I need a moment to get my breath back, says celebrated writer Gulzar in a soft tone as he tries to hold back his emotions while addressing the gathering at the Vigyan Bhawan. Jiska kaam hai lafzo se khelna, aaj uske pass lafz nahi hai (One who loves to play with words has no words today),” he says as the auditorium continues to resound with claps after the President of India Pranab Mukherjee felicitates him with Dadasaheb Phalke Award at the 61st National Film Awards ceremony held recently.
Going down memory lane to the time he wrote the evergreen song Mora gora ang lei le to his popular songs Beedi jalaile le, the lyricist, poet, author, dialogue and screenplay writer attributed his success to the musicians he has worked with.
The ceremony was indeed a moment of pride for the award recipients, but it was also an event that saluted the indomitable spirit of a special child. Gauri Gadgil, a champion swimmer who was born with Down’s syndrome received the Special Mention Certificate for her performance in Marathi film Yellow. She shared the award with eight-year old differently-abled Sanjana Rajesh Rai, who also acted in the film and Anjali Patil for her role in Telugu film Na Bangaaru Talli.
Interestingly, Yellow is a film that comes from Riteish Deshmukh’s production house Mumbai Film Company. Riteish was present on the occasion to receive the Special Jury award given to the film. It shared the award with Hindi film Miss Lovely, directed by Ashim Ahluwalia. Miss Lovely also won the award for Best Production Design.
Director Hansal Mehta, who went on a long sabbatical after his film Chhal (2001) grabbed the Best Director award for Shahid. Even Raj Kumar, who played the lead role in the film won the award for Best Actor. Malayalam film actor Suraj Venjaramoodu shared the award with Raj Kumar. Saurabh Shukla won the award for Best Supporting Actor in Jolly LLB.
Geetanjali Thapa won the award for the Best Actress. Rupankar won the Best Male Playback Singer award for Jaatishwar while Bela Shende was awarded Best Female Playback Singer for Marathi film Tuhya Dharma Koncha. Indira Gandhi award for the Best Debut Film of a Director was given to Nagraj Manjule for Fandry.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra received award for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag as Best Popular Film providing wholesome entertainment. Rakeysh has earlier won National Award for Rang De Basanti. The film also brought laurels to Ganesh Acharya who won the award in the Best Choreography category, for effectively using soldiers and just the props available within the barracks for Hawan Karenge song. Anand Gandhi’s Ship of Theseus won the Best Feature Film award.
Even Shoojit Sircar’s Madras Cafe won two awards -best audiography (location sound recordist) and best audiography (sound design). The former was received by Nihar Ranjan Samal and latter by Bishwadeep Chatterjee.
Among the recipients there were many who were receiving the award for more than five times. Girish Kasaravalli recieved his 14th National Film Award while Jahnu Barua, Assamese film director won his 10th award for Ajeyo. Kannada film director P Sheshadri’s December 1 helped him notch his seventh award, while Sumitra Bhave also won her seventh award for Marathi film Astu.
In the Non-Feature Film category films like Gulabi Gang, Chidiya Udh, Mandrake Mandrake, Katiyabaaz, Rangbhoomi, The Last Adieu, The Pad Piper, The Quantum Indians and many more grabbed the awards in different categories.
