Apun Mithunda! koi shak??
Mithun Charkaborty. A name that makes me loose my self control, makes my blood boil and my anger go wild.
And it for all the wrong reasons. I have always adored and loved this guy. As a child I have watched more of his movies than Amitabh. He is person who has taken me into a totally different world of dancing, spygames and large than life heroism.
So the question is why am I angry at him?
It because I always felt that he has more talent than all the actors of his time. He is one of the rare actors who never got ruffled by Big B and matched him for scene to scene in the three movies with him. Such is his acting talent that he walked away with a National Award in his first movie. He is like the Indian cricket team that offers much but delivers a little.
It was in 1984 that I watched his 1979 released Suraksha. But before that he had already made me his fan with Disco Dancer. With Disco Dancer he had totally corrupted all young minds and made them awesome dance freaks. During our break time in school, my friends and I would try to imitate his dancing steps. Each evening we would be watching DD and showcasing the steps the next day. And yes, we were able to get some real hot chicks because of it.
Before Mithunda’s arrival, Bollywood had a number of Bond style movies but none of the actors had carried the role to perfection. It had to be Gunmaster 9 (G9) who could be doing a death defying stunt and the very next minutes making love to a sexy desi kudi. G 9 had made its debut in 1979 in Suraksha and returned to Indian cinema in 1981 in a movie called Waardat.
Every role he did was carried with panache like a docile person waiting to explode in Hum Paanch, a master under-cover cop in Dhuaan, as sensible businessman in Pasand Apni Apni, a bastard who wants to get women in bed before dumping them in Mujhe Insaaf Chahiye or a venomous despicable creature in Jallad
To his credit he has won National Award three times. He received Best Actor Award for Mrigya in 1977, Tahader Katha in 1993 and the Best Supporting Actor for Swami Vivekananda in 1996. The other actors who appear on this list more than one time are Kamal Haasan, Naseeruddin Shah, Mohanlal and Mamooty. Even Amitabh has not won it more than once and that was in Agneepath.
Agneepath, a movie of one man’s tirade with his destiny. If Amitabh was the centre of attraction, Mithun was the soul of the movie. Krishan Iyer M.A. wearing a white lungi with a big tika on his head carried the movie from becoming another big masala into an epic.
He has also done a lot of movies that did not require much of acting thought. But he has also done some meaningful stuff. He was awesome in Ghulami, Agneepath and my personal favorite Prem Pratigya.
From doing great movies he moved on to doing some real rubbish stuff. This was the prime reason of being totally disillusioned with him. I could not bring myself to watch him doing mediocre roles in B grade movies that did neither have any consistent story nor any other actors of repute. Every B grade would be with some buxom obnoxious female actors and illogical villains. Some of his movie titles were very funny indeed. Example Phool aur angaar, Numbari Aadmi (he actually wore a jacket in this movies with numbers written all over it) Military Raaj and more.
There has always a talk that his movies never make money. But the question being asked is why are the producers signing him up again and again? Has some rabid dog bit them that they want to loose money? The answer is a clear NO. His movies rarely loose money. They might not make much in the metros but in the inner parts of India he is still a screen god.
Mithun still has fan following which rivals some of the very big names of Bollywood. Till today most of his movies will be full house on first day. We, the elite movie-goers, scoff at a thought of watching his movies in cinema. But has anyone seen the ticket queue for his movies. Trying buying first day first show ticket at the low priced cinema’s of Dadar or Parel. I bet you tickets will be sold out before you reach there.
India’s income tax department loves to pounce on people from the movie industry. They know that there is a lot of un-accounted money is stacked up and no tax has been paid for it. In 1996 I was surprised to see half page ad in Times of India by the income tax department with Mithun as its mascot. This was on account of him being the highest individual tax payer from 1994 to 1999. It is not as if he was making the highest of money in India but because of him being the son of the soil. It was the deep embedded social responsibility that made him pay tax on every Rupee he earned. There are those who make more than him but you won’t find their names on the top 100 tax payer list.
Mithunda has traveled a lot from being a staunch Naxalite to a highly respected actor and businessman. He has come up from a very humble family. His contribution to the society is immense. Each year he was the prime sponsor for cricket tournaments and other social causes. He is not just another great actor but a great human being as well.
There are times that I wish he had done more meaningful between the run of the mills that used to be released each month. As an actor he has not totally satisfied me. There were times that I felt he has not done justice not only to his acting ability but to fans like me. And this is the reason that I have a very on-off relationship with him.
Mani Ratnam taking him in his movie Guru has really excited me. May be this will be a second innings of relationship between thousands of fans like me and him. And maybe, just maybe he will start coming in better movies. It is a long shot but am prying that it happens.
Eagerly looking for to Mithunda’s Guru and beyond. May the force be with him. Koi shak???
Tags: Acting, Bengali
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Muzzy!
I agree with you first of all, I am surprised that there are mithun fans out there; I thought I was the only one. I agree with you he is a good actor and never got the credit. He has acted in some really good movies but the reason he is not popular today is because I think lot of it, has to do with Indian cinema becoming “westernized” and everyone adapting to that way.
I grew up watching mithun movies, and they were good, understood, and watched my common public. I agree mithun movies now are not good it is because no one prob wants to give him a chance, he seems more Indian on screen, does not look like he is trying to be someone or copy something.
However, unfortunately movies, now a days that work are more westernized and catered towards outside audience. I cannot seem to identify with the characters that much; they seem a copy of western movie or TV drama. They seem less Indian. I like both Indian and western movies but I think I do not like it when people try to make or want Indian movies to be more “realistic or compare it to bollywood because they are not. If you want to see a Hollywood movie, then go see it, do not try to make an Indian movie into one. I don’t see how movies like Kank, KKHH and all the yash raj movies can be watched and enjoyed by most of India who does not fall in (below middle class).
Bottom line is I think mithun is a great actor and has made movies but now since he is not kept up with the western bug and his movies are not shot abroad. People now can’t identify with him.
Anyway good post. I enjoyed reading it.
I think Mithun realized that one can’t live just on art and decided to make it a cottage industry.. as u rightly put it .. it was sad to watch an actor of his talent getting wasted like that..
but i fear he is now going to inflict his son on us .. who has strangely been name Mimoh and looks worse than a villain of all those B-Grade movies than Mithun made..
hum bhi team mein…aa gaya aa gaya halwa wala aa gaya :d
I completely agree to wt u have written muzzy
In fact ..I m nt a Mithun da fan..bt i have always enjoyed his movies in the 80’s and the early 90’s jus like the way ppl enjoy maybe Bond movies…
It never occured to me that I m his fan maybe coz of teh inconsistency of late..
Bt aftr readin your articly I hae to admit that Mithun da has one more fan to his list !!!:d
Mithun was awesome in Agneepath. Saw it 12th time yesterday. One of Amitabh’s and Mithun’s best.
sometimes its easy to say sitting confortably in ones room writing blogs and reading them.
i was told once by a very eminent actor who was mithun’s batchmate at the institute in ‘74 said that when the results were out “national awards” he did not have money to buy a newspaper to see if he had won the award.
in such a situation do actors have choice to see in which direction he is going.
one thing i like about mithun is that he is not detached from his roots and when ever he has gone back to his roots to the soil he belongs he has won a national award.
as long as an actor is giving great perfomances all his commercial exploits are pardoned and mithun has done this time and again over great lengths of time.
the big loosers are the directors who have not used him correctly and loads of potential talent is going waste where it could be used so well.
you people hav very little knowledge on Mithundaa.. think beofre you write aboutt his great actor!!
Rom … why dont u tell us about Mithunda ?? Im sure u must be having an extensive knowledge !!
Please enlighten lesser mortals like us with ur researched info !!!! Will be obliged
As as writer of this post Rom, I would be delighted to read more of Mithuda. Is there anything wrong in this post that you feel bad about?
Kartik, hope u r keeping away from Babul this week.:d
There can not be a better tribute to mithun-da than this absolutely brilliant take by Greatbong. A must read:
http://greatbong.net/2005/09/09/mithunism-the-religion/
Pradeep, thanx for the link. Mesmerising stuff.
First of all I would like to say thank you so much for the this post and i am really pleased that you have write up on Mithun. Well I think everyone has their own opinion and they have the right to share. I used to run a website on Mithunda, recntly the site is not on the server, hope fully I will get in the server soon. Yuo will see my name every where abt on writing mithun. Muzzy mentioned he is angy with mithunda, why he shuld be angry. Mithunda did all those B or C grade movies(you called) there is reason behind that. The reason Mithunda is helping all those poor needy people to make money. He is only Bollywood actor who take challenging and help the needy people where very he can. Mithunda helped these poor film directors and producer to make quick money. He is a great human being.
I would also like to inform you all that even his B grade film does more business than all thos Sharukh Khan or Amitabh movies.. Film like Jallad and phhol Aur angaar great hit of Mithundas career….
I would not like to repeat my slef, I request you to visit this two link, hope you will know some extensive information about mithunda..
http://www.mouthshut.com/user/Romuz.html
http://www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews/Mithun_Chakraborty-925047912.html
please make a visit…thanks Romuz.
I would also like let you all know that mithunda is doing a Bengali Film called Hason Raja. This is the first international Bengali film. Its directed by UK based filmmaker Ruhul Amin.
if you want more information please let me know. I am looking forward to Hason Raja..
http://www.rajshri.com/movies/nowplaying.asp?band=low&fileID=moviesSocial96
Watch mithunda’s film online.. rakhta bandhan!!!!
rate and view much as you like!!
i love mithunda to bits he has made some fantastic films like disco dancer, pyar jhukta nahin and boxer. I am angry how he wasted his talent, after all at his peak he was bigger than sanjay dutt. right now i would love to see dada doing the sorts of roles that sanju is doing or a sarkar type film. i saw guru, enjoyed it but i wanted to see him in it more. i know elaan was a flop, but it was good seeing him after all those years in a flashy film. and lastly lucky, he just was not in it that much
You will see him in Hason Raja in different role!!!! you will love it!!
Mithun: A paradoxical Phenomenon
By: Dr. Usman Khawaja
Email: jbz7879@hotmail.co.uk
India is a very mysterious land and it is also just as varied. You have more than 100 languages and as many racial equivalents. In a land so rich it is absolutely impossible to find any chance of agreement on any single issue.
The query here is who would be crowned the best star actor in this culturally rich diversity. The names that spring to your mind are many. There is Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Kamal Hassan, Dilip Kumar and finally Mithun Chakraborty, not to exclude Uttam Kumar the predecessor king of Bengali cinema.
Now no one can deny they need to see how the racial question divides India. The northern Indians have never accepted either Bengali or Southern male stars, whatever the persona or talent. While Hema Malini,`Vyjanti Mala and Sharmila Tagore have ruled the box office, no one other than Mithun from regional cinema has ever made into the top three coveted male star positions, as far as box office is concerned never mind the artistic merits of Pyar Jukhta Nahin and Disco Dancer, they were super hits.
Mithun Chakraborty defies this so called bigotry as he was born of regional cinema and then despite his Bengali accent and looks, became one of the top most star in mainstream Bollywood without having to resort to the charity or support of Yash Chopra or Ramesh Sippy.
Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan made their super hits and all the quality movies with Sippy
Dear Muzzy, is it possible to add mithun mrigaya review the way you did for usman article paradoxical mithun? i can forward you the film review!!
Mrigaya
Mithun
Hi. It was good to read your post on Mithunda. I have a few observations I would like to share. Lets hope you find them intersting.
His most exceptional contribution in revamping the screen image of a typical film hero was the inclusion of the raw energy of a youth in the various roles played by him . Since its advent popular hindi cinema had heavily banked upon the stardom of the male and female leads. But, be it K.L. Saigal , Guru Dutt, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, or Amitabh Bacchan ( I leave out many more names worth mentioning to save space ) , none of these actors could project the natural aura of youth as effectively as Mithun had done in his first major block buster, Disco Dancer. He did not have to fake the appearance of youth, neither did he need to manufacture the gushing passions of a struggler who is hungry to make it big. His body language and performance, both projected reality. A reality that exploded in the screen and filtered into the minds of the audience as an unique experience. He created a new benchmark for the dance routines in Hindi movies by becoming a much better replacement to jumping jack Jeetandra. Hindi movies came to showcase some real stepping and inspired choreography of modern dance, thanks to the team of Mithunda, music director Bappi Lahiri and director B. Subhas.
Mithun
avijeet sarkar:
Nice infos abt Mithun Chakraborty’s days in culcutta.
Mithun’s first major hit Pyar Jhukta Nahin had come in 1985.
Love 86 was released somewhere in the mid of 1986.
It remains a question for me, why he did not dance after 1985 in his films?
Incidently Meri Jung also came in 1985 and Javed Jafery had become dancing sensation.
Do you recall any film where Mithn danced again like he did in his films of 80,81,82,83?
He later retired to type of dancing he did in Dalal but old Mithun the dancer never came on surface again after 1985. Why?
Though he was barely 37-38 year old then.
can you throw any light?
In reply to R.K :
Hey man,what about Disco Dancer? It was released in 1983, three years before Pyaar Jhukta Nahin.I also remember to have seen Govinda featured in the number
Avijeet Sarkar: Thanks Man.
First thing, I like Mithun and always have liked him since the days of Tarana, Suraksha Bhayanak etc. Even saw Hum se badh kar kaun and taqdeer ka badshah etc. stopped after Dalal. Recently and last time saw him in Guru, and again liked him.
..
Man in hindi films, its not necessary that hero should be rock star to dance. Mithun has danced in roles in Tarana like films where he is not professional dancer like Disco dancer and dance dance and even in Kasam paida karne wale ki also.
so pls leave that point that he danced when played role of a dancer.
I did not find him dancing after advent of Govinda and Javed Jafery. That was the question which I asked you. If you can find it. :-?
E L A A N
An assertive Declaration and Proclamation
This urban modern day reworking of the Sippy
Mithunda is great actor!!!
To all fans, visit mithundas site www.mithunda.com
mithunda is one of the most talent actor in the indian cemema. I wish him every success in his life and also his
son mimoha.i am the great fan of mithunda.Almost all the film film i have seen which mithunda played and also i just watch his son mimoha film jimmy , which was very nice , i like it . so mimoha you have greate furute in indian cenema
keep it up .i am with you and muthundada i love you verymuch . you are my favarout always forever.
your uttam
if it is possible please email me
uttam_kumar12@yahoo.com
Dalaal
Sapath
Chandaal
Kalia
Yamraaj
Jodidaar
Raavanraj
Zakhmi Sipaahi
Cheetah
Ustaadon Ke Ustaad
Teesra Kaun
Jallad
Aadmi
The Don
Saazish
etc…. and many more were the Great movies.
Mithun not only helped poor directors but also helped Poor n Hungry,flop Actors like Jakie Shroff, Hemant Birje , Harish , Aditya Pancholi, Altaf Raja, etc. and given them Two time Chapati
To watch great Mithoonda movies like dem watch Zee Action Max & Zee cinema
Mithoonda mahan
Mithunda ki jay
Zee action ki Jay
Mithoonda 1990’s action films ki JAy
Amitabh Bachhan has also won three national awards,,check wikipedia for details,,,,,and yes Mithun is great with acting,,it was even nice to see him in lucky,guru,and latest movie luck,,,but,,how can we forget 90s Mithun movie was hell,,and cheap, and evil for Indian art,,,,,God knows why actor of his talent ruined himself…
Hey Priya what r u saying Mithun’s 90’s movies were awesome
What an actionpacked omovies they were Walls break, Mithun jumps over like Superman.Villians were supernatural,and falls through the skies in 1 kick
excuse me ma priya amitabh has won only 2 national awards ok till date agneepath and black that too after bribing the awards commitee it was aissue that time watch the newspapers of that period
koi sak nai baba mithunda is great actor of all times recently only in 2007 he got lifetimeachievement award , and role model of the year award too ,he should concentrate more on sensibe conema ,a grade cinema now onwards