Beyond the gobbledegook of method and spontaneity, in the realm of cinema, there is a Mithun Chakraborty school of acting that simply classifies a performance between convincing and unconvincing. Almost five decades after the dark and handsome young man emerged on the scene with his intense portrayal of a young tribal cheated by the system in Mrinal Sen’s Mrigayaa, the nation awarded his craft of conviction this week with the government bestowing on him the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, the highest honour in the field of cinema. What makes Mithun special is his perseverance and versatility.
He could be an easy breezy star as well as deliver an immersive performance without making a show of it. He could do justice to a larger-than-life Jallad (1995) or Chandaal (1998) and around the same time make you cry with the moving portrayal of saint Ramakrishna Praramhansa in Swami Vivekanand (1998) and an unsung freedom fighter Sibnath in Tahader Katha (1992) where he would squeeze out the last ounce of vanity. Here is an actor who could catch the bullets on screen and then go on to express the plight of a character who is so tortured by the colonial police that he could not control his bowel movement but when he gets freedom, the sacrifice does not seem worth it.
Opportunities did not come easy to the trained actor. After Mrigayaa, it took him two years of spirit-testing struggle to find acceptance in the commercial cinema. Seldom patronised by Bollywood behemoths, he rose above the camp.
