National awards: Sheshadri, Kasaravalli win laurels

BANGALORE: Director P Sheshadri has maintained his winning streak of bagging national awards by getting the Best Kannada film in regional language for 'December 1' while winning the Rajat Kamal for Best Screenplay (original) for the same movie.
This is the 8th consecutive time that Sheshadri has won the national award. Panchakshari has bagged the Best Screenplay writer award (adapted) for the Kannada movie 'Prakruthi'.
Girish Kasaravalli, who directed the English documentary 'An anthamurthy… Not a biography… But a hypothesis', shared the Special Jury Award (Rajat Kamal) with Kashmiri directors Satyanshu Singh and Devanshu Singh who directed the documentary Tamaash. Kasaravalli bags the award for clarity and insight with which the documentary looks at the work of UR Ananthamurthy. The 61st national film awards for 2013 were announced in New Delhi on Tuesday.
'December 1' is about how a family in a village suddenly comes into limelight after a chief minister visits their house, but incurs the wrath of the villagers after a local newspaper reports it. Why do the villagers boycott the family? "Well, you have to watch the movie for that," says Sheshadri.
Producer Basanth Kumar Patil says the movie has a social message. "We're all aware about village stays by politicians, but we're not aware how it affects such families. Once you see the movie, you'll be moved by emotions as it's based on a real-life incident to a family in a North Karnataka village.''
Sheshadri says the poor family faced embarrassment after a CM visited their house as part of the village stay programme. "I studied the plight of the family and decided to make a movie about it. I don't want to mention any names but the movie highlights how people play with the others' emotions.''
The cast has Niveditha, Dattanna, Santhosh Uppina and Shanthab ai with over 50 locals. The movie %is set for commercial release by this month-end.