The National Film Awards appeared to be facing a credibility crisis in recent years following some questionable choices and glaring omissions. For instance, last year, the award for ‘Best Feature Film on National Integration’, for The Kashmir Files, encapsulated the general political thrust of the awards, where, during the screenings, cinema theatres became platforms for communal sloganeering. Thus, the 70th National Film Awards, declared earlier this week, came as a sort of surprise, somewhat redeeming the prestige associated with the highest cinematic honours. Malayalam film Aattam, directed by debutant Anand Ekarshi, became an interesting choice for the Best Feature Film, Best Screenplay and Best Editing winner, especially in the era of the #MeToo movement. Without ever slipping into preachiness, the film-maker uses the subtle chamber drama to analyse male behaviour after a woman raises an allegation of sexual abuse within a theatre group. The award also comes at a time when protests and debates are roiling the country after the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata. Kannada film Kantara, which won Best Popular Film, and also fetched its director Rishab Shetty the Best Actor Award, taps into folk traditions to raise contemporary environmental concerns. Bhoota Kola, a tribal ritualistic performance from coastal Karnataka, is the centrepiece, with Shetty’s frenzied interpretation in the climax going a long way towards the film’s success as well as getting him the national award.
One commonality between these films is the lack of a formula, especially the kind dictated by corporate studios. Aattam, in fact, originated from a theatre group, giving its working-class members a chance at cinema; they play themselves in the film. Nithya Menen’s Best Actress award is also an unconventional choice — as the effervescent Shobhana in Thiruchitrambalam, hers is not a typical award-bait role. Yet, within the film’s scheme, it was a stunning performance which raised its overall effect by several notches. The awards reinforce the recent trend of South Indian cinema surpassing Bollywood, which, despite its humongous budgets, has been finding it hard to match the consistent quality of content from regional industries. It is also heartening that the juries and the larger public have started discovering more meaningful content from the southern industries. The National Awards in the 70th edition seem to have fulfilled, to an extent, the purpose for which they were instituted: to celebrate good cinema.
