One actor-candidate Moon Moon Sen makes a tall claim before the elections in West Bengal

The Trinamool Congress ( TMC) candidate for the Bankura seat in West Bengal and screen diva Moon Moon Sen has given the most coherent answer yet to the question that has arisen in many minds about the alacrity of political parties across the board to fall back on actors when they are at a loss for appropriate candidates, “We know how to communicate with people, how to handle ourselves and draw a huge crowd.”

She could have added the ability to dissemble, but discretion may have made her skip that part of the thespians' list of talents. Given the recent evidence that some career politicians are unable to display even the three crucial attributes she mentioned convincingly, the parties' “filmi” tactics seem logical.

Of course, some of their actor nominees appear to be hamstrung by the lack of plots and scripts, not to mention the absence of “retakes” when stumping. However, the daughter of the legendary Suchitra Sen may have set the cat among the pigeons — at least in the TMC — by her second robust assertion, “So why even ask what an artiste is going to do in the political field? They're probably going to be better at it than politicians themselves.”

Now that is probably one twist in the screenplay that no actor's political directors will countenance, particularly as multi-star casts are not favoured by most parties.