President to give away National Film Awards Wednesday

New Delhi, Oct 19: President Pratibha Patil will Wednesday give away the National Film Awards for 2007 at a function at Vigyan Bhawan here. Legendary singer Manna Dey will be conferred with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award for 2007 during the event.

Southern cinema scored big at the 55th National Awards with the Tamil film "Kanchivaram" adjudged the best feature film and Prakash Raj the best actor for his performance in it. Adoor Gopalakrishnan bagged the best director award for the Malayalam film "Naalu Pennungal" and Uma Shri was adjudged best actress for "Gulabi Talkies" in Kannada.

Girish Kasaravalli's "Gulabi Talkies" about a Muslim midwife has been named the best Kannada film.

Bollywood gets a mention too with Aamir Khan's directorial debut "Taare Zameen Par" getting best family welfare award. Lyricist Prasoon Joshi gets the best lyricist award for the song "Maa" from "Taare Zameen Par". The song also gets Shankar Mahadevan the National Award for the best playback singer.

Shah Rukh Khan starrer "Chak De! India", about a humiliated national-level hockey player who steers the women's team to international victory, has been named the best film in overall entertainment. Sabu Cyril has been named for best art direction for "Om Shanti Om". Veteran choreographer Saroj Khan gets an award for the song "Yeh Ishk Hai" from "Jab We Met".

Anil Kapoor's "Gandhi My Father" has bagged three awards - director Feroz Abbas Khan for best screenplay, Darshan Zariwala best supporting actor for portraying Mahatma Gandhi, and Anil Kapoor a special jury award for the film.

Shefali Shah has been named the best supporting actress for her performance in "The Last Lear".

Bhavna Talwar's directorial debut "Dharm" that explored religious undercurrents has won the Nargis Dutt Award for the best film on national integration.

Sharad Goekar is the best child actor for his role in the Marathi film "Tingya".

The Indira Gandhi Award for the best first film of a director has been bagged by Shanker Raman for "Frozen", which has also been named for best cinematography.

Sushil Rajpal's "Antardwandwa" is best film on social issues; "Foto", produced by the Children's Film Society of India and directed by Virendra Saini, has bagged the best children's film award.

The Bengal film industry's presence is minimal with Ruma Sengupta getting best costume designer award for her lavish costumes in "Krishnakanter Will".

The best music award has been bagged by Ouseppachan for his score in the Malayalam movie "Ore Kadal". Pattnam Rasheed gets the best make-up artist award for his work in Malayalam film "Paradesi".

The best feature films in various languages are "Ballygunge Court" (Bengali), "1971" (Hindi), "Gulabi Talkies" (Kannada), "Ore Kadal" (Malayalam), "Nirop" (Marathi), "Periyar" (Tamil) and "The Last Lear" (English).

In the feature film section, the awards will be given in 31 categories, while in non-feature film section the awards are in 22 categories.

The National Award for Best Writing on cinema and Best Film Critic will also be given.