New Delhi, Sep 7 - Southern cinema scored big at the 55th National Awards Monday with the Tamil film 'Kanchivaram' adjudged best feature film and Prakash Raj best actor for his performance in it, while Adoor Gopalakrishnan bagged best director for the Malayalam film 'Naalu Pennungal' and Uma Shri best actress for 'Gulabi Talkies' in Kannada.

This is Gopalakrishnan's ninth National Award -- his film also wins best editing award for B. Ajith -- and third for Tamil star Prakash Raj after 'Dhaya' (special jury award in 2003) and 'Iruvar' (best supporting actor in 1997).

Girish Kasaravalli's 'Gulabi Talkies' about a Muslim midwife is also the best Kannada film in the awards for 2007 announced here by S.M. Khan, director of the Directorate of Film Festivals and jury members Sai Paranjape, Ashok Viswanathan and Namita Gokhale.

Bollywood gets a mention too with Aamir Khan's directorial debut 'Taare Zameen Par' getting best family welfare award. Lyricist Prasoon Joshi is best lyricist for 'Maa' from 'Taare Zameen Par' about a dyslexic child. The song also gets Shankar Mahadevan the National Award for best playback singer.

Shah Rukh Khan starrer 'Chak De! India', about a humiliated national level hockey player who steers the women's team to international victory, has been awarded best film in overall entertainment. Sabu Cyril wins the best art direction award for 'Om Shanti Om'.

Veteran choreographer Saroj Khan gets an award for the song 'Yeh Ishk Hai' from 'Jab We Met'.

Anil Kapoor's 'Gandhi My Father' has won three awards - Feroz Abbas Khan, the director of the film, gets the National Award for best screenplay and Darshan Zariwala bags best supporting actor for portraying Gandhi, the father of the nation who strove for a normal relationship with his son.