Veteran Chandrashekhar whose film career spans from the black and white era to the early part of this century received the Grand Prize for lifetime contribution to the cinematic arts while thespian Manoj Kumar was honoured for his work as the Icon at the Jagran Film Festival which concluded in Mumbai over the weekend.
The 90-year old Chandrashekhar has acted in 186 films commencing in 1947 with Arsi. Beginning as an actor in Fashion in 1957, Manoj Kumar went on to act in or make a large number of films, many of them with patriotic themes which got him the nickname of Bharat Kumar. The government also honoured him with the Padma Shri.
Versatile thespian Sridevi bagged the best actor (female) award for her comeback film English Vinglish, while the best actor award was shared by Ranbir Kapoor for Barfi! and Farhan Akhtar for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. Trupti Bhoir got a special mention as actor (female) for the Marathi film Touring Talkies produced by her and directed by Gajendra Ahire.
The best film award went to the film Kai Po Che!; which also bagged the best director award for Abhishek Kapoor and the background score award for Hitesh Sonik.
Among those who gave away the awards were the versatile Kamal Haasan, veteran filmmaker N Chandra, producer-director Sudhir Mishra, Tushaar Kapoor and Divya Dutta. Festival Advisor Manoj Srivastava was also present.
The programme presented by Kunal Kapoor and Huma Quraishi also included performances by the group Mati Baani, a World Music band combining elements of Hindustani Classical with various styles of Folk music and New age sounds
Ship of Theseus received the maximum awards: best debut director award for Anand Gandhi, the Jury award for best actor for Neeraj Kabi, the cinematography award for Pankaj Kumar, and the sound designer award for Gabor ifj. Erdélyi.
The special jury award was presented to Vishwaroopam for raising the bar of mainstream Indian cinema to an international level. The film also received the best editor award for Mahesh Narayanan.
Aditi Singh Sharma received the best female singer award for the title song in the film Heroine while actor-singer Ayushman Khurrana received the male singer award for the film Vicky Donor. The best music award was given to Pritam for the film Barfi! for his brilliant compositions.
Vicky Donor also bagged the best screenplay award for Juhi Chaturvedi.
Kaushal Oza won the best short film award for his film After Glow.
A special highlight of the festival was the presence of Max Lefrancq Lumiere, grandson of Louis Lumiere, who screened the first-ever films made by the Lumiere Brothers in 1895 in Paris. Irrfan Khan and Dilip Tahil were among those present.
A total of fifteen cities were covered by the 4th edition of the Jagran Film Festival, which marked one hundred years of Indian cinema.
The Festival commenced in Delhi in July and culminated in Mumbai from 24-29 September. In between it travelled to Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Agra, Meerut, Dehradun, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Indore, and Bhopal.
The various sections included the Jagran Classics of Indian films to mark a centenary of cinema, international and national shorts, the country focus on Korea, and World Panorama, and Indian showcase.
The centenary celebration included screening of films like Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy , Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay , Bimal Roy’s Madhumati and Do Bigha Zameen, Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa, Mani Ratnam’s Nayagan, Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand, Vijay Anand’s Guide, K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam among others.
A special feature this year was Cinema for the Sellers - an Indian competition for Advertising Films.
Other sections include World Panorama, Indian Showcase, Indian Premieres, and Jagran Shorts.
