Southern Cinema Sweeps 83rd National Film Awards

Malayalam film 'Adaminte Makan Abu' (Abu, son of Adam), was adjudged the best feature film and it's star Salim Kumar shared the best actor honour with Tamil star Dhanush in a clean sweep for Southern cinema at the 83rd National Film Awards.

In the awards announced in New Delhi on Thursday, Bollywood was pushed to the background this year with the Salman Khan starrer 'Dabangg' and Naseeruddin Shah-Vidya Balan starrer 'Ishqiya' being the only two films to pick up awards in prominent categories.

'Dabangg' won the award for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. Its producers Arbaaz Khan, Malaika Arora Khan and Dhilin Mehta along with director Abhinav Kashyap will receive the Swarna Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 2 lakhs.

In the Best Actor category, Dhanush, the son-in-law of megastar Rajinikanth, who starred in 'Aadukalam'-- a Tamil film that looks at the world of cock-fighting--shared the award with Salim Kumar, who usually essays the role of a comedian.

The best actress award too had two winners--Tamil actress Saranya Ponvannan for 'Thenmerkku Paruvakkatru' and Marathi artiste Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar for 'Baboo Band Baaja'.

'Adaminte Makan Abu' directed and produced by Salim Ahamed won the Swarna Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 2,50,000 for it's "simple yet evocative articulation of humanist values".

The Nargis Dutt Award for best feature film on national integration went to Bengali movie Moner Manush while the Indira Gandhi award for best debut film of a director went to Baboo Band Baaja (Marathi).

The best male playback singer award went to Suresh Wadkar (Mee Sindhutai Sapkal-Marathi) and female playback singer award went to Rekha Bharadwaj (Ishqiya).

Rishi Kapoor starrer "Do Dooni Char" was adjudged the best film in the Hindi language category.

The best music direction award was shared between Vishal Bharadwaj and Issak Thomas Kottakapally for Ishqiya and Adaminte Makan Abu respectively.