Birthday Special: MITHUN AUR UNKE “INSAANI KUTTON” KI JHUND -By Ali Peter John

When Mithun Chakraborty first came to Bombay, he only had the National Award which he had won for his performance in Mrinal Sen’s “Mrigayaa” - Ali Peter John

He had no contacts whatsoever in the city of dreams and lived on footpath and depended on meals from his friends from the FTII who had already established themselves and on aunties from villages like Shirley Rajan in Bandra and Yari Road and sometime with his friend Gautam Guha and Putul Guha (Partha Guha), the sons of the veteran filmmaker Dulal Guha who also gave him a small place in their apartment in Nibbhana where some other rising stars like Navin Nischol, Anil Dhawan, Vinod Mehra and Yogita Bali also shared the place.

He hardly found any work and did bit roles in films like “Do Anjaane” and “Phool Khile Hai Gulshan Gulshan”.

He also did dance shows with Helen as Rana Rez which gave him a decent living. The incident in which a Hindi film journalist asked him for an interview and he asked for a ‘thaali’ in return because he had not eaten for three days, is a well-known story now.

He got his first B&W photograph taken by an 80-year-old photographer Mr. J.H. Thakkar, who not only didn’t charge him any money, but also predicted a very bright future for him.

Mr. Thakkar’s prediction showed all the signs of coming true when Mithun signed “Disco Dancer” which was followed by many other successful films. And Mithun was called “the poor man’s Amitabh Bachchan” which was enough to make him delirious with happiness.

Mithun got his first terrace apartment in a building called Garden View which was bang opposite “Bashiron”, the huge office of his FTII colleague Subhash Ghai. Mithun now shifted his entire family to Mumbai and they all lived together at Garden View.

The family soon had a large number of additions and they were a number of dogs of almost every breed. These dogs were personally looked after by Mithun who had a large staff to take care of them, which included caretakers, veterinarians, dieticians and doctors from different parts of the world.

Every afternoon, MIthun took time off to take his dogs out for a walk and there was silence and even cheers all over the area.

Mithun became the individual who paid the highest income tax and in keeping with his status, he did found a new house for himself where he had cannels for every dog and a staff to look after every dog.

People from different parts of the country and even the world visited Mithun’s cottage in Madh Island only to see how he looked after his dogs.

I was one of the regular visitors’, even though I didn’t have a very cordial relationship with dogs. And one evening I asked Mithun, the question that was barking at my mind.

I asked him why he loved his dogs so much and his answer drove me both deaf and dumb. He said, “Yeh log, Insaan Se Kahin Jyaada Pyaare Hain Aur Inme Jo Insaaniyat Hai, Woh Insaanon Mein Ho Hi Nahi Sakti.”

Mithun has passed his love for dogs to his son Namashi (he will be making his debut as an actor soon) and he has 76 different breeds of dogs and he knows each of them by their first name.

YEH RISHTA KYA KEHLATA HAI…?