Many cinema lives of Mithun Chakraborty

Mithun Chakraborty’s career as an actor was launched in 1976 by Mrinal Sen in Mrigayaa, an art-house film that won him the National Film Award for best actor. In the next decade and after, he carved out his unique space in mainstream cinema in Hindi and Bengali. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest State honour in Indian cinema, recognises the distance he has travelled, between art-house and popular films and across cinema cultures.

Years after Mrigayaa, dressed in a dazzling metallic silver jumpsuit, Mithun arrived on the stage of Disco Dancer (1982) with guts and glory. It was an explosive package of entertainment with dancing, singing, drama, and disco and Mithun — essaying the role of Anil/Jimmy, who rises from rags to riches — carried this with fervour. He redefined the male dancing body of mainstream cinema and ushered in a different charm — his pelvic thrusts in the song, “I am a Disco Dancer”, and passionate acting reimagined flamboyance and machismo for the Bollywood hero. Towards the 1990s, the actor’s visibility in Bollywood marked a cultural shift after many of his box office releases tanked. But there was a subversion of the popular aesthetic that Mithun spearheaded with releases like Loha (1997) and Gunda (1998). Amidst all this action, song and dance, he won a second National Film Award for best actor with Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Tahader Katha(Their Story), in 1993 and six years later, a National Film Award for best supporting actor for playing Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in GV Iyer’s biopic, Swami Vivekananda.

While one may or may not take to his assertive screen presence, there is no denying that Mithun marked a cultural moment in Indian cinema, which is what the award acknowledges.

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