Kerala State Film Awards: Recognition for newcomers

The most significant aspect of the 50th State film awards is the fact it didn’t degrade the award and its acceptance across the state.
Though there were many challenges in front of famous cinematographer Madhu Ambatt, he carried out his duty neatly without paving way for any controversy.
This time there was no allegations, counter allegations and din of claims that usually break out soon after the announcement of awards.
This shows that jury's decision was fair and free. The mammoth task in front of the jury was that it had to evaluate 119 films that took part in the contest.
The jury had to branch out into two groups since the number of films in the contest was big.
AS the cinema evolves, so do the tastes of the audience and the concept of cinema. New themes, acting style and techniques are the significant features of new films
Many recent films have completely changed its traditional concept. Seventy out of the 119 award - winning films are contributions of new talents, but we can sense the optimistic and hopeful changes taking place in Malayalam cinema.

Three-fourth of the awards were won by young artistes. These changes will bring immense joy to all those who take cinema seriously.

Interestingly, Rahman brothers who moved high court for changing the jury appointed by the government have got the best film award for their film Vasanthi produced last year. The film which didn’t reach theatres also won other awards.
The film was given the top honour after it was found to be the film that dumbfounded the entire jury. However, people have not been able to see many films released last year due to Covid Pandemic.
There is nothing surprising that Lijo Jose Pellissery got laurel. He is one of the most gifted director the Malayalam film industry has seen in the last decade.
In the selection of best actor award also the jury committee tread a non-traditional path by selecting well-known Comedian actor Suraj Venjaramoodu for some of his best character roles.
The comedy roles had for long kept Suraj chained and the change he has got anyway has gifted Malayalam cinema an actor with immense capacity to act.

Multi-lingual actor Kani Kusrithi who has won many awards in international film festivals has won the best actress award. She has dedicated the award to the first heroine of Malayalam cinema P K Rosy. Along with that she said what many don’t dare to say. This can’t be overlooked. It was about the discrimination that exist in Malayalam cinema. Rosy had to face the wrath for doing the role of an upper cast woman.

The flipside of the award announcement ceremony was the mentioning of the cash prize to be awarded to the awardees. The announcement was done by Minister for Cultural Affairs A K Balan.
The amount is demeaning and disgracing. A government with more than one-two lakh crore for annual budget can very easily set apart one or two crore for awards. The government need not feel bad about this as the revenue from the film sector is enormous. The government should understand that Rs 25,000 or 50,000 is not at all a big cash prize in these days.