M A I N   N E W S

Obituary
Best-loved anti-hero to popular politician
Shiv Kumar

STARDOM came to Sunil Dutt when he stepped under the klieg lights to essay the role of the original angry young man in Mehboob Khan’s “Mother India”.

The country simply fell in love with the rebellious son who gets taken out by his dutiful mother in the closing minutes of the epic. And Birju went on to build a career with some memorable appearances in “Mujhe Jeene Do”, “Reshma Aur Shera”, “Heera”, “Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye”.

That was long before Sunil Dutt traded in the shades of grey for the simpler white in reel and real life. Dutt’s later hits came from laugh-riots like the cult flick “Padosan”, where he played the loveable bumpkin, and “Milan” where he played the role of simple boatman opposite Nutan.

Dutt happily complemented his co-star Nutan in Bimal Roy’s classic on women prisoners, “Sujata”.

As his Bollywood career faded out with the 1970s, the loss of wife Nargis to cancer gave him his fresh mission. Dutt set up the Nargis Dutt Foundation to organise care and counseling for victims of cancer and their relatives. He went on to produce a tear-jerker “Dard Ka Rishta” to highlight the plight of victims who struggle to keep their dignity intact during the fading moments of their lives.

Soon he was drawn by other causes. As the country convulsed under the trauma of militancy in Punjab, Dutt cast aside personal safety and undertook a 2000 km-long padayatra through the troubled state.

In recognition of his efforts, Rajiv Gandhi asked Dutt to contest the 1984 Lok Sabha polls on the Congress party’s ticket from Mumbai North West. Dutt never looked back, winning every time he chose to contest the elections.

The arrest of his actor-son Sanjay Dutt under the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) in the aftermath of the serial bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai in March 1993 came as a personal blow to Sunil Dutt.

He put his political career on hold to work on his son’s defence. As plea after plea failed to bail out his son, Sunil Dutt doggedly visited lawyers, activists and even newspaper offices to present his son’s case.

As the Maharashtra Government under the Congress party, then headed by Sharad Pawar, gave him the cold shoulder, Sunil Dutt did not mince words against the party.

The support of just Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in those dark days was the indicator of the goodwill Sunil Dutt had earned across the political spectrum.

Uncharacteristically, Thackeray did not mind when Dutt spurned an offer from the Shiv Sena and chose to re-enter politics as a Congress party candidate opposed to communal politics.

Sunil Dutt kept his secular image till the last moment. Only weeks before his death, he hit out at the Congress party for roping in former Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Nirupam. Dutt who had roundly defeated Nirupam in last year’s general elections simply refused to believe that the editor-politician had put behind his vociferous support for Hindutva.

In his last public appearance as a politician, Dutt had even dared the Congress party high command to take action against him for protesting the entry of Nirupam into the party.

However, the party leadership chose to quietly make peace with Sunil Dutt. He was sought to be pacified with the spin that advisors to Sonia Gandhi had properly conveyed her Dutt’s sentiments about Nirupam.