One of the countries most prestigious film award ceremonies-- the 54th National Film Awards ceremony was held today in New Delhi (June, 10 2008). The sequel to Munnabahi MBBS, 'Lage Raho Munnabahi' sweeped several awards at the coveted event. Raj Kumar Hirani's movie, which has received international applause, clinched awards for Best Screenplay, Best Music and Best Popular Film providing wholsome entertainment. Adding to the movie's award shelf, Dilip Prabhavalkar -- who portrayed the role of Mahatma Gandhi -- won the National Award for Best Supporting Actor. Swanand Kirkire received the award for Best Lyrics for the same movie. Popular category winnersMeanwhile, the Indira Gandhi award for the Best First Film was awarded to 'Kabul Express' directed by Kabir Khan. In the popular category of Best Feature Film (Hindi), Anupam Kher starrer 'Khosla ka Ghosla' clinched the award. The Best Director award was bestowed upon Madhur Bhandarkar for 'Traffic Signal', who has till date received two national awards for this movie 'Page 3' and 'Chandni Bar'.The Best Actor (male) award was clinched by Soumitra Chatterjee for his role in the Bengali film 'Podokkhep' -- directed by debutant Suman Ghosh's. Soumitra had earlier declined the Special Jury award in 2001 following a controversy about a partisan jury. Best Actor (female) was given to Priya Mani for her exceptional role in the in Ameer Sulthan's movie 'Paruthiveeran'. Konkona Sen Sharma, who has received praises from different quarters for her acting abilities, bagged the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in Vishal Bharadwaj's 'Omkara'. But the man behind Konkana's success -- Vishal Bharadwaj was not left behind as he received the Special Jury Award.The music category saw some popular names clinch national recognition. Shantanu Moitra's -- Music Director of Lage Raho Munnabhai -- efforts paid off as the movie bagged an award for Best Music. The Best Singer (male) and Best Singer (female) awards were awarded to Gurdass Mann and Aarti Annklekar Tikekar respectively. The Best Lyrics award was also given to 'Lage Raho Munnabhai's Swanand Kirkire. Other winnersThe popular names were not the only ones to receive national recognition. The Nargis Dutt award for the Best Feature Film on national intergration was given to Kallarali Hoovagi -- a movie based on a novel of historical fiction written by BL Venu. Actor turned Director Amol Palekar received the award for Best Feature Film (English) for his movie 'Quest' -- a movie that deals with the mature and bold subject of homosexuality. The Best Feature Film on Family Welfare was awarded to Karutha Pakshikal (Malayalam) and Faltu (Bengali). In the non-feature film category, the Best Film Award went to 'Bishar Blues' by Amitabh Chakravarty. The Best Feature Film on social issues was bestowed upon the Telugu movie 'Hope'. From the same industry that churns out popular Telugu movies, 'Care of Footpath' received the Best Film on Children's issues and not leaving behind was the Telugu animation film 'Kittu' that bagged the Best Animation Film Award. The 54th National Film Award winners was decided by members of three juries for Feature and Non Feature Film, namely Buddhadeb Dasgupta, K Bikram Singh and Ms Madhu Jain, who submitted their recommendations to the Minister of Information and Broadcasting PR Dasmunsi.  ... read more »