Mammootty, Kutty Srank: The Sailor of Hearts
At India’s 57th National Film Awards announced on Sept. 16, the top award went to a Mayalayam production, Shaji N. Karun’s Kutty Srank: The Sailor of Hearts, voted the best feature film.
The tale of a lonely, irascible boatman who, following his death, turns out to have been much less lonely (and apparently much less irascible) than people thought — he had three wives, none of which knew of the others’ existence — Kutty Srank won three other awards: best screenplay, best costume design, and best cinematography (Anjali Shukla, reportedly the first woman to win in that category), in addition to sharing a special jury mention.
Other top winners included veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan for Paa, his fourth National Film Award, and the Aamir Khan vehicle 3 Idiots, voted "the most popular film."
Paa, also chosen as the best Hindi film, earned Arundhati Naag the best supporting actress award.
The best actress was Ananya Chatterjee for Rituparno Ghosh’s Bengali release Abohoman, which also received awards for best director, best editing (Arghya Kamal Mitra), best supporting actor (Farooque Sheikh), and best Bengali film.
Producer Vivek Khatkar and director Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan’s Lahore was the best debut film.
The government-sponsored National Film Awards are among India’s most important film honors.