Best India's "National Film Award" Winning Best Picture (1953-88)
The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremonies in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate of Film Festivals since 1973.
Which of these past winners of India's National Film Award for Best Picture is the best in your opinion?
After voting, you may discuss the poll here.
Best India's "National Film Award" Winning Best Picture >> (1989-Present)
Which of these past winners of India's National Film Award for Best Picture is the best in your opinion?
After voting, you may discuss the poll here.
Best India's "National Film Award" Winning Best Picture >> (1989-Present)
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- DirectorPralhad Keshav AtreStarsVasant BapatAshok BhatSaraswati BodasAbout the relationship between Shyam and his mother who teaches him how to stick to his ideals and beliefs in spite of them living in poverty.
- DirectorSohrab ModiStarsBharat BhushanSuraiyaNigar SultanaThis movie depicts the life of once wealthy poet and nobleman Mirza Ghalib. This story portrays his trials, tribulations, triumphs, and utlimate descent to poverty, and then to prison; and his tragic and ill-fated love with a beautiful courtesan named Chaudvin.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsKanu BannerjeeKaruna BannerjeeSubir BanerjeeImpoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.
- DirectorTapan SinhaStarsChhabi BiswasOindrila TagoreRadhamohan BhattacharyaRahmat a middle-aged fruit seller from Afghanistan, comes to Calcutta to hawk his merchandise and befriends a small Bengali girl called Mini.
- DirectorShantaram Rajaram VankudreStarsShantaram Rajaram VankudreSandhyaUlhasProgressive, reform-minded young warden gets permission to take six surly murderers from prison to dilapidated country farm, to rehabilitate it and themselves through hard work and kindly guidance.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsSoumitra ChatterjeeSharmila TagoreAlok ChakravartyThis final installment in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy follows Apu's life as an orphaned adult aspiring to be a writer.
- DirectorHrishikesh MukherjeeStarsBalraj SahniLeela NaiduAbhi BhattacharyaA lonely housewife, who gave up her promising singing career to marry an idealistic village-doctor, begins to regret her decision.
- DirectorBijoy BoseStarsAsitbaranAjit BanerjeeSunanda BanerjeeBased on the life and work of Bhagini(Sister) Nivedita a.k.a. Margaret Elizabeth Noble a Scots-Irish social worker who came to India and became a disciple of Swami Vivekananda.
- DirectorSudhir MukherjeeStarsChhabi BiswasBiswajeet ChatterjeeTarun Kumar ChatterjeeThe film is based closely on the life of the real-life Dada Thakur, and was made in his lifetime. Dada Thakur (Chhabi Biswas) starts his career with a hand-operated press, with his wife as his assistant. Later he is joined by Nalini Kanta Sarkar, an underground freedom-fighter. Dada Thakur brings out the newspaper Jangipur Sangbad. He campaigns against social evils and earns the ire of the ruling classes. He saves a girl, Lata, from the unwanted advances of Darpanarayan (Biswajit Chatterjee), son of the local landholder. Lata joins the ranks of freedom fighters working with Sarkar. Subsequently, a reformed Darpanarayan too becomes an ardent follower of Dada Thakur and joins the struggle for India's freedom. Dada Thakur's greatest success is when he helps an ordinary man, a petty shopkeeper, get elected as the Municipal Commissioner of Jangipur.
- DirectorKhwaja Ahmad AbbasStarsDilip RajSurekhaDavid AbrahamIt was based on Abbas's own story One Thousand Nightson a Bed of Stones, which describes the struggle in the life of pavement dwellers in the backdrop of rapid industrialization.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsSoumitra ChatterjeeMadhavi MukherjeeShailen MukherjeeThe lonely wife of a newspaper editor falls in love with her visiting cousin-in-law, who shares her love for literature.
- DirectorRamu KariatStarsSathyanSheelaMadhuKaruthamma, the daughter of a Hindu fisherman, falls in love with a Muslim fish trader. However, social prejudices seem to ruin their love life and invite the wrath of their communities.
- DirectorBasu BhattacharyaStarsRaj KapoorWaheeda RehmanDulariA naive bullock-cart driver falls for a traveling courtesan.
- DirectorTapan SinhaStarsAjitesh BannerjeeBhanu BannerjeeSamit BhanjaA idealist doctor engages in a feud with the son of local landlord for the latter's infatuation over a tribal girl whom he forces to live with her despite her denial.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsTapan ChatterjeeRabi GhoshAjoy BanerjeeGoopy wants to sing, and Bagha wants to play the dhol. They meet accidentally and are helped by King of Ghosts. With newly endowed abilities, they land in kingdom of Shundi, where their adventure begins.
- DirectorMrinal SenStarsUtpal DuttSuhasini MulayShekhar ChatterjeeA lonely bureaucrat goes on holiday to a Gujarat village where a young peasant woman helps him see beyond his job and develop a newfound empathy for people.
- DirectorPattabhi Rama ReddyStarsGirish KarnadSnehalata ReddyP. LankeshNaranappa, a man born in the community of Madhwa (a community of Brahmins from Karnataka) is dead in the Agrahara of the village Durvasapura. As per the Madhwa customs, the last rites of the dead man has to be performed at the earliest. But, Naranappa was a rebel who fought against Brahminism, who ate meat, consumed liquor and also, married a Dasi (a prostitute). Since, he doesn't have any family, there is some confusion as to who will do the last rites and fire the funeral pyre. Praneshacharya, the head of the Agrahara, a devout and learned Brahmin, is tasked with providing the solution.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsSharmila TagoreBarun ChandaParomita ChowdhuryChatterji is an ambitious and self-made young man who becomes the director of the company he works for.
- DirectorAdoor GopalakrishnanStarsAdoor BhawaniBharat GopyK.P.A.C. LalithaVishwam and Sita, who resist opposition from their families, elope and marry. The unemployed couple begin a happy married life but later land in a sea of perils without a source of income.
- DirectorM.T. Vasudevan NairStarsP.J. AnthonyKaviyoor PonnammaKottarakkara Sridharan NairAn ancient temple is neglected to ruins and is tended only by the Velichappadu 'village oracle'. When the priest goes on leave, a young man takes up his job and forms a relationship with Velichappadu's daughter.
- DirectorMrinal SenStarsUtpal DuttAjit BanerjeeShekhar ChatterjeeIt begins like a fairy tale. It starts with a ritual. A bard appears on the screen and sings.Glory be the new gods who have descended to the Earth.The chairman of the gods, concerned over the problem of want, arranges for a hundred jobs. But thousands queue for them. Too many people, too many faces, too many problems. The crowd gets disillusioned and popular discontent is mobilized as word spreads that this is just another hoax. The Chorus as well as performing the traditional role of the storyteller provides the political message, juxtaposing stylization and caricature with neo-realist and documentary sequences and direct address to the camera.
- DirectorB.V. KaranthStarsM.V. Vasudeva RaoPadma KumtaJayarajanChoma is an untouchable bonded laborer in a village who is working along with his family for a landlord, as he belongs to a backward class.[2] Due to his social status, he is not allowed to till his own land, something that he desires.
- DirectorMrinal SenStarsMithun ChakrabortyMamata ShankarRobert WrightIn the 1930s, a group of tribals live in a small village in a forest in Odisha. A British administrator arrives at the village who is passionate about hunting. He befriends Ghinua, an exceptional archer.
- DirectorGirish KasaravalliStarsNarayan BhattRamaswamy IyengarJanganathA young Brahmin Vedic school student, who is from an aristocratic family, befriends his school master's daughter who is a pregnant widow. The boy tries but fails in concealing his friend's pregnancy. The widow has an abortion forced on her, has the eponymous ritual performed on her and is excommunicated. The student returns home as his school shuts down.
- DirectorBiplab Roy ChowdhuryStarsOm PuriKanhu BandhopodhyayTapti BhatachrjeeSurendra (Om Puri), having been exiled from his village in youth and established himself in the city, comes back to the news of his father's demise, reportedly at the hands of a phantom. He announces a prize for anyone who succeeds in showing him a ghost, which attracts the greed of the poor hungry peasants,resulting in the accusations of innocent people as haunted and even murders with the hope of producing a ghost.
- DirectorMrinal SenStarsSatya BanerjeeRadhamohan BhattacharyaDhritiman ChatterjeeA film crew comes to a village to make a film about a famine, which killed five million Bengalees in 1943.
- DirectorGoutam GhoseStarsMamata ShankarRobin Sen GuptaSunil MukherjeeAndi, who belongs to a the Kagmara clan, a wandering and very poor tribe, is married with a higher caste farmer Joga, and then settled down with him. After their marriage they leased some saline wastelands from a landowner and then reclaimed. They really work hard to make the land fertile and productive. But after that Joga dies and Andi continues to farm their land. Then,after a political shift of power when the ceiling laws come into play by which landowner has to give up most of his lands, retaining just 25 acres, he covets the reclaimed land, which is now highly productive. His henchman tries to vacate Andi, And they began some conspirecy even to the extent of denying her marriage to Joga, setting fire to Andi's hut and even tricking her own tribesmen into testify against her. Dakhal is the story of Andi's resistance and her attachment to the land which, by the sweat of their brow, she and Joga have cultivated and made productive after many efforts and sweat.
- DirectorUtpalendu ChakrabartyStarsOm PuriAnil ChatterjeeShyamanand JalanA labour wrongly accused in a murder of his owner's brother and a coworker is given death sentence .He decides to donate his eye and the owner learns about this falsify donation documents to provide for his blind son.
- DirectorG.V. IyerStarsSarvadaman BanerjeeM.V. Narayana RaoManjunath BhattThe first Indian movie to be made in Sanskrit. The movie follows the life and times of Adi Shankaracharya - the founder of the non-duality (Advaita) school of Indian philosophy. The Jiv-Atman or Individual Self is a mere reflection or limitation of Singular Atman in a multitude of apparent individual bodies.
- DirectorPrakash JhaStarsManohar SinghAnnu KapoorSreela MajumdarDamul (Bonded Until Death) highlights the ill effects of Bonded Labour System while narrating the story of a bonded labour who is left with no choice but to steal by his landlord.
- DirectorGovindan AravindanStarsMohan DasBharat GopySmita PatilMuniyandi (Sreenivasan), a laborer in the farm, believes and respects Shivakami (Smita Patil). Muniyandi brings Shivakami to the farm after marrying her. She soon befriends Shankaran (Gopi). But one day Muniyandi catches Shankaran red-handed with his wife Shivakami. Broken hearted, Muniyandi commits suicide. The extreme feeling of guilt forces Shankaran to leaves the place. He tries alcohol, spirituality and all other possible methods to escape from this mental torment, but fails. Finally he reaches the temple town of Chidambaram. There he finds Shivakami as a shoe keeper in the temple.
- DirectorGirish KasaravalliStarsNalini MurthyR. NageshCharu HaasanTabarana Kathe is the story of Tabara Shetty, a government servant. He serves the government till his retirement. But problems emerge after his retirement. Matters worsen when his wife and only companion falls sick.
- DirectorJahnu BaruaStarsIndra BaniaPurnima PathakGaurav BaniaA simple farmer becomes the victim of a greedy landowner in this social melodrama. Rokheshwar is forced to give up the farm his father had paid for when the landowner asks for a mortgage receipt that was never given. He loses his livestock and sends his young son to work as an errand boy to the villainous landlord. Bora's ultimate humiliation occurs when he is forced to put up political banners that espouse the virtues of the man who drove him from his land and ruined his life.
- DirectorShaji N. KarunStarsPremjiArchanaLakshmi KrishnamurthyRaghu, the only son of Raghava Chakyar was born late for him. So he poured his entire love and affection on him. Raghu, studying in an engineering college in a far away city has to arrive at his home to attend the engagement ceremony of his only sister. But he doesn't. The father starts his endless wait for his son. He daily waits at the bus stop till the last bus from the town also returns. Raghava Chakyar comes to know from newspapers that Raghu was taken into custody by the Police for political reasons. He reaches the capital and meets the higher Police officials. But they pretended helpless as there is no proof that Raghu was taken into custody. Raghu's sister comes to understand that he probably would have died in police custody after being tortured, but cannot bear to tell this to her father. The old man's grip on reality slowly slips and he starts dreaming that his son is with him.