Post ‘Cobra'

Whatever the impact of the strange and laughable dialogues by the actor on the paying audience at the time of the release of the movies, these utterances from a podium from where an election speech was to be made did not sound convincing from a visibly ill and tottering actor

- Sujit Bhar

NATIONAL award-winning Bollywood actor Mithun Chakraborty’s advent on the election scenario prior to the West Bengal assembly polls was a spectacle of sorts. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had thought that this once-famous actor would be able to sway the emotions of at least a section of the electorate with his filmy dialogues and secure for the BJP a niche among the voters. As it turned out, this ailing actor’s less than intelligent comments from the stage mostly generated laughter, of the wrong kind. If there was a flop as big as Mithunda’s once-revered standing in the world of films, this was it. The Trinamool Congress (TMC), of which Mithun was once a member, was merely amused.

One would have forgotten the misadventure of this Mrigaya star as a joke, had one rather enthusiastic TMC supporter not gone to the police and complained that some of the “sayings” of the actor, strange as they were, could have incited the post-poll violence in the state. The police—at the Manicktala police station in north Kolkata—lodged an FIR on the basis of that complaint and it has been reported that the police has already conducted a virtual questioning of the star over these controversial speeches that he made during the election campaign.

Recently, Mithun filed a petition before the Calcutta High Court, seeking suspension of the case against him for alleged incitement of post-poll violence through his filmy speeches.

The Court directed the actor to provide his e-mail address to the state so that he can make himself available for a video conference for questioning.