‘Celluloid,’ the new feature film Kamal won the majority of awards at the State award announced today. The movie based on the life of J C Daniel, the pioneer of Malayalam cinema,was adjudged the best film for the year 2012 by the jury headed by I V Sasi. Prithviraj was adjudged the best actor for his roles in ‘Celluloid’ and ‘Ayalum Nhanum Thammil,’ while Reema Kallingal was chosen the best actress for her performance in ‘Nidra’ and ’22 Female Kottayam.’ While Laljose was named the best director for the film ‘Ayalum Nhanum Thammil,’which also won the award for best popular film with artistic appeal. M Jayachandran was chosen the best music director (song) again for ‘Celluloid’ while Sithara was named the best playback singer for her song in the film. Salim Kumar won the award for best comedy actor.
While ‘Ozhimuri’ directed by Madhupal was selected as the second best film, Manoj K Jayan (Kaliyachan) and Ajitha Madathil (Shutter) won the award for second best actors.The award for best cinematography went to Madhu Neelakantan for ‘Annayum Resulum,’ while B Ajith Kumar won the award for editing the same film.Vijay Yesudas (Grandmaster, Spirit) was named the best male playback singer .
Farooq Abdul Rahman won the award for best debut director for the film `Kaliyachan.’ Manoj Kana was named for best script (Chayilyam) while Anjali Menon got the award for best screenplay (Manjadikkuru).
Sreeram and, Vaikom Vijayalakshmi got a special jury mention for their song in ‘Celluloid,’ and Saritha for her role in ‘Papilio Buddha.’ The award for best background score went to Bijibal (Kaliyachan, Ozhimuri).
‘Papilio Buddha,’ directed by Jayan Cheriyan ,a film on the plight of Dalits which met with some problems with the sensors won a special jury award. Other important awards announced includes that for Vyjayanthi for best child artiste, Rafeeq Ahamed for the best lyricist, Suresh Kollam for best art direction, M R Rajakrishnan for best sound recording, Jayadev for best Colourist, M G Roshan for best make-up, S B Sathish for costume and Vimmy Mariam George for dubbing.
The Jury made decisions after watching a record number of 84 films produced last year, which competed for the top honours in the State awards.