The Hindu : New Delhi News : Spotlight on young talent

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 15, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Spotlight on young talent

Staff Reporter

Film awards spring several surprises

NEW DELHI: The announcement of the National Film Awards on Wednesday may have seen industry doyens sweep the feature film segment with their experience and excellence, but it was young talent that ruled the non-feature segment, with works from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) walking away with as many as four awards. And the honours began right from the top with Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni's Marathi film "Girni'' winning not just the best non-feature film award for projecting the impact of noise over a child's mind with "excellent visualisation and fine cinematic dramatisation'', but also the best direction and cinematography awards.

The award for the best first film in this category was won by Laxmikant Shetgoankar for his Marathi film "Ek Sagar Kinaree... ..A Seaside Story'' . While Rafeeq Ellias's English film "The Legend of Fat Mama'' on the Chinese community in Kolkata won the best anthropological\ethnographical film award, Madhavi Vaidya's "It's Prabhat'' on the glorious years of Prabhat Films Company won the best biographical film award.

The award for the best scientific film was bagged by Gautam Pandey for his "Timeless Traveller -- The Horseshoe Crab'', with Pankaj Purandare's "Dwijaa'' winning the best film on social issues and Ranjana Pandey's "Shores of Silence -- Whale Sharks in India'' bagging the best exploration\adventure film award.

Portraying the hardships of drought effected villagers from the Bolangir district, Rupashree Nanda's "Harvest of Hunger'' has been adjudged the best investigative film, while Chetan Sharma's "Raju & I" walked away with the best animation film award.

A Special Jury Award has been this year conferred on Amit Dutta for his film "Kshy Tra Ghya'', which also won the best audiography award for Vivek. The best short fiction and family welfare film were also bagged by FTII works with Nimisha Pandey winning best fiction award for her film "Cradle Song'' and Jasmine Kaur for "Saanjh''.

While Manoj Raymond Lobo has been given the best cinematographer award for "Girni'', Prashant Naik bagged the best editing award for "Harvest of Hunger''. The music of "Ek Sagar Kinaree... .A Seaside Story'' won Dhwani the best music direction award.

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