Kerala State Film Awards 2018: Parvathy, Indrans bag top honours; Take Off emerges as the big winner

Stellar performances won big at the Kerala State Film Awards announced on 8 February, Thursday. Parvathy — who played the role of an Indian nurse held hostage in Iraq in the critically-acclaimed as well as commercially successful Take Off — won the award for the Best Actor (Female). In the male category, Indrans won the Best Actor award for his role of a desperate father searching for his missing son in Aalorukkam. Parvathy had earlier won the same award in 2015 for her performance in the movie Charlie. Lijo Jose Pallisery walked away with the award for Best Director for his film Ee.Ma.Yau; a movie invited for screenings at a number of prestigious international film festivals. [caption id=“attachment_4381745” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  A still of Parvathy from Take Off/Image from Twitter.[/caption] Ottamuri Velicham, directed by Raul Riji Nair, won the award for the Best Film. The movie stars Vinitha Koshy, Dipak Parambol and Devaki Rajendran. Take Off, a movie which adapted the real life story of 19 nurses from Kerala trapped in Tikrit under the custody of the ISIS, won Mahesh Narayanan the award for the Best Debut Director. The award for the Best Music Composer went to MK Arjunan for the movie Bhayanakam. This is the first time Arjunan has won the state award in his fifty year long career. The Best Character Actor award was won by Pauly Valsan for her performances in two movies — Ee.Ma.Yau and Ottamuri Velicham. Alancier won the award for the Best Character Actor (Male) for his role in the film Thondimuthalum Drikshakshikalum. The award for the Best Lyricist went to Prabha Varma for the song ‘Oolathil Melathal’ from the film Clint. Gopi Sunder won the Best Background Score for Take Off. Singer Shahbaz Aman won the Best Singer (Male) for the song ‘Mizhiyil Ninnum’ from Maayanadhi. Singer Sithara Krishnakumar grabbed the award for the Best Singer (Female) for Vimanam. [caption id=“attachment_4381747” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  A still of Indrans from Aalorukkam/Image from YouTube.[/caption] Here are the other award winners: Best Child Actors- Abhinad, Nakshthra Best Cameraman- Manesh Madhavan for Eden Best Screenplay- Sajeev Pazhoor for Thondimuthalum Drikshakshikalum Best Script Writer - MA Nishad for Kinar Best Screenplay Adaptation- S Hareesh, Sanju Surendran for Eden Best Editing- Appu Bhattathiri for Ottamuri Velicham and Veeram Best Art Director- Santhosh Raman for Take Off See full winner’s list here.