68th National Film Awards: Ayyappanum Koshiyum, Biju Menon and Aparna Balamurali clinch top honours from Malayalam

Malayalam cinema led from the front at the 68th National Film Awards bagging the major honours for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Playback Singer and Best Action Direction. Ayyappanum Koshiyum, which released in 2020, won big with the film’s late director Sachy being honoured with the Best Director Award, posthumously.

Actor Biju Menon, who played police officer Ayyappan Nair in the film, was adjudged the Best Supporting Actor (Male) for his role in the movie, which also bagged awards for Best Action Direction and Best Playback Singer (Female).

Talking to the media after his win, Biju dedicated his win to Sachy, who had passed away in June 2020. “This is a special award for me and I want to take this moment to remember and thank Sachy for this. He’s not there with us now but I want to thank him for giving me this wonderful character,” said Biju Menon. “All such recognitions are an encouragement. I had been with Sachy from the start of this film; it was first planned as a small movie and then it was scaled up into a commercial entertainer. The only disappointment is that Sachy is not there to witness all this.”

Singer Nanjiyamma, who had rendered the track Kalakkatha in the film along with Adakachakko and Thaalam Poyi under Jakes Bejoy’s compositions, won the Best Playback Singer award. Supreme Sunder, Mafia Sasi and Rajashekhar took home the award for Best Stunt Choreography.

Malayalam actress Aparna Balamurali, meanwhile, won the award for the Best Actress for her performance in the Tamil film Soorarai Pottru. The actress, who was on the sets of her latest film, told the media, “I am still at loss for words but it’s a first-of-a-kind experience for me. My director wanted the film to be recognised and (Sudha) ma’am had put in that kind of effort for the movie. All credit for this win goes to her. I am here because of the confidence and the time she gave me to work on the character. This is field that I came to unexpectedly and I want to learn more and do better characters.”

Kappela won Aneesh Nadodi the award for Best Production Design, while Sree Shankar and Vishnu Govind took home the honour for Best Sound Design for Fahadh Faasil-starrer Malik in this edition of the National Film Awards. Kavya Prakash’s debut film Vaanku also won the special jury mention while the Best Malayalam film award went to Senna Hegde’s Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam.

Ayyappanum Koshiyum and Malik are currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, while Kappela can be watched on Netflix. Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam was a direct-to-OTT release on Sony LIV.