POLITICS-INDIA: Star Appeal to be Tested in Coming Poll

By Sujoy Dhar Reprint | | Print |

Sujoy Dhar

KOLKATA, India, May 8 2001 (IPS) - Indians and many foreign audiences’ most enduring memory of Bengali actress Madhavi Mukherjee is her performance in the title role of the film ‘Charulata’, a black-and-white gem produced in the early sixties.

Mukherjee shot to instant fame as Charulata, a lonely late 19th- century upper-class Bengali housewife, in the internationally acclaimed film by director Satyajit Ray. The movie was based on a story by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

But almost four decades later, the restive, ennui-driven lady of ‘Charulata’ and one of Bengal’s most revered actresses, is in a new role altogether. Today, she is busy campaigning for the state assembly of Jadavpur constituency in this eastern Indian metropolis, formerly known as Calcutta.

But Mukherjee is not the only actress in the cast of characters in the May 10 elections, which are being held in the five Indian states of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

From the arc light and greasepaint schedule of the Tollygune film studios of Kolkata to the real-life action on the campaign trail of the sun-baked streets and stinking alleys are also Mukherjee’s colleagues like Tapas Paul and Nayana Bandopadhayay.

Mukherjee, popular Bengali film hero Tapas Paul and small-time actress Nayana Bandopadhayay are all nominees of the Trinamool Congress, a party of breakaway Congress founded in 1997 by former Indian railway minister Mamata Banerjee.

The party is a serious challenger to the ruling Left Front, a coalition of nine parties led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M). The front has had an uninterrupted 24-year-old rule of West Bengal, which has 4.86 million voters.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) itself is fielding another star attraction as a candidate — the 1998 Asian Games gold medalist runner Jyotirmoyee Sikdar.

The entry of film and sports personalities has added a new twist to politics in eastern India, which was until recently unaffected by this trend common in other parts of the country, especially in the south where the entry of film stars into politics has been institutionalised.

Bollywood, the multi-million dollar Hindi film industry located in Mumbai, has long thrown up actor politicians like Amitabh Bachhan, Sunil Dutta, Vinod Khanna, with fluctuating fortunes.

In the south, from former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha, her mentor M G Ramachandran to the present chief minister Karunanidhi, all have film background and translated their cult status as performers into votes.

But this trend in eastern India is recent, largely because areas like West Bengal for instance are one of the country’s most politically conscious states and where star appeal is not expected to be translated into votes as much as it would elsewhere in the country.

“Bengal is not like South India, where the stars enjoy cult status. Here, many people may worship them for their acting prowess, but they are too clever to vote for them only because they are stars,” says political analyst Krittivas Mukherjee, also eastern India correspondent of India Abroad News Service.

At the same time, he says their popularity is an electoral advantage. “More people are coming out to listen to them as they have star appeal and that may convert into votes,” he adds.

Mukherjee, pitted against none other than West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, says: “One of the reasons for my entry into politics is to do something for my own industry which is plagued by several ills. Our chief minister has done nothing to solve our problems.”

“I am ideologically at loggerheads with him, not personally. I am one hundred percent sure of a win. People want a change,” says the actress.

Mukherjee earlier launched a scathing attack on Bhattacharjee, saying he did nothing for the state’s film industry as cultural affairs minister, a portofolio he also holds. She accused him of “neglecting” his constituency Jadavpur, where civic amenities are poor.

Actor Tapas Paul claims his plunge into politics is influenced by the charisma and crusading spirit of firebrand Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee.

“This is a new beginning for me and I am knowing the world lot more in the course of my campaign through the numerous lanes and bylanes of my constituency Alipore (in Kolkata),” says the actor, cashing in on his celluloid image of a simpleton and a do-gooder.

For Paul, one of the protagonists in the film ‘Uttara’ (‘The Wrestler’) that won the best film award in Venice Film Festival last year, the campaign polemics veered around more on a promise to improve the living conditions of the people in his constituency than the ailing Bengali film industry.

Still, with huge crowds gathering to catch a glimpse of the star from close, a part of Paul’s campaign has also been pleasing the autograph hunters.

“The demands of the people are not much. They want water, electricity and a clean environment,” says Paul, whose wife and television anchor Nandini is also campaigning for him — and even kissing her husband publicly in a scene reminiscent of the last American presidential election.

While for Tapas Paul and Mukherjee, the rough and tumble of politics is a new arena altogether, Bengali actress Nayana Bandopadhayay (Das) had her baptism into electoral politics in a narrow-margin defeat in a 1998 by-election from the Bowbazar constituency in central Kolkata.

The wife of Trinamool Congress leader and party spokesman in Parliament Sudip Bandopadhayay, the actress banks on issues like education and water crisis as she hops from one house to another seeking votes.

“I think the electorate in my constituency would give a fitting reply to the Left, which has done literally nothing for the area. There is an acute water problem, street lights are missing and unemployment is also high while the condition of the schools is also very pathetic,” says the actress, whose Left opponent is a folk singer with a communist background, Ajit Pandey.

As for her actress background bringing in votes, Nayana points out: “I don’t think it would help me in anyway being an actress. The people are not fools.”

Indeed, educationist Papri Dasgupta of Jadavpur in Kolkata, says people should not vote for movie stars unless they a track record of public work. “I don’t remember Madhavi as an activist. She may be a good actress but I will not vote for her because she has a star appeal. If I vote for her, it will be for the party she represents.”

But Bikash, a slum resident of Alipore, where Tapas Paul is a candidate, believes the actor is honest. “We have voted for politicians for long and they have noe done much for us. Let’s give actors a chance,” he argues.

“This is a different track altogether,” explains 1998 Asian Games gold medalist Sikdar, the Left Front’s candidate in Ranaghat constituency in Nadia district, some 70 km from Kolkata. “But I am confident of a win as my predecessor has done nothing in the past five years.”

“I will build a stadium in my constituency to promote sports if I win,” Sikdar promises.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, the main ruling coalition of India’s federal government, has also fielded soccer coach Amal Dutta as a candidate.

As the election day approaches, the voters of Bengal are waiting to see how the stars shine in electoral politics.