Veteran actor Dev Anand today received the highest honour in Indian cinema — the Dadasaheb Phalke Award — from President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to standing ovation from the gathering at the Vigyan Bhavan auditorium. After a near brush with the honours last year and the year before that, the septuagenarian actor-director got the award at the 50th National Awards ceremony for his contribution to Indian cinema. President Kalam, however, wanted more. He requested the ‘‘peddlers of dream and reality’’ to help the 26 crore people below poverty line to turn India into a truly developed country by 2020. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas was voted most popular film while Aparna Sen’s Mr and Mrs Iyer won the award for best screenplay , the Nargis Dutt prize for National Integration and the honours for best direction. Mani Ratnam’s Kannathil Muthamittal (A Peck on the Cheek) won the award for Best Feature Film in Tamil. The award for best feature film went to Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Mondo Meyer Upakhyan (Tale of a Naughty Girl). Ajay Devgan won the Best Actor award for his role in The Legend of Bhagat Singh, while Konkona Sen Sharma was voted best actress for Mr and Mrs Iyer. Filmmakers Gautam Ghose and Adoor Gopalakrishnan, however, missed the function. Ghose was to receive the award for best promotional film while Adoor’s Nizalkuthu was voted Best Feature Film in Malayalam.
