President Pratibha Devisingh Patil Give Award to Salim Kumar

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Friday gave away the 58th National Film Awards in a function held at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan. Veteran Tamil filmmaker K Balachander, the man behind films like ‘Iru Kodugal’ and ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’, received the Dada Saheb Phalke honour at the 58th National Film Awards. The 81-year-old writer-director-producer has directed nearly 80 films in his career and launched the career of Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth. 

Malayalam Actor Salim Kumar received the Best Actor award for the film ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ (Malayalam). This prestigious Best Actor award was also shared by Rajnikanth’s son-in-law K Dhanush received the Best Actor award for the film ‘Aadukalam’ (Tamil) 
The jury acknowledged the “two riveting performances that fuse character and actor into one” and praised Dhanush for his raw and nuanced portrayal of a cocky young man who learns lessons about life the hard way.
The Best Actress award was shared by Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar for the film ‘Baboo Band Baaja’ (Marathi) and Saranya Ponvannan for ‘Thenmerkku Paruvakkatru’ (Tamil) respectively for their brilliant portrayal of two mothers concerned about bettering the lives of their children in the face of untold hardship.
The national award for Best Feature Film has been bagged by Malayalam flick ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ produced by Salim Ahamad and Ashraf Bedi. The Rajinikanth starrer ‘Enthiran’, the most expensive film made in India till date, won best production design. The kudos went to V Srinivas M Mohan of ‘Enthiran’ or ‘Robot’ that won an award for best special effects for “bringing of age a spectrum of visual special effects in Indian cinema and creating a space for the practitioners of this art form on the global map.”
Bollywood was pushed to the background this year with the Salman Khan starrer ‘Dabangg’ and ‘Dabangg’ won the award for best popular film providing wholesome entertainment. The award is conferred by the Central government for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian Cinema. This year has also been very good for Tamil Cinema, as it made a rich haul of 14 awards!