Ranchi: A film on the life and work of tribal ideologue, the late Ram Dayal Munda, by the Ranchi film-maker duo of Biju Toppo and Meghnath has been adjudged the best film in the biographical/historical reconstruction category of the national awards.

Both, the directors of Naachi Se Baanchi, and its producer Films Division will be awarded the Rajat Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 50,000 at a ceremony where the 65th National Film Awards would be presented next month.

"I came to know about it when a Films Division official called me up around noon," said Meghnath.

His compatriot Toppo said they would receive the award on May 3.

The film, a special screening of which was organised for The Telegraph before it was premiered, tells the story of how a tribal boy learnt to play the flute from his grandfather and grew up to become a scholar and an ideologue whose socio-political campaign at various platforms strengthened the statehood movement.

It also captures the deep humanism of the multi-faceted Ram Dayal Munda, the much-loved anthropologist, linguist, folklorist, music exponent, academic and writer who became a Rajya Sabha MP and was also conferred the Padma Shree.

"We are really grateful to Munda ji's son Gunjal, who holds the film together as the narrator, and his mother Amita, the Chicago-based Hazel Lutz (Munda's first wife and an American national), his associates and friends who helped us," Meghnath said.

The film-makers said that when they all went to the USA, Hazel helped a lot with the shooting there.

Naachi Se Baanchi is Toppo and Meghnath's third non-fiction film to bag a national award. Earlier in 2010, they got two awards for their films, Ek Ropa Dhan and Loha Garam Hai.