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Journalism of Courage
SANJAY DUTT is not Destiny8217;s child, rather he is a man marked by destiny. He couldn8217;t have asked for a finer lineage 8212; parents who made it big the right way, epitomise sound values and believe in doing their dollop of social good as well; a huge chunk of saleable talent that sees him getting box-office draws on the opening day some 20 years after his first film; a family that is supportive of anything he does. He has had his share of dalliances and two marriages, wives who let him be his own boss and decide whether he wants to be by their side or not. He has a child who he claims to love immensely.
So much in one life and you would think no man can ask for more. Wrong. Dutt not only asks but begs for trouble to come his way. For well over 25 years of his 43-odd summers in this world, he has walked on the very edge of law, tempting the law-keepers to drag him into their net again and again, making it obligatory on his ageing, ailing father to set aside his own ideology and principles to save him from prison cells.
While minding his P8217;s and Q8217;s at Lawrence School in Sanawar, he apparently left out the R8217;s: Rectitude was forgotten very easily, almost as soon as he left behind the school uniform. Flings with drugs, charges that he possessed illegal weapons and ammunition, named in the serial blasts case, cosying up to people wanted by law for some of the worst offences in the country, alleged defiance of the TADA court 8212; the list is long. And, by all intents, Dutt wants to makethis list longer, never mind his father.
Often in the past, Sunil Dutt fighting through the pain, has explained that his son8217;s problems go all the way back to the loss of his mother to cancer. 8216;8216;He has never been able to get over it, he was very close to her,8217;8217; Dutt Senior has said. That and other personal losses like the death of his first wife, also of cancer, could indeed have left the junior Dutt without an emotional anchor. But does that also explain why he picks up his cellphone while on way to Shirdi Saibaba temple and talks incessantly to a certain Chhota Shakeel, exactly five days after a court trying him in the bomb blasts case exempted him and other accused for two months? That8217;s foolhardy or plain stupid.
8216;8216;He8217;s Sanjay capable of making mistakes but he will not harm anyone in the country intentionally,8217;8217; says Dutt Sr. Maybe not, but unintentionally, under the influence of people who want to destabilise the country, the younger Dutt would be a prime handmaiden, willing to walk down the rough road for his 8216;8216;friends8217;8217;, unaware or uncaring of what it means to the society, his family and his own future. Increasingly, Rhea Pillai Dutt, model and Art of Living teacher whom he proposed to and married one Valentine8217;s night, is out of the picture, doing her own thing. And increasingly, Dutt is working with a select few 8212; Mahesh Manjrekar, Afsal Khan, Sanjay Gupta 8212; loyal friends who are also suspected of nurturing links with the underworld.
But, as film analysts point out, Dutt has never worked with say the Rajshris or an industry figure like Yash Chopra, rarely with a craftsman like Subhash Ghai, occasionally with filmmakers who sail in clean waters. Ghai8217;s Khalnayak, of course, brought him unending accolades but even in that story, he was the fugitive on the run. Ghai subsequently dropped him from Trimurti and has only now signed him for Ek Aur EK Gyarah.
His most memorable film in 20-long years is Vaastav, directed by Manjrekar, in which he plays a benevolent don. The film was ironically produced by Chhota Rajan8217;s brother Deepak Nikhalje. Ironic not only because Rajan and Shakeel8217;s mentor Dawood Ibrahim are friends-turned-foes but also because in the Dutt-Shakeel conversation taped in November 2000, Shakeel talks of 8216;8216;giving a sequence like the Bangkok one8230;we will give the whole sequence8217;8217; for a film underway, obviously referring to the Bangkok bid on Rajan8217;s life.
In a star column that he wrote recently for a website, Dutt said: 8216;8216;Everyone goes on about why I work with Sanjay Gupta and Co. Why not? These are directors who have faith in me and to top it they are my good friends8230; nobody had heard of Manjrekar before Vaastav but I did the film because I got along with him. I can never go up to Yash Chopra or Subhash Ghai and say 8216;sir, please take me in your film8217;. It8217;s below my dignity.8217;8217;
Well-known directors have shied away from casting him because as one says, 8216;8216;The problem with signing Sanjay Dutt is you don8217;t know if the film will be completed or run into problems. He8217;s a lot less unprofessional than say Govinda or Salman Khan but you don8217;t know what controversy he8217;s going to get into next which may result in your film being incomplete.8217;8217;
So, Dutt continues to work with his best pals and together they make movies on the underworld, not of the Ram Gopal Varma genre but the hit-kill-loot genre that must have lines like Main tera voh haal karunga8230; and so forth. A handwriting expert decoded Dutt8217;s signature and remarked that 8216;8216;he has the tendency to make incorrect judgements, is very gullible and may be influenced by the advice of others8217;8217;. This was well before the current bout of legal trouble. But Dutt is known to do anything for his friends who in turn say that he 8216;8216;is really a child at heart8217;8217;.
When he was jailed in the bomb blasts case in 1993, the street outside Arthur Road Jail in central Mumbai was lined with people, many kept coming back to catch a glimpse of 8216;8216;a boy so wronged8217;8217;, who was beaten up like any other accused, kept with hardened criminals and chained to his bed. Public sympathy, misplaced or otherwise, was overwhelming. Father stepped in, fought all the way to the Supreme Court, pleaded with political enemies like the Thackerays, and got him released on bail in 1997. One of the bail conditions was that Dutt would not keep contact with the underworld. He may or may not have followed it since but he was caught 8212; and taped 8212; by the prosecuting agency in November 2000. It could turn the tide of his life again.
Sanjay Dutt, it seems, has a penchant for doing things he is not supposed to. He tempts his destiny and almost never gets away with it. Yet, he doesn8217;t learn. A prominent filmstar, now a Union Cabinet Minister said in 1993, when asked if Dutt could have conspired in the bomb blasts: 8216;8216;Don8217;t be ridiculous. He doesn8217;t even know what the Bombay Stock Exchange is.8217;8217; Such people usually stay clear of trouble8230;but then Dutt8217;s is another story.
