This journey started two years back when I was in Bombay and I wanted to meet Mithunda (Chakraborty) because my book on Soumitra Chatterjee was on the verge of release and I needed a blurb from him. He invited me on to the set of one of the reality shows he was doing with Karan Johar and Parineeti Chopra. I met him after a long gap of 10 years because in the interim he was out of circulation. I asked him whether he was interested in doing a Bengali film. I found it very touching when he said: ‘Tui jodi amake bolish tahole na korbo ki kore bol?’ Then I told him that I had thought of making Kabuliwallah but I will only do it with you. I could sense from his body language that he was interested. For me, if he would not agree to play the role, I would not do the film. I had no immediate plans of doing Kabuliwallah. I was supposed to do another film.
Two years later, when I was chatting with Shrikant Mohta, I told him that my dream is to make Kabuliwallah one day with Mithun Chakraborty. But I also told him that I will only write the script once Mithunda agreed. And that is how the journey started. I called Mithunda and told him that Shrikant was also very interested to collaborate with him. I asked Mithunda: ‘Tumi amay bolo whether I should write the script or not.’ Then he told me to start writing it. So then I knew that the project was on.
I started my research after that. I interacted with the remaining kabuliwallahs in Calcutta. I wanted to pick up their body language, the way they speak, their diction, their intonation. After I had written the script Shrikant, Abhishek Daga and I had gone over to Mithunda’s house in Madh Island. He is a wonderful cook and he had rustled up a sumptuous lunch. We were laughing and pranking around but after lunch when I started reading the script, he became a different person. His concentration changed and he was listening with full attention, looking at my eyes intensely when I was reading.
After that, I came back to Miami and kept working on the script. I had initially thought of keeping a dialect coach for him because the way the Afghanis speak is very different. I had called him from Miami once and he had started reciting dialogues from the film over the phone and I was just stunned. I asked him how he was doing this, so bang on with the accent and the intonation.
Then he told me that he had had a friend in his days of struggle in Bombay in the ’70s. This Afghani friend Jamal had given him refuge and used to cook for him. Jamal had full faith in his abilities when he was struggling not just for work but basic survival. And he (Mithunda) told me that ‘when you told me to play Rahmat, Jamal came to my mind. My memory is still fresh — how he (Jamal) would speak, deliver a line and that is what I am doing now.’
A very organic actor
Jamal had an asthma problem. When we were discussing our Rahmat, we thought that would be a very interesting variation. In effect, Mithunda is playing two roles in the film, when his asthma attack comes and when he is normal. We wanted to include that in the script. When I came to Calcutta for my pre-production, I went over to meet him. He was shooting for Dance Bangla Dance then. I met him in his hotel room and we started jamming. Mithunda is a very organic actor. There is an optimal amount of preparation but he is a fantastic combination of spontaneity and preparedness. He made certain observations about Rahmat’s dialogues that I included in the script. Each time after the initial pleasantries, I saw him transform into Rahmat in front of me.
Mithunda wanted to record his dialogues first and wanted me to hear them and tell him what I liked and did not like. I had some objections — how I was seeing Rahmat and how his dialogue delivery was projecting Rahmat were not always in sync. We discussed a lot about his getup which was necessary to showcase Rahmat’s authenticity, how his clothes would be weathered. I remember having an altercation when I felt it was not weathered enough. Rahmat has travelled so long and he is really poor so it was very important that we get the look right.
Those jamming sessions were a learning experience for me. I learnt so much about his preparation for when he played Ramakrishnadeb and from Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s film Tahader Katha and mainstream films like Agneepath. He went back to his film institute days and told me about a class on ‘observation’ which most of the students skipped because they were skeptical about what they would get out of it. He said he had loved that class and picked up how to observe life and incorporate it in the roles he played. His memory is razor sharp, he remembers what happened to him three or four decades back and he pulls that from memory and uses that in his characterisation. We discussed a lot on the craft of acting and some current performances like Joaquin Phoenix in Joker.
What he enacted was pure magic
As the shoot approached, the frequency of our conversations increased. During shoot, he used to get up in the morning at five o’clock and think about the scenes. Before that, we had talked for six months about each scene. I also used to get up very early and loved those messages and phone calls. Once he called his Afghan friend in Los Angeles one morning to find the exact intonation of a particular word, how a Pashtun would enunciate that word.
During the days of shoot, I used to go to wish him good morning in his makeup van and our connection became almost telepathic. I used to think about certain things that I would want to discuss with him and vice versa. He understood me so well. When I got into his make-up van, he would say: ‘Ki bolar ache bol? Tui mathay kichu ekta bolbi bole eshchish na ajke.’ I would say: ‘How did you understand?’ He said: ‘Ami bujhte pari. Amake bolte hobe na aar tor.’ I would have important things to discuss which I wasn’t clear about how he would enact. I used to egg him on and plant a seed in his head and would go on to shoot other scenes. When I would come back, he would show me how he had resolved the problem.
I remember the last scene of the film. When he was rehearsing those dialogues, he started to cry much earlier. Suppose there is a graph of how I see his portrayal in the iconic last scene, he used to cry while delivering the scenes too early which worried me. Typically what he does is seclude himself in a corner and does not mingle with anyone before an important scene because he needs his personal time for preparation. For the last scene, he came to shoot and was having fun with Abir and Sohini. I found something off in his preparation. I had told my production guys that I did not want anyone to be near him. It was very different this time. How he eventually enacted the last scene was just unbelievable. The entire shooting unit was just in awe and some started crying. Abir who was in the scene told me that he couldn’t control himself.
Mithunda has always been a spontaneous actor. He delivered something in his delivery of the last scene which was not prepared. Later, I asked him what he had done because it was not his usual preparation. He told me that when he was practicing his dialogues with me in the make-up van, he realised that he was breaking down too early. As an actor, he wanted to make the audience cry without having to cry himself or else where is his control over his process? It was then that he decided to clear his mind by doing all kinds of funny stuff. Having practiced with me so many times, the scene with all its nitty gritties was already ingrained in him. And then when we got on floor, he said his mind was clear and in his subconscious, all our conversations were there. And then what he enacted was pure magic.
I will remember this entire process with Mithunda all my life. His dedication for more than six months of his life to this role was just unbelievable. I interacted with him so many times. We had our fair share of disagreements and arguments. But I could always sense his absolute dedication and the honesty with which he approached this role of Rahmat which I believe will remain iconic in the history of Indian cinema.
After his look test when he was leaving the SVF office, I could hear him murmur to himself: ‘Mithun Chakraborty will challenge Mithun Chakraborty.’ It’s now for the audience to be the ultimate judge.
