The 37th National Film Awards were presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, an organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1989. Ceremony took place in May 1990 and awards were presented by then President of India, R. Venkataraman.
Starting with 37th National Film Awards, a new award in the feature films section was introduced for Environment Conservation/Preservation as National Film Award for Best Film on Environment Conservation/Preservation and awarded with Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) for producer and director of the film. Another new award was introduced for National Film Award for Best First Non-Feature Film of a Director, but not given for 37th National Film Awards.
Also, National Film Award for Best Book on Cinema has been promoted to Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) Award.
Awards
Awards were divided into feature films, non-feature films and books written on Indian cinema.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Name of AwardImageAwardee(s)Awarded AsAwardsDadasaheb Phalke AwardLata MangeshkarPlayback singerSwarna Kamal, and a Shawl
Feature films
Feature films were awarded at All India as well as regional level. For 37th National Film Awards, a Bengali film, Bagh Bahadur won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film whereas two Malayalam films, Mathilukal and Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha won the maximum number of awards (4). Following were the awards given in each category:
Juries
A committee headed by Atma Ram was appointed to evaluate the feature films awards. Following were the jury members:
Jury Members Atma Ram (Chairperson)Basu BhattacharyaIqbal MasoodK. G. GeorgeSitakant MisraMahendranA. PundarikakshayyaKundan ShahAribam Syam SharmaDilip Kumar HazarikaBhimsenR. LakshmanValampuri SomanathanSaikat BhattacharyaSreekumaran ThampiD. V. Narasa Raju
All India Award
Following were the awards given:
Golden Lotus Award
Official Name: Swarna Kamal
All the awardees are awarded with 'Golden Lotus Award (Swarna Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.
Name of AwardName of FilmLanguageAwardee(s)Cash prizeBest Feature FilmBagh BahadurBengaliProducer: Buddhadeb Dasgupta 50,000/-director: Buddhadeb Dasgupta 25,000/-Citation: For its portrayal of the steady destruction of rural folk traditions at the hands of a cheap and showy urban culture in the form a cinematically vibrant and heroic classical tragedy.Best Debut Film of a DirectorWosobipoKarbiProducer: Karbi Anglong District CouncilDirector: Gautam Bora 25,000/- EachCitation: For its fresh and original evocation of the collective unconscious of a hill tribe whose way of life has been disintegrating over the last four decades, as seen through the eyes of a boy growing up into the responsibilities of manhood.Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome EntertainmentChandniHindiProducer: Yash Raj Films 40,000/-Director: Yash Chopra 20,000/-Citation: For providing clean and romantic entertainment illuminated with smooth performances and fresh lyrics in folk form.GeethanjaliTeluguProducer: M/s Bhagyalakshmi Enterprises 40,000/-Director: Mani Ratnam 20,000/-Citation: For its innovative approach in depicting youthful passion.Best Children's FilmAnkur Maina Aur KabootarHindiProducer: Children's Film Society 30,000/-Director: Madan Bawaria 15,000/-Citation: For its involvement of children in the fight for preservation of wildlife in the exotically shot isle of Mauritius.Jamboo SavariKannadaProducer: K. S. L. Swame (Lalitha Ravee) 30,000/-Director: K. S. L. Swame (Lalitha Ravee) 15,000/-Citation: For the way in which it establishes the conflict between a child's instinctive love for a wild animal and the reality of man-animal relationships in the modern world, along with the resolution of that conflict.Best DirectionMathilukalMalayalamAdoor Gopalakrishnan 50,000/-Citation: For successfully capturing the spirit of the short story on his prison days by the celebrated writer Vaikkom Mohammed Basheer.
Silver Lotus Award
Official Name: Rajat Kamal
All the awardees are awarded with 'Silver Lotus Award (Rajat Kamal)', a certificate and cash prize.
Name of AwardName of FilmLanguageAwardee(s)Cash prizeSecond Best Feature FilmParshuramer KutharBengaliProducer: Dhurjati Prasad Mukherji30,000/-Director: Nabyendu Chatterjee15,000/-Citation: For the moving fashion in which it elaborates the political and social hypocrisy of a town's middle class and its exploitation of a woman who is both the object of desire and the prey.Best Feature Film on National IntegrationSantha Shishunala SharifaKannadaProducer: M/s Yajaman Enterprises 30,000/-Director: T. S. Nagabharana 15,000/-Citation: For its depiction of unity of religions at the popular mystical level illustrated by the life and lyrics of a famous Muslim saint who has a Hindu guru.Best Film on Family WelfareSandhya RaagamTamilProducer: Balu Mahendra (A Doordarshan production) 30,000/-Director: Balu Mahendra 15,000/-Citation: For the humanity with which it traces a character coming to terms with the problem of old age through suffering, resolution and understanding.Best Film on Other Social IssuesUnnikuttant Joli KittyMalayalamProducer: V. R. Gopinath 30,000/-Director: V. R. Gopinath 15,000/-Citation: For its bleak narration of an unemployed youth becoming an unemployable due to callous social attitudes.Best Film on Environment Conservation / PreservationBonaniAssameseProducer: M/s Purbanchal Film Co-operative Society Ltd. 30,000/-Director: Jahnu Barua 15,000/-Citation: For its delicate and nuanced description of a forest official's struggle against mercenary and bureaucratic despoilation of forests.Best ActorMathilukalOru Vadakkan VeeragathaMalayalamMammootty 10,000/-Citation: For successfully portraying the multifaceted roles.Best ActressParshuramer KutharBengaliSreelekha Mukherji 10,000/-Citation: For bringing out the agony and pain of a helpless woman forced by society to live an ignoble life.Best Supporting ActorParindaHindiNana Patekar 10,000/-Citation: For his unique portrayal of a psychotic character.Best Supporting ActressPudhea PaadhaiTamilManorama 10,000/-Citation: For the versatility shown.Best Child ArtistKalat NakalatMarathiMrinmayee Chandorkar 5,000/-Citation: For her innocent and spontaneous portrayal.Best Male Playback SingerChhandaneerBengaliAjoy Chakrabarty 10,000/-Citation: For bringing the rare depth of emotion, adomed by his command on the classical idiom.Best Female Playback SingerKalat NakalatMarathiAnuradha Paudwal 10,000/-Citation: For her clear and mellifluous rendering of the song.Best CinematographySalim Langde Pe Mat RoHindiCamera operator: Virendra SainiLaboratory processing: M/s Ad-labs 10,000/- EachCitation: For the high technical skills shown in evoking the special ethos of the film.Best ScreenplayOru Vadakkan VeeragathaMalayalamM. T. Vasudevan Nair 10,000/-Citation: For the gripping plot, clearly etched characterisations and the brilliant portrayal of life in Kerala a few hundred years ago.Best AudiographyMathilukalMalayalamHarikumar 10,000/-Citation: For perfection noticeable throughout the in creatively helping the director to capture the mood and sustain interest within the enclosed walls of a jail.Best EditingParindaHindiRenu Saluja 10,000/-Citation: For her brisk and precise cutting and the creative heights to which she has taken the film with her intelligent and intuitive knowledge of her art.Best Art DirectionOru Vadakkan VeeragathaMalayalamP. Krishnamoorthy 10,000/-Citation: For adding to the aesthetic value of the film as a whole by carefully recreating the essence of the reality of a bygone era in Kerala with minute attention to details of pros and decor.Best Costume DesignOru Vadakkan VeeragathaMalayalamP. Krishnamoorthy 10,000/-Citation: For his intimate knowledge, artistic competence and the brilliant execution of the costumes of a bygone era, recreating the reality of life in the past as few films have done.Best Music DirectionWosobipoKarbiSher Chowdhary 10,000/-Citation: For depicting life in interior Assam with a unique background score.Best LyricsChhandaneerBengaliSatarupa Sanyal 10,000/-Citation: For rare poetic heights reached in all the lyrics for the film.Special Jury AwardKaal AbhiratiBengaliAmitabh Chakraborty 10,000/-Citation: For having had the courage of his convictions in making this experimental film which sets out to explore new horizons in the realm of film making.Special MentionDaddyHindiAnupam KherCertificate OnlyCitation: For having played with great finesse and an unequalled range, the role of a gifted artiste hurt by unfortunate personal relationships.KireedamMalayalamMohanlalCitation: For portraying young man's agony and pain marvellously and in unique style.
Regional Awards
The award is given to best film in the regional languages in India.
Name of AwardName of FilmAwardee(s)Cash prizeBest Feature Film in BengaliGanashatruProducer: NFDC 20,000/-Director: Satyajit Ray 10,000/-Citation: For its brilliant adaptation of Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" to highlight the dangers of current revivalism.Best Feature Film in GujaratiPercyProducer: NFDC 20,000/-Director: Pervez Merwanji 10,000/-Citation: For its searing exploration of the neuroses and the claustrophobic embrace of an ingrown familial culture.Best Feature Film in HindiSalim Langde Pe Mat RoProducer: NFDC 20,000/-Director: Saeed Akhtar Mirza 10,000/-Citation: For its novel examination of the nexus between urban lumpen life, crime and religious revivalism.Best Feature Film in KannadaManeProducer: Apoorva Chitra 20,000/-Director: Girish Kasaravalli 10,000/-Citation: For setting out the contradictions in the urban middle class search, both for moral legitimacy and security, in a corrupt social structure.Best Feature Film in MalayalamMathilukalProducer: Adoor Gopalakrishnan 20,000/-Director: Adoor Gopalakrishnan 10,000/-Citation: For its remarkable creation of an imprisoned writer's mind hovering between the pain of confinement, existential apprehension of death and the hallucinatory "reality" of sensual love.Best Feature Film in MarathiKalat NakalatProducer: Smita Talwalkar 20,000/-Director: Kanchan Nayak 10,000/-Citation: For its delicate description of the tension of love in various facets – wife, mistress and children – and the resolution of tensions in favour of keeping a family together.Best Feature Film in OriyaAndha DigantaProducer: Vox Visuals Pvt. Ltd. 20,000/-Director: Manmohan Mahapatra 10,000/-Citation: For its unemotional description of the increasing misery of a peasant who discovers his inadequacy in fighting his economic servitude and his own bourgeois attitude towards his wife's past.Best Feature Film in PunjabiMarhi Da DeevaProducer: NFDC 20,000/-Director: Surinder Singh 10,000/-Citation: For its depiction of the pain and tragedy involved in the transformation of feaudalism into capitalism, which entails destruction and degradation of normal human relationships like friendship and love.Best Feature Film in TamilPudhea PaadhaiProducer: A. Sundaram 20,000/-Director: R. Parthiepan 10,000/-Citation: For its depiction of the transforming effects of a woman's courage and devotion on her husband.Best Feature Film in TeluguSuthradharuluProducer: Sudhakar Reddy and C. Karunakar Rao 20,000/-Director: K. Viswanath 10,000/-Citation: For the way it charts the conquest of social oppression by spiritual understanding and peace.
Non-Feature Films
Short Films made in any Indian language and certified by the Central Board of Film Certification as a documentary/newsreel/fiction are eligible for non-feature film section.
Juries
A committee headed by Jagat Murari was appointed to evaluate the non-feature films awards. Following were the jury members:
Jury Members Jagat Murari (Chairperson)Tapan K. BoseSantosh SivanGhanashyam MahapatraParesh Mehta
Golden Lotus Award
Official Name: Swarna Kamal