Kammattipadam, Guppy, Maheshinte Prathikaram; 10 Malayalam films in the list of National Awards

The 64th National awards will be announced by the end of March or early next month. Veteran filmmaker Priyadarshan is the chairman of the National Film Awards committee.

According to reports, around 380 films from various languages have been submitted for the awards. The regional juries will shortlist their entries from these movies.

15 movies have been submitted from Malayalam and Tamil. Ennu Ninte Moideen director RS Vimal was also part of the jury that shortlisted the Malayalam and Tamil movies. The screening of films for the regional juries was held from February till March first week.

The regional jury has reportedly recommended 10 Malayalam movies for awards in various categories. Maheshinte Prathikaram, Guppy, Kammattipadam, Kaadu Pookunna Neram, Ottayal Paatha, Pinneyum, Minnaminungu and Kambhoji are among the Malayalam movies suggested by the regional jury. Some other movies that have not had a theatrical release are also in cotention.

Rajeev Ravi’s Kammattipadam, Dileesh Pothen’s Maheshinte Prathikaram and John Paul George’s Guppy are the mainstream movies in the list. All these three movies have a huge fan following with only Guppy failing to do good business in theatres. The movie found appreciation from the audience only after the DVDs were released.

Kammattipadam won two major awards in the recently announced Kerala State Awards. Vinayakan won the best actor award while Manikandan Achari won the award for second best actor. Maheshinte Prathikaram writer Shyam Pushkaran won the award for best screenplay. Master Chethan Lal (best child actor), Vishnu Vijay (best background score), Sooraj Santhosh (male playback singer), Stephy Xavier (costume designer) were the award winners for Guppy. Cinematographer Girish Gangadharan also won a special jury for his work in Guppy.