Reads the title of the editorial in ‘Indian Express’. It says Mithun Chakraborty’ s Dadasaheb Phalke win is an endorsement of a long & arduous journey to stardom. Even before the 100 crore club became a benchmark, he was the first star to have been there, done that.
Mithun Chakraborty was the first star on a disco high, dressed in glittering pantsuit, lip syncing to Bappi Lahiri’s ‘Koi Yahan Nache’ & to Vijay Benedict’s ‘I am a Disco Dancer’ a runaway hit. B. Subhash ‘s ‘Disco Dancer’ 91982) grossed over Rs 90 Crore in the estwhile Soviet Union alone.
It proved his versatility. He had already won a National award for his debut film , ‘Mrigayaa’ (1976). I remember his thin frame & the hurt in his eyes as he is presented in the court.
The film industry in Mumbai was a tricky terrain. In the decades that followed, he turned the reputation on it’s head, choosing projects that guaranteed mass appeal & box -office returns. It turned Bengal’s Mithun da into a working -class icon holding his own in the era of the Angry Young Man.
He can mould himself seamlessly into the demands of the tapori or the elite. He has played Ramakrishna Paramhansa in G V Iyer’s ‘Swami Vivekanand’ ( that won him his third National award) with the same ease he slipped into the skin of MLA Fatakesto in Swapan Saha’s movie, spawning a second generation fandom that looks past the political vacillations that took him from Naxalism to TMC to the BJP.
He has spoken about his hardscrabble beginning-going hungry & sleeping on pavements, facing rejections. After the Dadasaheb Phalke award, he said-‘a man from literally nowhere, a nobody, made it’. Could there be a stronger pitch for talent & perseverance ?
He is the record holder in the Limca Book of Records for 19 films as lead actor in 1989, which is still unbroken in Bollywood. In ‘Agneepath’ , he won the Filmfare award for Best Supporting Actor in 1990. Krishnan Iyer MA, ‘nariyal paniwala’ was iconic. He worked alongside Amitabh Bachchan in this film. Watching them together was a delight. With Vikram Gokhale as Commissioner Gaitonde, a bonus.
He was a star of our youth & an icon, then. He had the ‘midas touch’. Still has.
Kudos to his work.
Asian Entertainment 