cypress international film

Courtesy: Cinesouth

Friday, March 31, 2006

It's unbelievable! After Sivaji Ganesan, actor Jeeva has won the best actor's award on an international level- at the Cypress International Film Festival. At a Cairo Film Festival, Sivaji Ganesan and 'Veerapandia Kattabomman' were chosen best actor and best film. After 45 years, actor Jeeva has done Tamilnadu proud. The Cypress International Film Festival is an important festival and 200 films from several countries were screened. Out of that, 11 films including 'Ram' were in the contest for best film award. From Asia, only the Tamil film and a Chinese film were among the 11.

Ameer, the director of 'Ram' attended the film festival at Cypress on invitation from them. Yesterday, the announcements of the award winners were made. The best award went to Jeeva and best music to 'Ram' much to the delight of Ameer. Jeeva was informed on telephone immediately and he fell at his parents' feet for their blessings. This is the first award that Jeeva is getting and this being an international award, his happiness is doubled.

The Cannes Film Festival is held in higher esteem than even the Oscar awards. The question arose about the presence of commercial actors like Aishwarya Rai in a serious film festival that according to many had brought down the value of the festival as one for serious/art cinema.

If Jeeva had been given the national award for best actor, it would have created a lot of debate. The reason is, there are many actors who have given a better performance than Jeeva in this category of films. But Jeeva won this award at an international film festival. So, there are people who may consider this as a justification for criticizing the international film festival. Whatever be the case, there is no doubt that this is an honor for Tamil cinema!