Mohanlal's film scores at state awards

Blessey's Thanmatra and Santosh Sivan's Anathabhadram won five awards each at the Kerala State Film Awards, announced on Tuesday in Thiruvananthapuram.

Thanmatra's wins included for Best Film and Best Director. Blessey also won the Best Screenplay award.

Incidentally, the critically acclaimed Thanmatra, which released on December 17, is still going strong at the box office.

Mohanlal's performance in the movie, as a man in his mid-40s affected by Alzheimer's, is scintillating. The jury said they were unanimous in awarding him the Best Actor award. At the press conference, the jury chairman and noted filmmaker Sibi Malayil said Mohanlal faced no competition at all.

Dileep's performance as a crossdresser in Chandupottu won him a Special Jury Award. Seventeen-year-old Arjun Lal, who played Mohanlal's son in Thanmatra, also won a Special Jury Award.

Navya Nair took home the Best Actress award for her performances in two films: If she was a diffident school girl in Kanne Madanguka, she was a fiery television journalist in Saira. And the diversity gave her the edge over Meera Jasmine, who was in competition till the last round for her performance in Achuvinte Amma. This is Navya Nair's second State Award; the first was for Nandanam, her second film.

In the Kerala State Film Awards, there are no prizes for supporting actresses. Instead, awards are given to the best and the second best films, actors and actresses. The Second Best Actress Award went to Bhavana for her role in Jayaraj's Daivanamathil. The Second Best Actor Award went to Salim Kumar for Achanurangatha Veedu. Till the last round, the jury said Manoj K Jayan was in contention for his superlative performance in Ananthabhadram, but the award finally went to Kumar, hitherto seen only as a comedy artist.

If Thanmatra won all the awards for performances, Anathabhadram collected the technical awards, including Best Cinematographer (Santosh Sivan), Best Art Director (Sunil Babu), Best Editor (Sreekar Prasad), Best Music Director (M G Radhakrishnan) and Best Make-up (Pattanam Rashid).

Adoor Gopalakrishnan's documentary on Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair won the best documentary award.