For a star son like Sanjay Dutt career starts right on the day when he is born to parents like – Sunil Dutt and Nargis. The Dutt family in the early 80’s was amongst the most famous Indian families. Dutt couple ruled the cinema screen and was taking their first steps into politics and social welfare. Sanjay started acting at a young age with his first film being Rocky. The only adjectives that can be used for Sanjay Dutt in Rocky would be lean, thin, petite and nothing to match being a “hero”. It was soon disclosed that he was doing drugs and then started his trial for life. There seems to be no looking back for the actor and crime walking hand in hand. Toiling for over a decade to break the image of being a drug addict, junior Dutt landed himself into the next maze of being involved in the 1993 Bombay Blasts.
From being a star to being called a terrorist, his world turned a full circle in just one night. He was in jail for over 18 months in 1993 and the media lived on scoops from his tales. Every now and then there would be glimpses of his walking in and out of the courts.
As a young Indian girl, Bollywood certainly delighted me, though I remember little about the entire prison and trial part about Sanjay, what I remember clearly are his early movies. Khalnayak was a turning point in Sanjay’s life as he was arrested right after this movie. It worked against him in certain ways because his image across the entire country came out to be that of a villain because of the negative character that he had played in the film. An obvious reaction that the masses and the perturbed people of Mumbai gave was to hold Sanjay culprit for everything that had happened. There were no grounds on which he could be saved. The courts realized the fact that he had been an addict previously. The only saving grace was the dignity and prestige of his clan.
Once out of jail, Sanjay worked seriously on his career. He did some great films like Vaastav, Kaante, Mission Kashmir, Shootout at Lokhandwala and the 2 Munna Bhai films – Munna Bhai MBBS and Lage rahi Munna Bhai. These two pictures again changed the graph for Sanjay. He started getting known as Munna Bhai. His real life character started getting reflected by his reel life character – that of a soft hearted, loving and honest goon.
So now there is a seesaw in the minds of his audience. While his die hard fans (who are innumerable) loved Sanju through out his trial and suffering period… even those who at one time had openly come out against him, started looking at him with a sympathetic eye.
Between all this, Sanjay lost his mother, Nargis, at a very young age. Later, his first wife of nine years, Richa Sharma, died due to cancer just two months after their daughter Trisha was born. He got married for the second time in 2001 with model Rhea Pillai. But the two got divorced within four years. The final blow came when Sunil Dutt, who had stood by Sanjay through thick and thin, died in 2005.
After a seemingly endless trial ended some months back with the court declared that though Sanjay was not directly involved in the blasts and was not a “terrorist”, he had unlicensed ammunition in his custody which belonged to the underworld. The court pronounced an imprisonment of six years for the actor.
No one knows till now weather Sanjay was involved in the blasts or not? If he was, did he do it knowingly or unknowingly? If he knew what he was doing, why is he set free every now and then? If he was innocent then why has the court announced the punishment?
For me Sanju is a great actor. Those who lost their near and dear ones to the Mumbai blasts can never forget it and move ahead… but the biggest question that remains unanswered is – Despite the fact hat no one saw Sanjay Dutt plant any bomb, no one was killed at his hands directly, why is ONLY Dutt being dragged in and smacked? What about the others, who’s involvement in the blasts has proves???
Sometimes it really seems true that he is paying a tax for being famous.