The past decade at the Kerala State Film Awards has been a story of the rise of a younger crop of filmmakers and actors and the foregrounding of unconventional themes, so much so that the mainstream superstars were conspicuous by their absence from the winner’s list during this period. The story this year is in how one of the superstars took the unconventional route, after long years of being caught in a rut, and came up with a performance that left no doubts as to who would win the best actor award.
Lijo Jose Pellissery’s evocative Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam that played around intelligently with the hazy borders between dreams and reality, won the award for the Best Film. Mammootty won the Best Actor (Male) award for seamlessly capturing the transformation from Malayali James to Tamilian Sundaram with subtlety. It was his first Best Actor award in 14 years and the sixth overall, with the first of it coming more than four decades back. Vincy Aloshious, who came into cinema through a talent hunt show, and quickly became noticed for her performances, won the Best Actor (Female) award for her convincing portrayal of a woman’s fightback against an act of injustice in Rekha.
