National laurels for 10 Keralites

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Though main awards eluded Malayalam movies this time, as many as 10 Malayalis bagged awards in the 66th National Film Awards announced on Friday. The highlight honour was the best cinematographer award won posthumously by M J Radhakrishnan for his work in Shaji N Karun’s movie ‘Olu’.
Keerthy Suresh won the best actress award for her performance in Telugu movie ‘Mahanati’, a biopic of south Indian actress Savithri.
The award for Radhakrishnan comes hardly a month into his sad demise at the age of 61, on July 12 to be precise, following a heart attack. Having won the state award for best cinematographer seven times, Radhakrishnan had handled the camera in around 75 films and had won a few accolades during international film festivals as well.
The award winning ‘Olu’, which is yet to be released in theatres, was one of the last works of Radhakrishnan, a native of Punalur in Kollam, who worked with noted filmmakers including Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shaji N Karun, T V Chandran, Dr Biju and Jayaraj.
Others Malayalis who won laurels included Zakariya Mohammed, the director of best Malayalam film ‘Sudani From Nigeria’; Vinesh Banglan, the best production design award for ‘Kammarasambhavam’, S Jayachandran Nair, the best book on cinema (‘Mounaprarthana Pole’); Blase Johnny, best critic award; and M R Rajakrishnan, best re-recordist of mixed track for Telugu movie ‘Rangasthalam’.
Jury’s special mention award for acting also went to three Malayalis including Joju George (‘Joseph’), Savithri Sreedharan (‘Sudani From Nigeria’) and Sruthi Hariharan, for her performance in Kannada movie ‘Nathicharami’. The jury had great appreciation for Joju for his performance in ‘Joseph’ in which he portrayed a retired policeman. Savithri, got the special mention for donning the role of a meek and affectionate mother in ‘Sudani From Nigeria’.