Motion Content Group and The Film Critics Guild announced The Critic's Choice Awards 2021 on 14 February. This is the third edition of the awards celebrating and recognising talent under short films, web series and feature films categories.
This year the show was hosted by Neha Dhupia and stand-up comic Sorabh Pant. Ths show was star studded with artists and creators from across the country converging onto the virtually hosted event streamed on social platforms.
From south India, Sai Pallavi won the 'Best Supporting Actress' award for the Tamil anthology Paava Kadhaigal. Late malayalam director Sachy was posthumously awarded the 'Best Writing' for his last film Ayyappanum Koshiyum. Director and editor Mahesh Narayanan won the 'Best Editing' award for the film C U Soon.
Ayyappanum Koshiyum director Sachidandan aka Sachy passed away last June after he suffered a cardiac arrest while undergoing a hip replacement surgery at a private hospital. Ayyappanum Koshiyum tells the story of its titular characters, Ayyappan Nair and Koshy Kurian, who lock horns over an incident. While Biju Menon played the character of Ayyappan Nair, a policeman with an unblemished record, Prithviraj Sukumaran was seen as a retired army havildar Koshy Kurian, who had put in 16 years of service.
Paava Kadhaigal was a tamil anthology which has four segments directed by Vetrimaaran, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Sudha Kongara and Vignesh Shivan respectively. Sai Pallavi was part of director Vetrimaran's episode titled, Oor Iravu. Sai Pallavi played the daughter of Prakash Raj in this film. The anthology featured an ensemble cast of Kalidas Jayaram, Shanthnu Bhagyaraj, Bhavani Sre, Anjali, Kalki Koechlin, Padam Kumar, Simran, Gautham Menon, Aadhitya Baaskar, Prakash Raj, Sai Pallavi and Hari Krishnan.
Fahadh Fassil starrer C U Soon was directed by Mahesh Narayanan. The film was completely shot on iPhone. Upon its OTT release, the film received positive reviews from the critics. Interestingly, it was a computer screen-based film, a relatively a new concept in Indian cinema. The film was also edited by Mahesh Narayanan.
(Content provided by Digital Native)