| Seven Tamil films bagged most of the Reliance Mobile Vijay Awards at a recent function |
Photo: R. Shivaji Rao
MOMENT OF PRIDEDirector Maniratnam receiving the Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan Award from Director K. Balachandar at the second annual Reliance Mobile Vijay Awards 2007
“Paruthiveeran” and “Polladhavan” bagged four jury awards each (including Best Film and Best Director respectively) as “Pokkiri” and “Sivaji” shared honours in the popular category, winning four statuettes each as well. With “Chennai 28”, “Mozhi”, “Kattrudhu Tamizh” winning two pieces each, 20 out of the 30 Reliance Mobile Vijay Awards were clearly dominated by these seven films.
Satyaraj was adjudged the best actor for “Onbathu Rooba Nottu”, Superstar Rajnikant was voted by fans as their favourite Hero and the industry awarded the Best Entertainer Award to Vijay. Karthi and Anjali won the best debut actor awards for “Paruthiveeran” and “Kattradhu Tamil”. Priyamani was adjudged Best Actress and Nayanthara was voted Favourite Actress.
All of this took over five hours to unfold as one man decided to make it an enduring experience for the audience. When Yuhi Sethu announced “I am back,” little did we know what we were in for. Clearly lacking in brevity and wit, Sethu decided to pun-ish us with his brand of dry humour that was received with an appropriately dry response from the crowd.
“Cinema was moving closer to realism as news was becoming larger than life,” he observed on behalf of the jury that included Bhagyaraj, Madhan, Priyadarshan, Lizzy and Yuhi Sethu himself.
“Vijay is regarded as one of the smartest Tamil language channels,” said Ajay Vidyasagar, president — Content, STAR TV, recalling how “Kathai Illai Nijam” was the first live reality show in Tamil ever and now Jodi No. 1 rated as highest viewed non-fiction show ever. He said that STAR’s association with the Tamil film industry goes back to Channel V’s Quick Gun Murugan ads made in 1996 that popularised the catchphrase: Mind it, today used by the Chennai Super Kings team mascot Dhoni in the latest Pepsi commercial.
The emotional highpoint of the event was when a frail Film News ‘Anandan’ was honoured for his contribution to Tamil Cinema by Manorama who called him the ‘Chitraguptan’ of Tamil Cinema. Later in the evening, K. Balachander gave away the Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan award for excellence to Mani Ratnam, who said it was honour to get the Sivaji award and wished he had the opportunity to have worked with the veteran. And, A.R.Rahman said, “Ella Pugazhum Iraivanukke.”
Among the acceptance speeches, the most sentimental were by the directors Vetrimaran and Venkat Prabhu, the most unassuming speeches were by Prakash Raj and Prabhu Deva (Prakash Raj said other people from his team probably did a better job and a visibly thrilled Prabhu Deva said how he didn’t expect this as he admired all filmmakers nominated, including Vishnuvardhan for “Billa”) and the actors thanked the directors (Satyaraj gave Thankar Bachan all credit, Karthi did a crowd-pleaser saying a couple of lines from the movie before thanking Ameer and Superstar in a video-recorded acceptance speech held Shankar responsible for the success of Sivaji).
The Best singers Neha Bhasin (who said she it was her first award ever) and Krish performed, the king of bling BlaaZe did a hip-hop act and there were item numbers by Kamna, Samiksha, Rahasya and Sada who were accompanied by John Britto’s energetic bunch of dancers.
Overall, it’s a show best seen on TV where you have the option of changing channels to escape Yuhi’s longish academic preludes to each of the thirty categories.
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AND THE AWARD GOES TO…
Eva Best Actor – Female Debut: Anjali, “Kattradhu Tamizh”
Best New Actor – Male Debut: Karthi, “Paruthiveeran”
Best Film: “Paruthiveeran”
Best Director: Vetrimaran, “Polladhavan”
Hitachi Best Actor – Male: Sathyaraj, “Onbathu Rooba Nottu”
Best Music Director: A.R.Rahman, “Sivaji”
Favourite Director: Prabhu Deva, “Pokkiri”
Reliance Mobile Favourite Film: “Pokkiri”
Favourite Hero: Rajnikant, “Sivaji”
Entertainer of the Year: Vijay, “Pokkiri”
Chevalier Sivaji Award for Excellence in Cinema: Mani Ratnam
Contribution to Tamil Cinema: Film News Anandan
By SUDHISH KAMATH
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