Shah won the Best Supporting Actress Award for her role in Rituparno Ghosh’s “The Last Lear”, which also won the Best English Film Award.

Shankar Mahadevan has won the Best Male Playback Singer Award for TZP, while Shreya Ghoshal has been given the Best Female Playback Singer Award for “Jab We Met”.

Santosh Sivan’s Kannada short film “Prarambha”, starring Prabhu Deva and produced by Mira Nair as part of a series of AIDS-awareness films, has won the Best Educational Film Award in the non-feature category.

Award goes to

Best actor: Prakash Raj for “Kanchivaram”
Best actress: Uma Shree for “Gulabi Talkies”
Best film: “Kanchivaram”
Best film on family welfare:  “Taare Zameen Par”
Best popular film providing wholesome entertainment: “Chak De! India”
Best singer (male): Shankar Mahadevan for “Taare Zameen Par”
Best singer (female): Shreya Ghoshal for “Jab We Met”
Best child actor: Sharad Goyekar for “Tingya”
Best director: Adoor Gopalakrishnan for “Naalu Pennungal” (Four Women)