Super star Mamooty has bagged the Asianet Lux Malayalam Film Award for the best actor for his role in the film "Arayannangalude Veedu." At the same time, Narashimam, starring the other Malayalam superstar, Mohanlal, clinched the best film award and got noted filmmaker Shaji Kailas the best director award.Asianet Film Awards are selected through a gallop poll in which top fivefilms are short-listed and a five-member jury takes the final decision.

This year - the third year of the award - the panel of selectors was headed by veteran filmmaker Kumar Sahani and also included director Sree Kumaran Thampi, Mallika Sukumaran, P. Valsala and Shobhana Parmesawaran Nair.The Asianet lifetime award for achievement in Malayalam films has been given to the music director K. Raghavan. Samyuktha Varma has been awarded the best actress award for her roles in Mazha and Madhura Nombarakattu. Incidentally, she has also been selected as the best actress by the Kerala Film Critics for the same roles.

Special jury award for those films, which have not been released yet, but censored during the year, went to Sayahnam of Sarath while K Raghavan bagged the special award for overall contributions. Both will get richer by another Rs 50,000 each.On the other hand, young and upcoming actor Biju Menon and veteran character artiste K.P.A.C Lalitha have been selected as the best supporting actor and actress, respectively.

Vocalists K.J. Jesudas and Chitra have bagged the awards for the best male and female play back singers, respectively.Asianet officials said that the awards would be presented at a function to be held at the Galfar Auditorium in Kochi on March 1. Asianet will also honour M K Kamalam, Santha P Nair and Sukumari for their outstanding contributions in the field.

The other awards include:

> Best supporting actress: K P A C Lalitha (Santham)- Rs 25,000;

> Scriptwriter: T V Chandran (Soosanna) - Rs 25,000;

> Child artistes: Master Kalidas (Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal) and Baby Manjima (Madhuranombarakkattu) - Rs 25,000;

> Cinemotagraphy: K G Jayan (Soosanna) - Rs 25,000;

> Editing: Bhoominathan (Devadoodhan) - Rs 25,000;

> Art director: Suresh Kollam (Madhuranombarakkattu) Rs 25,000;

> Sound recording: Lakshmi Narayanan (Santham) - Rs 25,000;

> Make-up: Pattanam Rasheed (Soosanna)- Rs 25,000;

> Latex new face special award: Laxmi Gopalaswamy (Arayannangalude Veedu) - Rs 20,000;

> New playback singer: Asha Menon (Mazha);

> Special mention of the Jury: Vani Vishwanath (Soosanna) and Kavya Madhavan (Kochu Kochu Santhoshanangal).