Thiruvananthapuram: Debutant Vidhu Vincent-directed 'Manhole', which depicted the life of manual scavengers, bagged awards of the best feature film and director in the 47th Kerala State Film Awards announced here Tuesday.
Interestingly, the Best Director honour went for the first time to a woman.
"I am hugely excited as not only have I won the Best Director Award, but my movie has also won the Best Film Award. What more should one expect? With this, I feel my responsibility has increased as cinema is a cultural product and I have to come up with such products again," said Vincent, a journalist-turned-filmmaker.
Journalist-turned-filmmaker, Vidhu, who recently bagged Rajatha Chakoram for Best Debut Director in the last International Film Festival of Kerala, portrayed the plight of manual scavengers on screen in an in-depth style, a jury, headed by filmmaker A K Bir opined.
"The movie was chosen for its thematic value, style of execution and innovation. It was so touching and communicated well with the audience about the grievances of the marginalised group," Bir said.
"Ottayal Patha", directed by twin filmmakers Santhosh Babu Senan and Satheesh Babu Senan, was chosen as the 'second best feature film' while Dileesh Pothen-directed "Maheshinte Prathikaram" bagged 'best popular film' award.
Manikandan Achari (Kammattippadam) and Kanchana P K (Olapeeppi) were adjudged best character actor and actress titles respectively.
While M Jayachandran was chosen as the best music director for his scores in 'Kamboji', eminent singer K S Chitra and youngster Sooraj Santhosh were adjudged best female and male singer titles respectively.
K Kaladharan and Surabhi Lekshmi won special jury mentions for acting.
Shanavas K Bavakkutty was adjudged the best debutant filmmaker title.
While the best director will get a purse of Rs 2,00,000, citation and plaque, the director and producer of the best film will get Rs 2,00,000, citation and a plaque each. The actor and actress will get Rs 1,00,000, citation and plaque each.