The Henchman in Focus!. Review on Sanjay Dutt

It was the year 1994 Filmfare awards function. My (then) favorite actor Anil Kapoor was performing a tribute to his “friend”, Sanjay Dutt, who was cooling his heels in a TADA jail. I cringed. Read on…

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Sanjay Dutt – the “actor” who is just being himself in all his roles. The spoilt brat who was an ex (?) drug addict (he still looks one to me, though). The guy who had powerful links in the underworld and was caught red-handed with arms (and RDX?) in his house. The Narasimha Rao government (kudos to him) disregarding the fact that his father was a powerful Congress MP, initiated action by law and booked him under TADA. The powerful lobbying by the film industry which exonerated him without any trial and the pressure on the government to repeal TADA ensured that Sanjay could walk free.

Sunil Dutt – the powerful father. His mother, Nargis, was the original politician who through some social work managed to get close to the Gandhi family and became a Rajya Sabha MP nominated by the Congress. Very soon, the couple realized that it is highly beneficial to be close to the powers that be not only for funds (which are useful for projects like cancer hospital), but more importantly to bail out their wayward son whenever he got caught in the clutches of the law. So after her death, poor Sunil Dutt was forced to take up the baton and become a Congress MP. He now perpetuates his rule by pandering to the slum votes in his constituency and taking support of the blatantly Muslim-pandering Samajwadi party. With his recent promotion as Minister for sports (the pathetic performance at the Olympics and the doping scandals notwithstanding), we can be sure he will continue to be the MP as long as he lives and he will limp on from one election to the next.

Back to the thug: Whether it is out of any admiration (which looks doubtful, but then maybe he has some personal charm), or it is out of fear, Sanju baba enjoys tremendous (but inexplicable) goodwill among his colleagues in the film industry. Almost a holy-cow!

The recent expose' where he was caught red-handed speaking on a phone to a underworld don was aired all over the media. The conversation proved beyond doubt that he had extremely close links with them. Despite such blatant evidence, he walked scot free. Nobody’s even talking about it. When a similar thing happened to the BJP through Tehelka, the media made a big hue and cry about the expose, but they will dare not raise any voice against this powerful underworld henchman.

Professional Merits (ha ha) : After reading all the above, does it matter what his professional career has been. I think it does. Because many feel that a star’s exploits in personal life can be forgiven if he has been outstanding in his professional field. So let us debate that:

Take his choice of films. He started his career with his home production “Rocky”(1980) which was a flop despite great music by RD Burman. Subsequently his entire range of films through the 1980s was forgettable save an occasional “Naam” where he had an author-backed role. (Now this type of performance can be done by anybody). In the early 90s, films like “Khalnayak” and “Sadak” gave him success as a thug and anti-hero. With his proximity to the underworld, Sanjay decided to cash in on this success.

His performances have been, to put it kindly, quite sad. He’s been around for gawd, nearly 25 years now (sheesh)! Leave aside the horrible films, even the so-called acclaimed performances of his, if you study closely, are pretty much uniform. Whether it is Naam, Khalnayak, Sadak, Vaastav or Munnabhai. He was (unintentionally) laughable as the poet (ha ha) of Saajan. Now of late, he has niched into the specialized trademark acting of playing a “tapori” or an underworld don. In virtually film after film ever since, we can see the same character under different names. I’m sure no one else can do a better job than him, since he knows so many of these characters in real life.

His dialogue delivery is the worst thing – a slow drawl in a monotonous rambling tone. Hearing him mouthing a romantic passage makes me hold my sides in pain. His droopy eyes and hulk-style gait and experimenting with weird hairdos further gives me the creeps. He followed bum-chum Salman into the buffing up and waxing routine, but with his sagging muscles, looks like a steroid pumped alien nearing his half-century.

Glorifying the underworld: What is more dangerous is a hidden agenda of glorifying the deeds of the underworld. Starting from Vaastav, his films have been financed and sponsored by the underworld. Even the scripts have been written and approved by the dons themselves who want to portray themselves as the victims of society. And using Sanju-baba’s awesome goodwill to propogate this theory.

Personal Mess: Not that it should be anyone’s concern, but his personal life is in a shambles. After a wild romance with Tina Munim, he got married to the US-based Richa Sharma who did a few roles in the mid and late 80s. But after her first child, Richa developed brain tumour only to get promptly dumped by hubby. (What a contrast to the behaviour of his father, who stood provided rock support to his mother who died under similar circumstances). What is amazing is that the film media still projects as Sanju-baba being the oh-so-tragic in romance. Now he does have a long-distance relationship with his teenage daughter who lives in the States. Which is not saying much. His second marriage to the model-turned-celebrity Art-of-Living instructor, Rhea Pillai, did not last very long. They parted “amicably” (whatever that means). Now Rhea has a new boyfriend, while Sanju is available once again for whoever is interested.

Final comments: Leave aside his disarrayed personal state, ignore his pathetic performances, but can one forget his underworld links? Can you disregard the fact that he has the film industry at his fingertips? The propogation of the mafia point of view in a glorified manner is a sinister agenda. Given all this background, how can anyone even like him, leave alone admire him?

<for more hilarious stuff on this enigma, I would strongly recommend you read mnc123’s superb review on Five worst actors of Hindi movies>