Bollywood corners national awards

new delhi: no, raveena tandon had not expected to bag the 48th national award for best actress. "last year, too, i'd been nominated for the award," she said, referring to shool. but then, not every good performance gets recognised. someone wins, someone doesn't. so the actress, dressed in a flame coloured silk sari and gold jewellery, was "feeling on top of the world", notwithstanding the controversy surroundering the jury's decision to honour her performance in daman earlier this year.best actor for pukar anil kapoor, in a black sherwani, felt "great". it is after all the most prestigious award of the land. he said: "though every time over the years i've put in my best, this is the recognition of the fact that i've done your best." but the award which was described by i & b minister sushma swaraj as "higher than a lifetime achievement award" went to asha bhosle, described as "the queen of versatility" for rendering immortal numbers that range from nanhe munne bacche teri mutthi mein kya hai to seductive melodies as raat akeli hai.... cheering the winners, swaraj said: "whenever anyone, be he a writer, a director, a technician or an actor, starts a new film, he hopes that it would win the swarna or rajat kamal." and receiving it from the president is an honour in itself. amol palekar, who received his fourth consecutive national award, said: "the thrill is no less because you've received it before." but, in an oblique reference to the ungainly controversies over the jury and its selection, he added: "one wishes we ourselves did not devalue the dignity of the award to such an extent that an oscar means more to media than the swarna kamal." writer javed akhtar, also picking up his fourth kamal after saaz, sardari begum, border and godmother, was happy that his song, panchhi nadiyaan... in refugee had been selected. "it's a pacifist song that ruefully observes that unlike the forces of nature, human beings are trapped in borders created by their biases and prejudices." the song has also won annu malik his first award, "which will certainly not be my last," said the inspired composer. shankar mahadevan was "extremely happy to be a recipient of the most prestigious award of the land". by a happy coincidence, he was conferred his first kamal for his number in kandukondain kandukondain by a jury headed by vyjayanthimala, "from whom i'd received the first award as a singer, at the age of six". for shyam benegal, receiving the kamal seems to have become a ritual. almost all his earlier work - hari bhari, sardari begum, the making of the mahatma, suraj ka satwan ghoda, bhumika etc - has spelt an honour for the director. this time around he was director of the best hindi film, zubeida. however, for rituparno ghosh, this was the first kamal as best director. the director of the bengali film, utsab, has earlier received the awards for best screenplay (dahan), best bengali film (asookh) and the best first film of a director (unishe april). "it completes the cycle as a filmmaker," he said. "but if i were in the jury, i would have probably awarded dekha," he added, evidently referring to the fact that veteran actor soumitra chatterjee had refused the special jury award and gautam ghose the director's award for the best bengali film. both were conspicuous by their absence. another absence that weighed on everybody's mind was the recent demise of the "bhishma pitamah of indian cinema" ashok kumar, an earlier recepient of the dadasaheb phalke award.