My family called me a psycho case: Mir

He had stayed up the night before. But when we met Mir the next afternoon, his eyes glowed bright with energy. And a quiet confidence that only comes out of knowing that he's among the best in the business.
Anchor, actor, funnyman ��� he has Kolkata laugh and cry with him every morning on his breakfast show. But behind every smile are hours of hard work and Mir confesses to being under medication when he was unable to switch off from what he loves most ��� radio.Before completing 20 years on air today, Mir opened up on tickling Kolkata's funnybone and all that's landed him in trouble.
Excerpts:
You were still a college student when you joined radio, way back in 1994...
What my life today is, is actually because of a washerman ��� Ramsaran Paswan. He doesn't know what he has done for me. On a monsoon evening, 20 years back, my mother said, 'Go and collect the laundry'. I used to stay on Ripon Street. That area would get flooded easily and I remember taking a rickshaw. Ramsaran gave me the clothes wrapped in an old newspaper. I had the habit of reading news items even from a murir thonga. As I looked at the paper, I saw this ad that read: 'FM is now coming to Kolkata. Those who have the gift of the gab, kindly apply.' The newspaper was seven days old and the interview had a seven-day limit. That was the penultimate evening. My logic told me there was no point in applying. But my school friend asked me to give it a shot. I didn't have a tape recorder at home. I went to my friend's place, recorded my voice in a cassette and landed the job in the next few days.
What did you record?
I rapped like Baba Sehgal. I tried to relate Baba Sehgal to Kundan Lal Saigal. There were other such odd things...
Do you have a childhood association with the radio?
In 1990, before the World Cup, I coaxed my father into buying a television set. The notion back then was, kids don't study if there's a TV at home. So I would listen to radio a lot. I had this weird habit of taking aluminium bars, connecting wires to them and linking it with someone's television antenna to listen to radio stations around the world. I was this Dilton kind of a character. It was the sheer joy of listening to radio that led me to experiment. I would listen to Ameen Sayani's show and note down which was the number one song in a particular week. I would listen to Srabanti Majumdar a lot. I would tune into audio dramas to get away from the boredom of not having a TV at home. There was no distraction and I was solely hooked on to television. When I started out, the concept of RJ was not popular. If I said I was a radio jockey, people would ask, 'Where is the horse?' I pursued other courses, but eventually dropped out from all for the love of radio. My parents were livid and my relatives didn't know what I was doing. Finally, on August 5, 20 years back, I bought a portable radio set, so that my parents could hear their son's voice on radio the next day. They were mighty happy, though still not convinced...
Did you go back and thank Ramsaran, the washerman?
I met him once. He was not interested. He asked, 'Ka hua?' I said, 'Apne mujhe jo paper diya tha usse mujhe naukri mil gayi.' Disinterested, he replied, 'Ussi mein tha parchi? Chaliye bhala ho gaya'.
When did you first taste popularity?
In 1998, when I joined TV as a newscaster, people started connecting my face with the voice. At that time, there were not many radio jockeys. Tarun Chakraborty, Chiranjeet, Debraj Roy, Chhanda Sen would read news both on TV and radio. But the belief was that a radio voice should not be exposed on television. I remember a lady called Kakoli would call me up very often on my show. All she would say is that my voice sounded like her son's. She never said who her son was. When I joined TV, I received a letter from her one day. It read: 'I have stopped listening to you. I will not call you ever and you too don't try to contact me again'. The face she had imagined with my voice was that of her son, who she had lost in an accident. I loved to read her letters and equally painful was the hurt... Even today, when I put hours of hard work into TV shows, events, my band, I still feel uncomfortable if I'm not in front of the microphone at 7 am. Television is like one of my many girlfriends, while radio is my wife. I will never leave radio for television.
Radio, which gave you immense popularity, also put you into trouble because of yet another skill of yours ���mimicry...
Of all the people I have mimicked, it was only Rituda who objected. His was a very different reason; he said I might be hurting the sentiments of homosexual people ��� people who are very special cases. I had asked him back, 'Are you a representative of the homosexual clan?' He said it's not about them. I wanted to know who he was rebuking me for ��� people who have effeminate voices but are not homosexuals or the homosexuals. He did not have a proper answer. Today, when he is no more, I don't want the topic to resurface again.
Before the infamous showdown that happened on his show, Ghosh & Company, he had seen you mimicking him at events...
He had seen me at events, where he laughed and played along. So, it was a major shock. It was like going for a dinner with a bouquet of flowers and a wine bottle in hand. But when I rang the doorbell, I was punched very hard. There are many who said I was very subdued on the show. No, I wasn't. There was a portion where I had put my foot down, but it was edited out. I admit I was taken aback. When he punched me so hard, I buckled in pain. I didn't even know if it was happening for real. It's like PC Sorcar telling me, 'You have hurt all the magicians when you mimicked me'. He never said that. He had, in fact, spoken in my favour. He said, 'I enjoy Mir's mimicry'.
Was Rituparno Ghosh sorry about the incident later, as both of you bonded again after a year?
He wasn't sorry. In 2005, when Mirakkel's Season V was on air, the channel invited Rituda. We had not spoken to each other for a year. I had stopped mimicking him. Rituda had said, 'You do other people's mimicry and make a living out of it'. So, I wanted to know if I was capable of things other than mimicry. When Rituda joined me on the sets, I met him in the makeup room. Before that, people called him up and told him things that I had never said. People had also called me up and said things that he did not utter. Bumbada (Prosenjit Chatterjee) had tried to mediate, but it did not work out.
I had received threats from people in the industry, who said, 'Don't take this too far. You are a small fry We'll get your Artists Forum candidature cancelled'. So, there he was in the room and I knocked on the door and asked, 'Rituda ashbo?' We hugged and immediately after that he asked me about my health and I asked him about his. Not a word was spoken about the incident. Rituda, being a thorough professional, had accepted the invite without saying once, 'Mir ke bolo phone korte'. Though many said, 'Oh, Mir went to his place, touched his feet and said sorry.'
Today, when every word you speak is taken note of, do you feel the pressure?
People don't like certain things. They never liked it when I started out. I had to create my audience. I was a prankster back then, I am still one. And I know where to draw the line. People have told me some of the things that I said could have taken other dimensions. But when I asked, 'Did you enjoy it?', they said they did. I'm free to express my opinion in a democratic country as long as I'm not forcing it on people.
You were in the eye of a storm when your 'jhinku mamoni' comment referring to the Tollywood beauties at the IPL victory celebrations at Eden Gardens didn't go down well with the film industry...
I was upset by whatever was going on at Eden Gardens. But the post was in good humour. I'm not against anyone. My wit and sense of humour are different from other people's. I'm not saying it's superior. It's lousy as hell, but it's too sharp even for me to gauge at times. No one called me in person after the incident.
They have moved on, so have I. I have great regard for people who were present that day at Eden and I felt their talent could have been utilized in a better way. It's sad that they don't feel the same. Some even asked what I would have done if I was anchoring that show? I said as far as my duties as an anchor are concerned, I had to continue, but there would possibly have been a limit to which I had stretched my capabilities. There were people who were mishandled outside the stadium. The law and order situation went out of hand and the respect ratio for artistes inside was zero. Artistes were used as fillers.... If something like that happens to me ever, I will hold my head high and walk out.
With your play, Buddhijibi, you have poked fun at political parties and your remarks ��� though in good humour ��� often ruffle many feathers. Aren't you scared of landing yourself in serious trouble?
Not yet. People who think I'm anti-establishment, are free to think so. But it's not true. I'm no messiah trying to resurrect our society . Just as Cameron Diaz ��� no matter how much I love her ��� will never hold my hand and say, marry me, likewise, I'll never expect myself to join politics. And no one's instigating me to make such remarks. I am a grown-up. I am greying very fast. Just that I can't keep shut. I have to say something. Even if I don't say anything, my fingers do the talking on social networking sites. In Buddhijibi, a political party has been lampooned. But then, the opposition too has been lampooned. It's about people who change camps for personal benefits. That's what the play protests against.
How many have you seen changing camps around you?
The inspiration is very strong. I am not talking about people who were red and are now turning green. There are many who are green and might turn red tomorrow. Today , there's nothing called no man's land, no neutral mode; though I feel I am neutral. I'm not angry about the discrepancies around me; I'm amused. For those, who don't like my show, there's always a switch off button.
With so much on your platter, do you switch off ever?
I had to go to a psychiatrist three years back. While watching a funny movie, I would never laugh. When asked, I would say, 'I didn't find it funny. If it was said in a different way, it would have been better.' My family said, 'You are becoming a psycho case'. I was under medication for some time. I had to train myself to be entertained when it was time for entertainment. It's a problem with all performers. And my family has suffered because of me. Today, Muskan (my daughter) bonds better with her mother. She says, 'You are so busy entertaining other people. We have had our share of entertainment'. With your family, you can't be wearing a garb. It's my naked time. There I fall back terribly. Whichever country I travel to, you give me the best of entertainment, but I will still cling to a radio. I have lost the innocence of a listener, who would just blink and stare. I can't have fun anymore...