The 64th National Awards have been announced. While Sonam Kapoor’s Neerja has been awarded as the Best Hindi Film, Dangal’s Zaira Wasim has got the Best Supporting actor award. Apart from Bollywood, Marathi film Ventilator received the Best Editing award along with Kaasav, which got the Best Feature Film award. However, what is really interesting is Akshay Kumar being awarded as the Best actor for Rustom.
Akshay had done three films last year — Airlift, Rustom and Housefull 3. While his performances in all the three films was appreciated, it was Airlift which received the major recognition and share of accolades for him. Now, Akshay being felicitated for his good performance in a film is acceptable, but he’s being felicitated for his performance in Rustom is quite strange.
This is for the first time that the actor has been anointed with a National Award after 20 years of being active in the film industry. However, the choice of performance is highly surprising for most. We strictly doubt if Akshay himself was expecting an ‘honourable’ National Award of Rustom.
While the fans of Khiladi Kumar have sure got a reason to celebrate, the decision puts the impartiality of National Awards under the spotlight. More, because the jury deciding the winners includes filmmaker Priyadarshan, who, for the uninitiated, always lives in awe of Akshay and his work.
We are not doubting the talent that Mr Kumar is and the kind of hardwork he puts into all his performances but by all logic, Airlift definitely happened to be a better film than Rustom. If at all, Akshay was to given a National Award, it should have been for Airlift.
Here’s how Akshay is celebrating:
#NationalFilmAwards : Best Actor for Rustom,countless emotions,very hard to express my gratitude right now but still tried,a big THANK YOU pic.twitter.com/Wo7mfi6dI8
— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) April 7, 2017
Meanwhile, here follows the entire list of the winners of 64th National Award
Uttar Pradesh is selected ‘ Most Film Friendly State’ Special mention Award to Jharkhand
Best Writing on Films: G Dhananjayan selected
Best Book On cinema: Lata Surgatha– a book that narrates the story of legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar
Best Music: Leeches
Best Short fiction: Aba
Best Animation: Hum Chitra Banate Hain
Best Educational Film: The Waterfalls
Best Environment Film: The Tiger Who Crossed the Line
Best Investigative Film: Placebo
Best Biographical/Historical reconstruction: Zikr Uss Parivash Ka
Best Non-Feature Film: Fireflies in the Abyss
Special Mention (Feature Film): Kadwi Hawa, Mukti Bhavan, Adil Hussain for Mukti Bhavan and Sonam Kapoor for Neerja
Best Tamil Film: Joker
Best Gujarati Film: Wrong Side Raju
Best Marathi Film: Dashakriya
Best Hindi Film: Neerja
Best Bengali Film: Bisarjan
Best Kannada Film: Reservation
Best Malayalam film: Maheshinite Pratikaram
Best Visual Effects: Shivaay
Best Female Playback Singer: Iman Chakraborty
Best Male Playback Singer: Sunder Iyer
Special Jury Mention (acting): Mohanlal (Munthiri Vallikal Thalirkkumbol)
Best Actor: Akshay Kumar for Rustom
Best Children’s Film: Dhanak, Hindi
Best Supporting Actress: Zaira Wasim for Dangal
Best Film On Social Issues: Pink
Best Action Choreography: Peter Hein for Pulimurugan
Best Feature Film: Kasav, Marathi film
Best Director: Rajesh Mapuskar, for Ventilator
Special Mention Award: The Eyes of Darkness
Best Actress: Surabhi
Best Sound Recording: Kaadu Pookkunna Neram
Best Screenplay: Maheshinite Pratikaram
Best Non-feature Film: Malayalam documentary Chembai: My Discovery of a Legend
Best Child Artiste: Adish Praveen for Kunju Dalvam (Malayalam); Nur Islam and Samiul Alam for Sahaj Pather Gappo (Bengali) and Manohara. K for Railway Children (Kannada)
