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War and Peace and Kaya Pooche Maya Se jointly win the best film award in the non-feature category at the 51st National Film Awards, which received 115 entries in nine languages and two dialects
War and Peace by noted filmmaker Anand Patwardhan and Kaya Pooche Maya Se by Arvind Sinha shared top spot for best film in the non-feature section at the 51st National Film Awards announced on August 27, 2004. The former examines the roots of violence, as manifested in communal riots and the nuclear race, while Arvind Sinha’s film captures the myriad faces of humanity around Kolkata’s Howrah station. Patwardhan’s award came as a surprise as the film was denied clearance by the censor board and only later given the go-ahead by the Bombay High Court. The censor board has rejected official certification for almost all films dealing with issues of communalism, including Rakesh Sharma’s Final Solution -- a film about the communal violence that rocked Gujarat in 2002. “The award came as a surprise,” said Patwardhan. “The previous government had appointed people with similar mindsets to form the censor board review committee and hence all films dealing with secular themes had been put on hold or banned. Some of them continue to be part of the committee although there has been a change in government. My film War and Peace has gone through a long battle till it was legally cleared by the courts.” Filmed over three tumultuous years in India, Pakistan, Japan and the United States, after the 1998 nuclear tests on the Indian subcontinent, War and Peace documents the epic journey of peace activism in the face of global militarism and war. The film investigates the militarisation of India and analyses the human costs. Arvind Sinha was judged best director for Kaya PoocheMaya Se, which according to jury chairman Bhim Sain is commendable for its unpredictable symmetry of images offering an inner eye into the mystery called people. Kerala’s Suja won the award for best debutant director for his film An Encounter With A Life Living, a telling portrayal of an incapacitated woman and her cheerful will to live on. Aur Ghumantu Thhahar Gaye, a film about the nomadic Ghumantu tribe fetched Meenakshi Vinay Rai the award for best anthropological film. T Krishnan Unni’s Vaidyaratnam P S Varrier was judged best biographical film, while Picasso Metamorphoses by Y N Engineer of Films Division won the award for best arts/culture film. A film capturing the shining landscape, people and culture of Ladakh, called Ladakh: The Land Of Mystery, by Biyot Projna Tripathy claimed the award for best promotional film. The Eighteenth Elephant -- Three Monologues , a Malayalam film, got the award for best scientific/environment conservation film. In The Eighteenth Elephant -- Three Monologues the elephants narrate their own story, denouncing the ‘man-centric’ concept of development and raising issues like ecological balance and cruelty to animals. Usha Albuquerque’s Seeds of Life, focusing on environment activist Vandana Shiva’s Navdanya movement for alternative farming methods won the best agricultural film award. The awards comprise a Suvarna Kamal and Rs 10,000 each, along with a citation. The non-feature category, for the first time, included films in video format. Source: The Maharashtra Herald, August 29, 2004
The Indian Express, August 28, 2004
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