The Temple Of The King
My favourite actor man, no two ways about it!!!! My obsession with this guy started off in true drug addict fashion. Had heard my parents and relatives derisively dismiss his movies in my (lonely) childhood. I was intrigued. What had the man done to deserve such scorn? He was but a movie star right? It couldn't hurt to try his movies at least once right? That was when it all started. The first movie I had seen was Disco Dancer. After that, I survived on whatever DD used to dish out. I was fascinated by the way he went about things, and the fact that he had a personality like none other. Then one fine post-pubescent day, I found out that I could mimic the guy, on a errr...lonely afternoon. No looking back type of thing since then. Every available Mithun movie was good for consumption, since this was my mimicry 'boni'. Watching these movies is an acquired taste, since they operate in a parallel universe. Some avatars of this legend are as below.
Mithunda - The Emperor Of Entries:
The one stand-out feature in all Mithun movies was his 'entry'. The dialogue writers I guess would sweat it out till a fantastic burst of creativity (most probably alcohol induced) would purge out the required stuff. The baddies would always ask "Kaun hai be tu?!", to be followed by Mithunda ominously spewing any one of the below:
1) Main hoon jurm se
nafrat karne waala...
gareebon ke liye chiraag
tum jaise kutton ke liye jwaala
2) Main gareeb ke chiraag ka jinn hoon
3) Mere seene mein itna lava hai...ki sunoge ko tumhare kaan ke parde
jal jaayenge..tumhare haathon se hosh ke kabootar ud jaayenge
4) Mera naam hai Inspector Barkat Ali. Jiske naam ke aage barkat ho...aur ali ka saath
ho..uska tu kya bigadega?! Yaaeeee...."
5) Tere naam ka kutta paalu...ladki ko jaane de
6) Tere jaat ka baida maaru...ladki ko jaane de
7) Teri aapdi ki topdi...ladki
ko jaane de 
8) Tony! Tony Fernandes naam hai apun ka
9) Truck Driver Suraj! Raasta mera baap aur truck meri maa (or some such)
10) Dikhne mein bevda, bhaagne mein ghoda, aur maarne mein hathoda
11) Asli mard, jo tum jaise auraton ko choodiya pehnane aaya hai
12) Main hoon Do Numri, ek se jyaada, teen se kam
The above were enough to send yours truly (along with countless other millions I'm sure) into paroxysms of joy.
Method Man Mithunda:
Mithunda's dilaogues were very character-specific.
For eg, if he was playing a Mechanic in the movie, the threats would be like
"Abbe Kaalia, lagta hai aaj tera carburettor apun ko saaf karna hi padega!!!"
and the friendly banter would be like
"Arre o chhokri, dimaag ke injun pe zor daal, varna zindagi ki gaadi bandh pad jaayegi!!!!"
If he was playing a Bootlegger,
"Masterji, tum ne mere thaili dekhi,
thaili ke andar ki baatli dekhi,
baatli ke andar ki sharaab dekhi,
lekin mere andar ki majboori nahi dekhi."
If he was playing a Taxi-Driver,
"Galli Galli badnaam ho gaya,
Mere pyaar ka meter down ho gaya!!"
Method acting much before anyone here had heard of it.
Mithunda - The Romantic:
Some gems from the Great One at his romantic best:
"Abbe aye chhokri, yeh le
chaarana...chal 
chaarane mein ek pappi de. Chal."
"Abbe ajeeb museebat hai! Saali, aata hai to bolti
hai sataata hai, aata nahi to bolti hai pyaar nahi
karta!! Mausi, teri beti ko samjha kya?!"
"Abbe o angrez mem ki baachi,
yeh tamatar tere gaalon se zyaada lal hai kya?!"
"Abbe
o memsaab! Sharaafat se kal waapas ghar chali aana. Nahi to tumhe beech bazaar
ghaseette huey le jaaonga. "
"Ittha-pittha-tha-re-vistha!! Ab gayi na bhains paani mein!"
Not your conventional chocolate boy as you can see. Ideal for ladies who like their diamonds in the rough.
Mithunda - The Espouser Of Technology:
I'm not even going to mention the Gunmaster-G9 series here, since it is full of those Bond-type gadgets. Neither am I going to mention codeword encryption algorithms("Unka code bhard hoga 'Zum-Zum'. Haamara code bhard hoga 'Zam-Zam'"). There's just one movie which will say it all. It's called 'Diya Aur Toofan' and it stars God and Madhu.
This movie shows stuff which even Hollywood would never dream of in a million years. A brain transplant. In the present. No futuristic yarn this. Mithun is bumped off by the baddies, and Madhu is his love interest. Poor Madhu loses her sanity when she learns of the sad news. What next? The family neurosurgeon, played by Kader Khan, has a (heh-heh) brain wave. He thoughtfully takes out Mithun's brain, and keeps it in a Oven-Toaster-Griller with a label called 'Deep Freeze' plastered on it. He then studies Madhu's case, and proceeds to replace her brain with Mithun's. Madhu wakes up, remembers the baddies, kills them all. I was half-expecting Madhu to wake up, do a couple of pelvic thrusts and say stuff from points 1-12 mentioned above. A good thing she didn't, otherwise the plot would have been really hard to believe...
One might laugh at the spate of corny releases during the past few years, but what the hell, terrific entertainment value. Most importantly, those movies made sound economic sense. Shot on a meagre budget and within extremely tight schedules, these movies needed very little to be declared as profitable investments. Even if they ran for a week, the parties concerned broke even at the least, and usually made quite a profit. For a guy who has won three National Awards for acting (and a Filmfare Award too for 'Jallad'), I personally feel that his true potential could not be tapped and he got stuck with the "eh! kyaaa re?!" kinda roles. For buried deep within the inanities and the surreal, trippy atmospherics, there are scenes which are proof enough that the man CAN act. Really well.
My Fav Mithun Movies:
- Charnon Ki Saugandh
- Commando
- Dance Dance
- Agneepath
- Swarag Se Sundar (My Kannadiga genes aree not to blame, that's really how Swarg
is spelt in the movie..)
- Loha
- Surakshaa
- Waardat
- Shapath
The earlier version of this page...
PS : Thanks to this guy called Great Bong for inspiring me to move my lazy ass and change this page ka getup. Long overdue (since 2001). For (ahem) another fantastic Mithun page, visit the below link...
The
Temple Of The King