Art house films dominated the list of State film awards in 2013. The films, including Hajj , Jatta , Prakruthi , Agasi Parlour , December 1 , Ingle Marga , Matte Satyagraha , also made news at the 7th edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival.
Hajj , directed by Nikhil Manjoo, bagged the first Best Film award. Mr. Manjoo, who played the protagonist in the film, got the Best Actor award and Sri Lalitha got the award for Best Story.
Incidentally, Hajj was adjudged the Best Film in the Kannada cinema competition section at BIFFes.
Jatta by B.M. Giriraj has been adjudged as the second Best Film. The director tackled “isms” and touched upon contemporary issues such as deforestation, moral policing, culture, belief and marriage system in tribal community, as well as women empowerment.
Prakruthi directed by Panchakshari got third Best Film award. The film had won a special jury award at BIFFes too.
Agasi Parlour , which has bagged the Best Debut Film award is written and directed by Mahantesh Ramadurga. The film deals with the changes that a beauty parlour brings to a remote village in north Karnataka. The beauty parlour is a metaphor in the film for globalisation and urbanisation.
On art house movies dominating the awards, Chairman selection committee G.K. Govinda Rao said there was no classification as such in films and media should stop labelling films as art and commercial.
“There are only two categories: good and bad,” he said.
