'Drishtandam' best film; Prithviraj and Urvasi best actors

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 9 (UNI) 'Drishtandam' directed by M P Sukumaran Nair and 'Notebook' by Roshan Andrews bagged the award for the best and second best films in the Kerala State Film awards 2006 announced today.

Lenin Rajendran gets the best director award for 'Rathrimazha'.

Prithviraj has been adjudged the best actor for his portraying Balachandran Adika, a youth tormented by mental agony in 'Vastavam' and Urvasi the best actress for her role in 'Madhuchandralekha'.

Jury Chairman T K Rajeev Kumar said its members had full freedom and they had chosen the best films and also other awards after analysing films in their individual capacity. In choosing the best actors, performance-based brilliance was looked into and no comparative analysis was done, he said.

The awards were announced by state Cultural Minister M A Baby.

The second best actor award went to Saikumar for his performance in 'Anandabhairavi' and Padmapriya got the second best actress award for her roles in 'Karuthapakshikal' and 'Yes Your Honour'.

Master Mani and Baby Malavika shared the best child artist awards for 'Photographer' and 'Karuthapakshikal' respectively.

'Kaiyoppu' fetched Manoj Pillai an award for best cinematographer. While James Albert got the best award for his story for 'Classmates', the best script writer award went to Major Ravi for 'Keerthichakra'.

The award for the best lyricist went to Prabha Varma ('Out of Syllabus') and the award for the best music direction to Ramesh Narayan ('Rathrimazha'). The award for composing background score went to Thashi ('Thantra'). Sreenivas and Sujatha bagged the award for best male and female playback singer for 'Rathrimazha'.

The other awards were bagged by L Bhuminath (editing), Gokuldas (art direction), Hari Kumar (sound recordist), Pattanam Sha (make up), V Sai (costumes) and Vimi Mariam George (dubbing).

'Classmates', directed by Lal Jose has been adjudged the best popular film and Avira Rabeka the best debutant director for the film 'Thakarachenda'. Sreenivasan for his role in 'Thakarachenda' got the jury's special award. The award for the best short film went to 'Bhumikoru Charamagitam', directed by R Sharat and the best documentary award was bagged by M R Rajan's 'Minukku'.

M F Thomas' 'Addorinte Chalachitra Yatrakal' and P G Sadanandan's 'Cinemayude Nithisaram' got the awards for best books on cinema.

The jury, chaired by T K Rajeev Kumar, had K Archana, D Gowthaman, Rose Mary, Fousia Fathima, P A Umbayi, Kalamandalam Kshemavathi and K S Sreekumar as its members. The other jury, which selected the literature, was chaired by Ravindran and had M A Rehman, Sushama Vijayalakshmi Mohan and K S Sreekumar as members.

UNI