By Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

A strange void had been created in the Indian film industry after the sudden demise of Amrish Puri, as the status to which he had raised the portrayal of a character actor in movies after movies, bringing it on par with those etched by Balraj Sahni or Moti Lal could not be filled even though lots of actors tried to do so. But the search now seems to have ended, unwittingly, and the person whom the industry can now look forward to stand in equality with all the actors has been found in the form of Mithun Chakraborty who has excelled beyond all the expectations in bringing out the character of the editor in the film GURU.

And a Director of the caliber of Mani Ratnam was indeed needed to find out the character actor who can essay the roles that have gone into oblivion and invigorate the dimension of acting, by accentuating the third element in the movie. After all, how long can a Hrithik or a Shah Rukh for that matter continue to portray the characters of negativity, they are heroes and they will have to return to their core specialization.

Mithun Chakraborty had gone into oblivion after his dance drama style films lost their honeymoon with the audience but he had turned the film making into a profitable venture by acting in C grade films, which were very cost effective to produce and gave him good returns. The same continued for some time, but an actor after all aspires to be appreciated by the class and the mass on a pan India basis, and for an actor like Mithun Chakraborty who had been a National Award winner in the very first film MRIGYA to continue in inconsequential movies for such a long time had to come to an end at one point of time. He had started making his presence felt in the Bengali film industry and was performing under the able guidance of the likes of Aparna Sen and Rituperno Ghosh etc., and had been winning encomiums as well. Probably, Mani Ratnam must have seen one of these performances of Mithun while shooting for YUVA in Kolkata and then would have decided to cast him in GURU.

Mithun's preparedness for the role, as also his willingness to don the mantle of a character actor was evident from the deglamourised approach that he brought into his characterization, and one of the singular pointers was the close crop hair that he adorned, it may have been a wig also. But for Mithun to be ready to portray a character which does not accentuate his hairy faculties was a sheer acknowledgement of the fact that he is graduating to grab the opportunity that has come his way and position himself into the role of a character actor of eminence.

The industry also should take a leaf out from this preparedness of Mithun and start creating strong roles for him as it had been doing for Amrish Puri, after all when the titans clash on the screen then it is the audience which gets the visual treat. He should not be considered a dancing star any more, as was being done by Ravi Chopra where he wanted to cast him in a song for his new film BHOOTNATH, and which fittingly enough was declined by Mithun. Mithun beckons the industry, and an actor who was never given the dues in his prime as an actor, may be, now needs to be accorded the same as an atonement of the past, as he is an actor who cannot just be left to fend for himself as it is more the loss of the industry than the actor himself.