On the heels of the film awards came an announcement from the Government of India regarding The National Awards for cinema. The ceremony ha...

On the heels of the film awards came an announcement from the Government of India regarding The National Awards for cinema. The ceremony had been conceived by the government to honour films made across India, on a national scale, to further the cause of Indian art and culture. The Ministry of Information and Broadcast would directly send invites to winners to attend the ceremony that would take place at the Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi, and President Rajendra Prasad was to present the awards. It separated itself from the Clare Awards by considering films made in all languages, not just Hindi. Zoravar was certain he would receive an invite. As the date came closer, and he did not receive one, he began to abuse the institutions of awards itself.
“Let my Devdas release,” he would stay in a drunken stupor, “then these fuckers will award me.” He had begun to drink in the mornings too. Zoravar’s defence was that he was preparing to play the greatest alcoholic Indian art had ever produced. On the day the national awards were to be announced, Zoravar had woken up earlier than usual, mostly because he had barely slept the previous night.
When the newspaper came, he turned...