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MUMBAI: The Mathrubhumi Amrita Film Awards (MAFA), the magnificent awards cum entertainment extravaganza that reeled out to packed crowds at the Marine Drive, Cochin last week will be telecast during the weekend, on the 16th &17th of January, from 7-11 pm.
Designed to honour outstanding achievers in Malayalam Cinema, MAFA the first film awards in the calendar year 2010 ,has stepped beyond State boundaries, to recognize excellent performers in the Tamil and Hindi film industries as well, this year.
The first awards event in India to be spread over 2 successive days, MAFA was conceptualized on the Oscar model. Instead of announcing the names of the awardees well in advance, 11 out of the 27 award categories which were decided on SMS votes were only declared on stage on the second evening, thus keeping the viewers as well as nominees on tenterhooks till the last moment.
‘Pazhassi Raja‘ the historical blockbuster that raised Malayalam Films to the world stage through its technical expertise won the award for Best Picture while Renjith became the Best Director for his off beat entertainer ‘Paleri Manikyam- Oru Pathira Kolapathakam‘.
Mamooty‘s extraordinary portrayals of a provincial king, feudal lord and country boor in ‘Pazhassi Raja‘, ‘Paleri Manikyam‘ and ‘Loudspeaker‘ respectively delivered the Best Actor Award to him on a platter ; Kavya Madhavan was given the Best Actress award for her role in ‘Beneras‘ ; Pazhassi Raja cornered the Best Supporting Actor Award for Manoj K Jayan‘s sterling act and Best Supporting Actress for Padmapriya‘s inspiring performance ; the Best Screenplay went to Jayaraj for penning Loudspeaker; the veteran ONV‘s songs for ‘Pazhassi Raja‘ fetched him the Best Lyricist Award ; Vidyasagar whose melody for Neelathmara is on every Keralite‘s lips was the unanimous choice for Best Music Director; Jayachandran and Swetha Mohan took home the awards for Best Playback singers. Srinivasan was voted the Most Popular Actor (Male) and Lekshmi Rai , who stole her way into Malayalee‘s hearts through ‘In Harihar Nagar‘ walked away with the Most Popular Actress Award while Jayaram was the Kudumba Nayakan and Hariharan the Janapriya Samvidhayakan. Jayasurya, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Sharath Kumar, Bhama and Baby Niveditha were the other award winners.
Resul Pookkutty Kerala‘s first ‘Oscarite‘ became the ‘Prince of Sound‘; Asin was chosen as ‘The Pride of Kerala‘ ; Innocent was accorded the Best Comic Hero Award and Jagathy was the uncontested ‘Most Versatile Hero‘.
M.K. Arjunan, who had contributed many a classic to Malayalam playback singing was bestowed the Lifetime achievement Award for his long innings as Music Director .
Priyadarshin, Malayalam Cinema‘s Merchant of Dreams who has planted his flag atop Bollywood was a special guest of honour on the MAFA stage, the award Chalathitra Prathibha conferred by none other than Mamooty, in the presence of his closest chums- ManiyanPillai, Jagdeesh, Revathy, Etc.
Sporting the hairstyle and beard of his latest film ‘Sinka‘, Surya who boasts of legions of fans in Kerala as well, received his Best Actor in Tamil Award from Mamooty, the first time his talent was lauded in Kerala ; Shreya was the Best Actress in Tamil .
The glittering ceremony that held Cochin to ‘entertainment ransom‘ in which a galaxy of stars from Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi took part was made more dazzling by a string of dance performances, songs and comedy skits.
Reema Kallingal who performed contemporary dances based on ‘Pazhassi Raja‘ ; Samvrutha Sunil who graced the stage with a classical number ; Isha Saravani of the ‘Daksha Sheth‘ group and Amrita TV‘s own Shamna Kasim who is all set to graduate to Bollywood - enthralled with their blend of classical and contemporary dances, while Rimy Tommy, Afzal, Sayanora and Renjith and Anuradha Sriram had the massive crowd swaying as one to their lilting tunes. Stephen Devassy, the celebrity keyboardist not only lent orchestral support to the performers, he also composed and played the background score for the entire function.
Comedy skits by Tini Tom and Kalpana with their tongue-in-cheek humour provided uproarious interludes between the feast of music and dance; Thirunelvelli‘s Thappattam was a discovery in dynamic new rhythms. Aviyal Band, the Kerala Rock Band lived up to its name setting ethnic tunes to rock music ; the famed Bombay Vikings headed by Neeraj Sridhar
Of ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna‘ , ‘Love Mera Hit Hit‘ fame almost brought the skies down with their ‘Vo Chale‘ and other Hindi hits. Dileep, Menaka Suresh, Lalu Alex, Swetha Menon, Suresh Krishna were amongst those who lent glamour to the function.
It was a spectacular display that left even the grand Moghuls of Tinsel Town, for whom glitz is a part of life, dumbstruck with wonder.
‘I have never seen such a congregation of stars in my life" said Director Hariharan " With this Award function MAFA has raised the bar to National heights" - a sentiment that was echoed by the thousands who had thronged Cochin‘s Marine Drive for an event that may take years to be surpassed.
