NEW DELHI: The Malayalam film Adaminte Makan Abu by Salim Ahamed has been chosen the best film while the popular blockbuster Dabangg by Abhinav Singh Kashyap received the award for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment in the 58th National Awards for 2010 announced here today.

Tamil and Marathi films dominated the awards with 14 and ten awards respectively in the feature film category, with Hindi films getting seven awards, four of which went to Ishqiya directed by Vishal Bhardwaj: female playback to Rekha Bhardwaj, location sound recording by Kaamod Kharade, re-recordist of final mixed track to Debajit Changmal and music direction to Vishal Bhardwaj himself. Do Dooni Chaar by Habib Faisal got the best Hindi film award.

The Indo-Bangladesh venture Moner Manush by Goutam Ghose received two awards namely the Nargis Dutt Award for best feature film on National integration and the other for make-up that went to Vikram Gaikwad.

The best actor award went to Dhanush for the film Andukalam in Tamil and Salim Kumar for the Malayalam film Adaminte Makan Abu, while the best actress award went to Mitalee Jagtap for Baboo Band Baaja in Marathi and Saranya Panvannan for the Tamil film Thenmerkku Paruvakkaru.

The child actor award was shared between four children: Harsh Mayar for I am Kalam in Hindi, Shantanu Ranganekar and Machindra Gadkar for the Marathi film Champion and Vivek Chabukswar for the Marathi film Baboo Band Baaja. The best supporting awards went to Tamil films: J Thambi Ramaiah for Mynaa and actress Sukumari for Namma Gramam.

Jury Chairperson J P Dutta who headed the 11-member jury said at a press meet here that he had asked the Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni that this award should not be shared by each recipient; they should get separate Rajat Kamals and cash components.

While AK Bir headed the seven-member non-feature jury, Ashok Vajpayee headed the three-member book jury. There were 161 entries for feature films, 113 for non-features, 26 books and 27 critics.

The feature films were seen in two stages: first by five regional juries and then the shortlisted films were viewed by the main jury. The chairpersons of the regional juries were members of the main jury.

The awards are likely to be presented by President Pratibha Devisingh Patil in July.

The best director award has been bestowed upon Vetrimaran for the Tamil Aadukalam that also got the original screenplay award for him, the editing award was given to T E Kishore, the choreography award was bagged by Dinesh Kumar and the special mention for an actor went to V I S Jayaraman. Germ made by Snehal R Nair for the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute got the best non-feature film award.

From Rajahs and Yogis to Gandhi and Beyond: Images of India in International Films of the Twentieth Century (English) written by the veteran Vijaya Mulay got the best book award and Joshy Joseph (English) and N Manu Chakravarthy (Kannada & English) were named best critics.

Baboo Band Baaja also received the Indira Gandhi Award for best debut film of a director for Rajesh Pinjani, while Champion received the award for best film on social issues.

The Kannada film Bettada Jeeva by P Sheshadri received the award for best film on environment conservation/preservation apart from a special mention to the late Shivaram Karanth. Another Kannada film Hejjagalu by P R Ramadas Naidu was adjudged the best children’s film.

The Tamil blockbuster Enthiran (Robot) starring Rajnikant received awards for production design for Sabu Cyril and special effects for V Srinivas M Mohan.

The Marathi film Mee Sindhutai Sapkal by Ananth Mahadevan on a living personality won several awards. The first for male playbackwent to Suresh Wadekar, the adapted screenplay award went to Ananth Mahadevan and Sanjay Pawar while the best dialogue award went to Sanjay Pawar. The film also got the Special Jury Award.