Soon after the announcement of the 71st National Film Awards on Friday evening, Kerala once again became a hot topic, this time for a multitude of reasons, both positive and negative. While actors Urvashi and Vijayaraghavan bagging awards in the best supporting actor category brought immense joy to all, cinema enthusiasts also questioned the rationale behind the two performers not being considered for lead recognition. The complete snubbing of director Blessy’s Aadujeevitham – The Goat Life and Prithviraj Sukumaran’s chilling performance in it, along with the showering of honours on the widely panned and controversial film The Kerala Story, also quickly turned many heads and invited a massive wave of criticism towards the awards selection process.
Now, director Blessy has broken his silence on the matter, expressing bemusement at central jury chairperson Ashutosh Gowariker disregarding the movie, despite praising it previously. “I heard the jury chairperson mention that the film was denied awards due to technical shortcomings. But I remember him appreciating the film deeply during our conversations. When we held a premiere in Mumbai as part of our Oscar campaign, I had reached out to him. We spoke at length, and he praised the film highly,” Blessy told Onmanorama.
Pointing out that Gowariker even compared Aadujeevitham to David Lean’s epic biographical adventure drama Lawrence of Arabia (1962), which is considered one of the greatest and most influential movies of all time, Blessy stated that the Lagaan director told him that he had never seen the desert portrayed so beautifully since then. “That comment felt like an award in itself. He even invited me to lunch the next day to discuss the film further, though I couldn’t attend as I had to travel that night. If someone appreciated the film in such detail before, how can they now dismiss it on technical grounds? This seems like double standards,” Blessy asserted.
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Opening up about Aadujeevitham not receiving any recognition, Pradeep Nair, a filmmaker who was part of the 11-member central jury this time, previously said, “Gowariker had seen the movie at a previous film festival in Goa and had serious concerns about the film’s adaptation and execution. Gowariker and others also felt the adaptation lacked naturality and the performances didn’t feel authentic.”
