High five for Tamil cinema in the national hall of fame

Artistes from the state bagged five awards, including music maestro Ilayaraja winning an award for the best background score for his 1,000th film. 

Visaranai , a hard-hitting drama about police brutality, directed by Vetrimaaran, won three awards – best regional language movie, best supporting actor for Samuthirakani and best editing for T E Kishore, who passed away recently. 

Vetrimaaran who had taken a brief hiatus made a big impact with his lock up drama centred on a group of innocent men tortured by the police into admitting a crime they didn’t commit. Produced by Vetrimaaran and Dhanush, the film featured Attakathi Dinesh and Samuthirakani in key roles. 

Maestro Ilayaraja won the award for best background score for his 1,000th film Tharai Thappatai, directed by Bala. This is the fifth time the maestro is being conferred a National award. He had earlier won the award for Saga ra Sangamam, Sindhu Bhairavi, Rudra Veenai and Pazhassi Raja. Newcomer Ritika Singh who made her debut in Irudhi Sut tru, was adjudged the best actress in the special mention category. 

The movie directed by Sudha Kongara featured Madhavan in the lead. Ritika donned the role of a slum girl who becomes a boxing champion. Her performance was widely acclaimed.  Also, Sruti Harihara Subramanian, a Chennaiite, made the city proud by bagging the award for Best Art Cultural Film for her film – A Far Afternoon - A Painted Saga.