By Jagmohan Singh Barhok
“Mehar Mittal-Remembered on His Birth Anniversary”
There is no denying the fact that Mehar Mittal enjoyed a prestigious position in the Punjabi film circles. Comedy, it would be conceded, always remained the back bone or mainstay of Punjabi cinema. Although there were many comedians available and some were in the waiting list, Mehar Mittal continued to be the most popular of them all. Indeed, he had become synonymous with the Punjabi cinema. Almost every Punjabi film has Mittal in one role or the other, mostly , as a comedian. His entry on the screen made the audience burst into laughter. A graduate of Law from the Punjab University Mittal was popularly called the Dada Kondke of Punjab. What Kondke is to Marathi films Mittal is to Punjabi cinema, with the difference, perhaps, that unlike Dada Kondke, Mehar Mittal was tall, handsome and soft spoken. Interestingly he has also played the hero in about half a dozen films.
Mittal took part in a play called “Laadla” which later culminated into ” Maa Da Ladla ” film produced by the comedian in 1973 with Vijay Tandon playing the hero. later worked together in “Teri Meri Ek Jindri”. Mittal’s other notable films include the likes of “Mamla Gadbad Hai” (There is some thing fishy about it), “Long Da Lishkara” ( The gleam of the nose pin), J. Om Prakash’s maiden Punjabi film “Aasra Pyaar Da” ( Banking On Love), “Jeeja Saali”, “Do Madari”, “Putt Jattan De” ( The sons of Jats), ” Udeekan” ( A long wait),” Jatt Te Zameen” , “Ucha dar Babe Nanak Da”, ” Sardara Kartara & ” Sawa Laakh Se Ek Ladaoon”.
Beginning with too small an amount of rupee 5, Mittal’s remuneration swelled to 5000 per day plus a standby Taxi at his disposal in 1980s, revealed Mittal to me during the shooting of one of his films some time in 1985-86.
When we wrote an article about him in Screen in November 1984, there were severe criticism from different quarters as many disapproved of our comparing Mittal with Dada Kondke. A Haryanavi film maker also jumped into the arena with his claim. When we hit back strongly mentioning that the Haryanvi cinema is only few films old where as the Punjabi cinema is as old as Hindi cinema is. Editor Karanjia sent us letter after letter to justify our claim. When we cited example of “Alam Aara” released in 1931 & super-hit Punjabi movie “Pind Di Kudi” directed by K. D. Mehra ( shot in Calcutta) released five year later in 1936,the antagonists were eventually silenced. With this controversy Mittal’s popularity rose sky high. Later Devi Shankar Prabhakar, Director, PR & Languages Haryana invited me to Haryana Secretariat for tea and even at lunch at his Sector 8 Panchkula residence. I wrote about his actress wife in two national tabloids including Dada Kondke’s interview published in Sun who met me in Bombay during my visit on the sets of a Marathi film.
The noted comedian Mehar Mittal invited me to his Four Bungalow flat next to Bus Stand on one of the upper floors of the building & accorded VIP treatment to the surprise of her daughter. He ordered snacks from a nearby restaurant. I met Buta Singh Shaad & Pahlaj Nihalani the same evening.
Mehar Mittal’s importance could well be judged by the fact that before booking a Punjabi film the distributors asked the moviemakers if Mehar Mittal was in it. Mehar Mittal was not included in the script of “Chann Pardesi” for the producers trio thought they had a bigger star cast to boast, not knowing that Amrish Puri, Om Puri & Raj Babbar were not yet established actors & so was Rama Vij & Rajni Sharma. Resultantly, the distributors refused to book the film. It was only later when Mittal was included in the film, the distributor principally agreed to go ahead with the film.
The comedian has over three score films to his credit. Besides, he he also worked in some Hindi movies too like “Sohni Mahiwal”, “Gopichand Jasoos”, “Jeene Nahi Doonga” & Dharmendra starrer “Pratigya”. Like Dada Kondke, however, double entendre remained Mittal’s forte, too.I t is difficult to say which of the two set the trend for the use of double meaning words in films, because Mittal had been on the film scene longer than Dada Kondke, so to say. Mittal turned religiously spiritualistic towards the end of his life.
