New Delhi: A political thriller based on the removal of special status of Jammu and Kashmir won the best feature film award. The VD Savarkar biopic won its actor-director the Best Debut Director award. A Tamil film based on an army officer killed in Kashmir won the Best Direction award. Another film set during the freedom struggle received the award for promoting national and social values.But the 72nd National Film Awards traveled far beyond the corridors of power and the battlefield. They entered a century-old chawl in Mumbai, where an elderly couple, who had spent more than five decades together, sought the right to die. They visited a village in Rajasthan where 111 trees are planted on the birth of a girl child, a home in Kerala where a woman begins to protest the rules imposed on her, and the Ramnami community in Chhattisgarh, whose members wrote Ram’s name on their bodies after caste barriers prevented them from being kept out of temples. The result was a split-screen picture of the cinema of 2024 – the nation seen through governments, soldiers and historical figures on the one hand, and personal struggles for honor and freedom on the other.The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced the awards in New Delhi on Saturday. The honors include feature films, non-feature films and writing on cinema for 2024. The results were announced by feature-film jury chairman Jayaraj, non-feature jury chairman Aseem Sinha and writing-on-cinema jury chairman A Chandrasekhar.Article 370 won the Best Feature Film award, with the Golden Lotus going to producers Jio Studios and B62 Studios and director Aditya Suhas Jambhale. Yami Gautam was awarded the Best Actress award for playing an intelligence officer in the film, while Shashwat Sachdev received the Best Music Direction award for its songs.The film is set around the Centre’s August 2019 decision to remove the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir. Its success puts recent political history at the top of this year’s awards, but it was not a film success. Article 370, Tamil film Amaran and Kannada film Mithya got three awards categories each.Amaran, based on the life of Major Mukund Varadarajan, won Rajkumar Periyasamy the Best Direction award. R Kalaivannan received the editing award and GV Prakash Kumar received the best background music award. Varadarajan, an Indian Army officer, was killed during a counter-terrorism operation in Shopian in 2014 and was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra. Mithya was awarded the title of Best Kannada Film. Ropashree Varkady shared the supporting actress award for the film, while Aatish S Shetty was among the five actors to share the child artiste honour.The political and historical trend continued with Swatantra Veer Savarkar, which earned Randeep Hooda the award for Best Debut Film of a Director. Captain Miller, a Tamil historical action drama set under British rule, was named best feature film promoting national, social and environmental values. Dhanush also received a special mention for his performance in the film. In the non-feature section, Kakori directed by Kamlesh K Mishra won the award for Best Biography, Historical Reconstruction or Anthology Film. Aanand L Rai received the Best Direction award for Statue of Unity – Ekta Ka Pratik. Together, constitutional change, military sacrifice, freedom movement and national symbols were given prominent place among the options.However, the Best Actor award brought together two very different performances. Mammootty won for Brahmayugam, in which he played the sinister owner of an isolated mansion in a black-and-white world built on folklore, fear and power. Kartik Aaryan shared the honor for Chandu Champion, in which he played soldier-turned-para-athlete Murlikant Petkar.The contradiction could hardly have been more stark. Mammootty’s performance was reliant on menace, calmness and an aging star’s willingness to appear extremely unstable. Aryan’s character was built around the physical transformation, training and long journey of an injured soldier who becomes India’s first Paralympic gold medalist.The visual world of Brahmayugam also received recognition, with Shahnad Jalal winning the award for Best Cinematography. The film’s intense lights and shadows turned its crumbling mansion into more than just a setting – it became part of the horror surrounding Mammootty’s character.Gautam’s award was his first National Film Award. Her win also brought Article 370 two of the most notable honors of the year – Best Film and Best Actress – in addition to the music award.Sanjay Mishra received the Best Supporting Actor award for Bhaskar. The supporting actress honor was shared between Sacha Namidas for Maharaja and Varkadi for Mithya. Maharaja also won the Best Action Direction award for stunt choreographer Enel Arasu.Telugu science-fiction film Kalki 2898 AD was named the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Its imagined future also won Nitin Zihani Chaudhary an award for Production Design. The Telugu film 35-Chinna Katha Kaadu won the Best Children’s Film award, while its Arundev Pothula shared the Child Artist award.The Child Artist Award was divided among five children from three films – Shetty for Mithya, Pothula for 35-Chinna Katha Kaadu, and Wriddhiman Banerjee, Tapomoy Deb and Geeta Shree Chakraborty for the Bengali film Onko Ki Kothin.Beyond feature-film performances, the non-feature awards provided some of the most human stories.Sumira Roy’s Marathi-English Bhangaar was named Best Non-Feature Film. It follows Irawati and Narayan Lavte, a Mumbai couple who lived together for over 53 years in a small room in a century-old chawl. Their joint appeal for euthanasia raised questions of ageing, dependency and the right to make decisions about their lives inside the tight space they called home. Pipalantri: A Tale of Eco Feminism, directed by Suraj Kumar, won the award for Best Non-Feature Film Promoting Social and Environmental Values. The documentary follows a Rajasthan village known for planting 111 trees to commemorate the birth of every girl child, turning what started as a local initiative into a link between daughters, water conservation and repairing degraded landscapes.The best documentary award went to Bharatbala Ganpati’s Ram-Nami. It records the distinctive faith of the Ramnami community of Chhattisgarh. Members of the community, who were historically barred from visiting temples because of caste, would write the name of Rama on their bodies and clothes, thereby displaying their faith in a way that could not be controlled by temple walls or gatekeepers.The Best Malayalam Film award was given to Faasil Mohammed’s Feminichi Fathima. Based on Ponnani, it is the story of a housewife who lives under the strict control of her husband. The immediate argument is over replacing an old mattress, but that small domestic dispute slowly turns into a bigger fight over money, choice and respect. Opposition to the film grows through everyday decisions rather than big speeches.These films gave the awards a second, quieter political stream. While the major winners discussed the state, war, and public history, Bhangar, Piplantri, Ram-Nami, and Feminichi Fatima asked who had control over a body, home, place of worship, or a girl’s life.At the craft awards, Pushpa: The Rule Part 2 won original screenplay for Sukumar and costume design for Deepali Noor and Sheetal Sharma. Yogesh Deshpande won the adapted screenplay for the Marathi film Swargandharva Sudhir Phadke, while Venky Atluri received the dialogue-writing award for Lucky Baskar.Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 won the Best Sound Design award for Manas Chaudhary. Vijay Ganguly won the Best Choreography award for “Aaj Ki Raat” from Stree 2, while Manoj Muntashir won the Best Song award for “Jaane Do” from Maidan.Abhay Jodhpurkar was awarded the Best Male Playback Singer for “Navsachi Gauri Maazi” from the Marathi film Gharat Ganpati. Vaikom Vijayalakshmi won the Female Playback Singer Award for “Angu Vana Konilu” from the Malayalam film A.R.M.Language-film awards were given to Juiphool in Assamese, Chalchitra Ekhon in Bengali, Maran in Gujarati, Srikanth in Hindi, Mithya in Kannada, Mog Asum in Konkani, Feminichi Fatima in Malayalam, Sunita in Manipuri, Mukum Post Bombilwadi in Marathi, Lahari in Oriya, Rayan in Tamil and Samithi Kurolu in Telugu.Two films from languages ​​outside the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution were also honoured: Dholi won the Best Garhwali Film and IMBU won the Best Tulu Film.In non-feature cinema, Ravi Raj Murmu won the Best Debut Director award for the Santhali film Engen. Main Nida was chosen as the best art and culture film, Touched as Water was chosen as the best animation film and Marathi film Humsafar was chosen as the best short film.Awards were also given to Life in Loom for cinematography, Blue for sound design, NDA for editing, Parat 41°Chya Magwar for music, Little Planet: A Tale of Frogs for narration and Obur for script. Bhadra-Kali Natakam and Chola Dora and Sui received special mention.In writing on cinema, Kenchanuru Pradeep Kumar Shetty won the Best Book award for his Kannada work Naniruvude Nimagagi Nadiruvude Nanagagi: Kannada Cinemada Thathava Maththu Rajakiya. Sanjeev Srivastava was chosen as the Best Film Critic in Hindi.The most obvious choices for awards were rooted in recent politics, military memory and the struggle for independence. But his sweeping picture of India came from less grandiose places: an old couple living in a small room, a woman asking for a mattress to be changed, a village welcoming its daughter with 111 trees, and a community that wears the name of its god on its skin.
