President of India Pratibha Patil on Friday presented the national award for best actor to Dhanush for the film Aadukalam. The actor, who is the son-in-law of Superstar Rajinikanth, was presented with ‘Rajat Kamal’ and Rs 50,000 cash.

Aadukalam has won six awards in various categories. The film brought the best director award to Vetri Maaran, best actor award to Dhanush, best screenplay (original) award to Vetri Maaran, best editing award to T E Kishore and best choreography award to V Dinesh Kumar. It also received special mention for Sri Lankan actor V I S Jayapalan.

Others from Tamil cinema who were honoured by the President at the 58th National Film Awards were Saranya Ponvannan (best actress – Thenmerku Paruvakaatru), Vairamuthu (best lyricist – Thenmerku Paruvakaatru), Thambi Ramaiah (best supporting actor – Mynaa), Sabu Cyril (best art direction – Enthiran) Srinivas M Mohan (best special effects – Enthiran).

Addressing the 58th National Film Awards function in New Delhi, the President said cinema was a very powerful medium for conveying messages and it was necessary for promoting constructive and value based thinking for a culturally rich country like ours.