The Early Days Of An Actor Who They Said Was A One-time Naxalite

Ali Peter John

The first time I heard about Mithun was from my friend, Anil Saari who was a leading journalist and one of the most learned critics i have known in my entire career , an intellectual giant who could write three or four reviews of one film over glasses of hot tea and hundreds of Charminar cigarettes and who had made Guru Dutt popular all over the world .

Saari told me about a young man from Calcutta called Gauranga who was a hard core Nexalite. And was wanted by the police and had escaped to Poona , where he joined the FTII to pursue a course in acting , which was his way of hiding from the police . Mirnal Sen had seen him at the Institute and had selected him to play the leading role in his film,"Mrigayaa"which had Mamata Shankar , the daughter of the renowned classical dancer Uday Shankar as the leading lady the film ,had won Mithun (who had taken the name Mithun for films and may be even to hide from the police) had won his National award for best actor in the film and had come to Bomaby to chase his dream to pursue a career in acting in Hindi films...

I first heard about Mithun when some aunties in Sherly village in Bandra and Versova talked about a struggling actor who had no place to live in and who went without food for several days at times .

It was around this time that he had joined Helen , the well-known dancer of Hindi films whose career as a dancer in films had come to an end and she had taken to starting her own dance group which performed in different places and mostly in Bombay.Mithun had now taken the name , Rana Rez because he didn't want to use his film name as the dancer in Helen's Nites .

It was these Helen Nites and his dances in them that were going to play a vital role in grooming his future . Some of the leading filmmakers saw him perform at these Nites and kept a track of him....

But , before the big time could hit him , he did some walking and insignificant roles in films like "Phool khile ai gulshan gulshan"starring Rishi Kapoor and "Do Anjaane "with Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha and directed by Dulal Guha , who together with his son Gautam were to play important parts in Mithun's life in Bombay.They gave him his first comfortable room in their own house on Pali Hill, a fact Mithun was not going to forget .

Then came the first big hit for Mithun with a film called"Pyaar Jhukta Nahi"with Padmini Kolhapure and Danny Denzongpa in stellar roles .It was the first superhit for Mithun ....

God or destiny or luck had more surprises in store for him.His next was "Disco Dancer"directed by B.Subhash who was a one - time assistant of Kishore Kumar and was one of the directors who had seen Mithun Dancing as Rana Tez at the Shanmukhananda Hall during the "Helen Nites ".The film with Disco music by Bappi Lahiri and the dancing magic of Mithun broke all box-office records and Mithun zoomed to dizzy heights of success and was a known name not only all over India , but even in different parts of the world , especially in Russia where his popularity was compared to the popularity and success of Raj Kapoor.Mithun continues to rule the hearts of three or four generations of people in Russia . "Disco Dancer"is still a cult film and Mithun is a legend about whom books are being written and young students in Universities are working on theses for their doctorates ....

There was no looking back for Mithun after "Disco Dancer". He also found recognition as an actor and won the National Award for Best Actor thrice and for the best Supporting Actor once for "Agneepath"in which Amitabh Bachchan won his first National Award for Best Actor his humility amidst all the honour and success was difficult to believe.He even loved it when he was called "The poor man's Amitabh Bachchan" and retorted by saying,"Apun kiya cheez hai , bhidu woh guru log hai re baba".

By now Mithun , had made so much money that he could afford to buy a huge apartment in a building called "Garden Court"opposite "Basheeron"where subhash Ghai , his colleague at the FTII had his office of Mukta Arts on two floors.Mithun could even afford to have more than a dozen dogs of different breeds from the world over, with several people and veterinarians to take care of them . Whenever he was free he took his dogs for a walk and the entire area came to a standstill .

Mithun had some great love affairs before he got married to the one time actress , Yogeeta Bali , who was the fourth wife of Kishore Kumar .They had two sons and had adopted a little girl from kolkata and had given her the name Dishaani .

Mithun had bought a huge holiday home near Madh Island close to the holiday home of Subhash Ghai .The highlight of this place were the kennels built for every dog .There was an entire staff to look after his dogs .I once asked Mithun the man who had asked my senior colleague Z.A.Jauhar to buy him his lunch before he could give him an interview , why he was so good to his dogs and what he said still lives in my mind.He had looked very sad and said "Ali, ye log insaan se bahot zyaada wafadar hote hai ".

He had friends in every political party like Jyoti Basu in Kolkata and Bal Thackeray , Vilasrao Deshmukh and Raj Thackeray in Mumbai.Bal Thackeray was very fond of him and Mithun called him "Daddy". But , the Tiger and Mithun were said to have had major misunderstandings and Mithun took one big decision and moved out of Mumbai with his family and literally founded a parallel industry in the hills of Ooty and even started his own five star hotel called "The Monarch"in which he had his own house where he lived with his family .

Mithun was nominated to the Rajya Sabha , but he like most of the other stars who went to Parliament couldn't do anything significant . He came back to Mumbai in the interest of promoting his son , Mahakshay as an actor, but his move did not yield any good results .

He is know nearing seventy and as reports and rumours say he is not keeping very good health but what Mithun has done for thousands of workers and his own staff , including his secretaries , make -upman and drivers is something no star or any big celebrity has done.A Mithun Chakraborty walks this world just once in a way and I must say that my life has grown richer by walking with him.