Yet the individuals who have torn Mithun’s performance to shreds in many of hit films and those who wolf whistled from the stalls in appreciation of the man whose gyrations on screen made him a star overnight, have one point in common. Both have immense faith in his histrionic skills. It is this ability of the North Calcutta boy that helped him to get under the skin of any character.
Small wonder, Mithun effortlessly shared screen space with Amitabh Bachchan in Ganga, Jamuna, Saraswati a potboiler showing no trace of the simplicity and anger which were part and parcel of his role in his debut film. Such acting prowess did not go unrewarded. It catapulted him from mean streets of north Kolkata to the pinnacle of stardom in what was still called Bombay.
Mithun Chakraborty undertook a long and tortuous journey to stardom. He had started with a bang. Mrinal Sen ushered Mithun before the arc lights in Mrigaya in 1976.
Essaying the role of a tribal who kills a money lender for having abducted his wife, one does not recall another actor who could have put in a better performance in his debut film. But then Mrigaya bring an art house film, the film honchos in Bollywood did not take the tall, dark young man from Kolkata with the seriousness he deserved. After all, not many an actor trying his luck in the big film studios of the “city of dreams” have won a best actor award for his debut venture on screen in national film award ceremony.
Not one critic or biographer can say that M.
