Even Shatrughan Sinha, the hero of Yash Chopra’s Kaala Patthar (1979), may not have imagined how the film would stand him in good stead 43 years later. The film, based on the 1975 Chasnala mining disaster of Dhanbad, had strongly resonated with the residents of Asansol-Raniganj colliery belt then. And even today, the people of Asansol consider Mangal Singh, the coal worker played by Sinha in the film, who dies saving his colleagues from a flooded mine, their hero. And that’s what is connecting Shatrughan Sinha with Asansol’s 16 lakh voters as he campaigns for the forthcoming elections on a Trinamool Congress ticket. Little wonder then that the TMC has screened the film 35 times in Asansol since campaigning for the parliamentary by-election began. At the end of every show, a small message is delivered in Bengali in Sinha’s own voice to the effect that he was now ready to don his reel mantle in real life.
As the actor had stayed in Asansol during the film’s shooting, he is being projected as someone who closely knows the place, its people and their language. Meanwhile, the BJP has been painting Sinha as an “outsider” while seeking votes for its candidate from the constituency, fashion designer and sitting Asansol Dakshin MLA Agnimitra Paul.