New Delhi (India)

Recently, a survey organized by the Indian Film Institute, New Delhi, it’s found that ‘NEWTON’, DIRECTED BY AMIT V MASURKAR HAS BEEN ADJUDGED THE BEST FEATURE FILM of the Year 2017 while the film’s lead protagonist Rajkumar Rao has bagged the Best Performance (Male).On the other hand, Vidya Balan made it to the Top of the IFI list for Best Performance by an Actress in 2017 for ‘Tumhari Sulu’ directed by Suresh Triveni.

This survey having 14 top Film Critics of the country has rated top ten feature films of 2017 with three best performances each by Male and Female actors. As a directorial debut of actor KonkonaSen Sharma’s finds the second spot in the ratings in ‘A Death in the Gunj’ while Masurkar’s ‘Newton’ emerged a clear winner by more than 50 percent margin.

The full list of feature films is as under:

1. Newton (Hindi): Directed by Amit V Masurkar
2. A Death in the Gunj (English-Hindi): Directed by KonkonaSen Sharma
3. Mukti Bhavan (Hindi): Directed by Shubhashish Bhutiani
4. Lipstick Under My Burkha (Hindi): Directed by Alankrita Srivastava
5. Anaarkali of Aarah (Hindi): Directed by Avinash Das
6. Trapped (Hindi): Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane
7. Ajji (Hindi): Directed by Devashish Makhija
8. Take Off (Malayalam-English): Directed by Mahesh Narayan
9. Secret Superstar(Hindi) Directed by Advait Chandan & Jagga Jasoos(Hindi): Directed by Anurag Basu
10. Hirakata Prasanga (Kannada): Directed by Ananya Kasarvalli and Atanu Ghosh’s Mayurakshi.

RAJKUMMAR RAO HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED THE BEST ACTOR OF 2017 for his performances in ‘Newton’ directed by Amit V Masurkar, ‘Trapped’ by Vikramaditya Motwane and ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ directed by Ashwini Iyer Tiwari.

Irrfanat, a young actor from Gurgaon emerged the clear winner with the 2nd position for his work in various films like ‘Hindi Medium’, ‘Doob: No Bed of Roses’ (a Bangladesh India co-production)and ‘QaribQaribSinglle’.

Pankaj Tripathy is the third top performer on the IFI list. He has been seen in ‘Gurgaon’, ‘Newton’, ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ and ‘Anaarkali of Aarah’ in 2017.

Best Actor 2017 (Male) Film
Rajkummar Rao Newton / Trapped / Bareilly ki Barfi
Irrfan Hindi Medium / Doob: No Bed of Roses / QaribQaribSinglle
Pankaj Tripathy Gurgaon / Newton /Bareilly ki Barfi / Anaarkali of Aarah

The Indian Film Institute an NGO conducted a survey and a Not for Profit body invited top 14 Film Critics of the country through a rating mechanism where a film rated by the Critic at No. 1 spot got 10 marks while the one placed at No. 10 got 01 marks and so on.

To pick a fair representation of films cutting across languages and regions, Critics were chosen from all corners of India.The Critics who participated in the Survey include Ajay Brahmatmaj, Swapan Mullick, GautamanB haskaran, Saibal Chatterjee, K N T Sastry, Ratnottama Sengupta, Namrata Joshi, Dalton L, AlakaSahani, Sachin Chate, M K Raghavendra, Siraj Syed, Chandi Mukherjee and Arnab Banerjee.

Speaking about the survey Manjulaa Shirodkar, Director, Indian Film Institute said,“The pan India exercise is the first-of-its-kind done in the country to reach a consensus among critics to assess the best of Indian cinema. They were asked to share their preferences and not provided a shortlist. What is heartening to note is that the films that made it to the top are those which have the backing of mainstream production houses like Disney India; Junglee Pictures, T Series, and Prakash Jha Productions.

“And it is great to see that the actors adjudged the best, be it Rajkummar Rao, Vidya Balan, Irrfan or Ratna Pathak Shah, enjoy the fan following across spectrum, blurring the fine lines between so-called mainstream and niche cinema. The IFI seeks to redefine the film appreciation dynamics in our country through this exercise.”

OF THE 52 FILMS THAT CAME UP IN THE FINAL LISTING, 3 FROM THE TOP 10 ARE DIRECTED BY WOMEN FILMMAKERS. Interestingly, Aamir Khan’s production ‘Secret Superstar’ was tied with Jagga Jasoos at No. 9 while a small budget film like ‘Harikatha Prasanga’ on the life of a Yakshagana artist directed by Ananya Kasarvallitied at No. 10 along with Atanu Ghosh’s Mayurakshi.

Each of the Top 10 films has successfully experimented with content and genre. Take Jagga Jasoos, A Death in the Gunj, Mukti Bhavan, Trapped, Ajji, Take Off and even Harikatha Prasanga. Clearly content and script are the winners in the IFI list.

The Indian Film Institute is a Not for Profit NGO is founded by Filmmaker, Film Festival Director Manoj Srivastava and Film Critic and Film Historian Saibal Chatterjee. The NGO gives free advice and resources to the filmmakers. The IFI works for the promotion of the cinematic art through Film Screenings, Film Festivals, Workshops, Master Classes, Film Appreciation courses and also funds researches on Indian Cinema.
For more information, log onto www.indianfilminstitute.org