Reel vs real: The politics behind the life and crimes of Sanjay Dutt

As the debate about depiction of public figures in bio-pics continues, Sunil Dutt's attempts to bail his son out recounted.

When a film about a public figure is made, many questions relating to the accuracy or inaccuracy of portrayals arise. In a vibrant democracy, multiple truths often jostle with each other, so that we can determine for ourselves which one (or ones) we prefer. We must also ponder if any biographical film, condensing a life into two-and-a-half hours, takes certain departures from reality. In this sense, Sanju, a biopic on actor Sanjay Dutt is no exception.

In a particular scene in Sanju, Dutt is seen playing court to a political figure in Delhi, months after he was charged with the crime of possessing an AK-56 rifle and hobnobbing with those suspected of carrying out the bomb blasts in Bombay (now Mumbai) on March 12, 1993. The politician in the movie is rather indifferent and dismissive of Dutt’s plea.

In real life, it was actor-turned-politician Sunil Dutt who had indeed courted a political figure. He had once informally told a gathering of journalists – including the author – that he had approached Sharad Pawar, who became chief minister of Maharashtra soon after the bomb blasts, begging for leniency for his son. Sunil Dutt recalled bowing before Pawar, tears rolling down his cheeks, when he noticed that the politician was faintly smiling, enjoying his ordeal. Stunned and disillusioned, Sunil Dutt subsequently met Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, who eventually came out in support of Sanjay Dutt, declaring publicly he did not believe that any member of the Dutt family could be ‘anti-national’.

It was widely believed in political circles that Sunil Dutt’s family was being targeted by a section of the Congress leadership for resigning in a huff from his Lok Sabha membership after the Babri Masjid demolition and the communal riots in Mumbai. In fact, throughout Sanjay Dutt’s arrest, Pawar was suspected to be behind the family’s ordeals. In those troubled times, it was Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray who stood by the actor, despite their glaring ideological differences. Sunil Dutt would later acknowledge Thackeray’s help with a deep sense of gratitude.

Samajwadi Party leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Sanjay Dutt attend workers’ meeting at the party’s headquarters in Lucknow, March 14, 2009. Photo credit: Reuters.

In January 2009, Sanjay Dutt came rather close to joining active politics, wearing the distinctive red cap of the Samajwadi Party in Lucknow. He set himself a daunting goal by invoking the legacy of his mother Nargis in the Lok Sabha election campaign. He had stated that he wanted to contest from Lucknow to serve his naanihal (his mother’s ancestral hometown), where Nargis’s mother Jaddanbai had lived for some time. He did not mention, however, that it was also in Lucknow that his father Sunil Dutt had taken the first step in his media-showbiz career with All India Radio.

Sanjay’s emphasis on Nargis, a Rajya Sabha member who died in 1981, rather than his father, the more successful politician, was significant, according to friends of the Dutt family. They believed that among other things, the move underscored the actor’s deep emotional ties to his mother. It might have reflected a desire to subtly distance himself from the legacy of his father, a staunch Congress loyalist whose seat of Mumbai North West was represented by Sanjay’s younger sister Priya in the 2005 by-elections. Priya moved to Mumbai North Central and won the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, but lost in 2014.

Sanjay’s political debut could not take off in 2009, when the Supreme Court rejected his plea for the suspension of his conviction.

His friends in show business say that the actor was eager to live up to the standards his mother had set in public service. And those standards were high indeed. In 1958, Nargis, then in her late twenties, had been awarded the Padma Shri. With her proximity to the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi being well known, there was a buzz about her impending entry into politics. But Nargis took up the cause of the disabled instead. As a girl, she had yearned to be a doctor and Sunil Dutt would confide to his friends that after their marriage, she was keen on going abroad to qualify as a nurse. Along with her husband, Nargis ran a school for poor children in Bandra and another one for special children. When the Spastics Society of India was established, she was selected as a promoter. She never treated the position as a mere social feather in her cap and went on to associate herself with the Bharat Scouts and Guides, the War Widows Association and the Meena Kumari Memorial for the Blind, often contributing her own money towards these causes.

Also known as a devoted homemaker, the former actress would refuse film offers after the birth of her children. Having already scaled the heights of acting with Mother India (1958), in which her performance, according to family friend Dilip Kumar, was ‘on par with that of Marlon Brando in The Godfather (1972)’, Nargis was content with her roles as wife and mother. When leading film-maker S.S. Vasan of Gemini Studios in Madras approached her with a film offer, Nargis’s response was rather out-of-the-box. According to T.J.S. George, author of The Life and Times of Nargis, Vasan pushed a blank cheque towards the actress, who smiled and replied, “Vasan saab, I am completely tied up with three films. They are called Sanju, Anju [the Dutts’ older daughter Namrata] and Priya. I just cannot do another film now.”

Nargis and Sanjay Dutt. Photo credit: duttsanjay/Instagram.

‘Mother India’ Nargis died in 1981, a decade before Bombay was shaken by a series of bomb blasts, creating terror and havoc in the city. On April 18, her son Sanjay was arrested at Bombay airport as he stepped off a flight from Mauritius. He was charged with the crime of possessing an AK-56 rifle. ‘In the days that followed, Dad kept trying to get Sanjay released from prison,’ Namrata and Priya Dutt recalled in a coffee table book tribute Mr and Mrs Dutt — Memories of Our Parents. They wrote of how their father met every possible person who could explain the legalities of getting Sanjay out of jail. “Dad became obsessed with Sanjay’s situation and his behaviour became increasingly erratic. He was beside himself. He didn’t sleep and would get up at four in the morning. He would say how could he sleep when his son was in the same city, a few miles away from him, lying on a cold stone floor?”

Priya says Sunil Dutt would sometimes be overwhelmed by a sense of guilt, thinking that had he not resigned as Lok Sabha member or protested publicly against the communal riots in Mumbai following the Babri Masjid demolition, Sanjay might not have been targeted by the authorities.

One of the most poignant moments in the book comes when Sunil, Priya and Namrata, wife of former actor Kumar Gaurav, visit Sanjay in prison on Raksha Bandhan in August 1994.

“We tied a rakhi on his wrist. Sanjay looked sad and said, ‘I have nothing to give (the two of) you … This is all I have….’”

Sanjay then gave his sisters the two-rupee jail coupons he had earned through manual labour.

“It was an extraordinary emotional moment for us. Dad broke down. We held each other in a long embrace and wept, unburdening our hearts, before Sanjay was led back to his cell,” writes Priya, who has preserved the coupons as mementos.

Rasheed Kidwai is a visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. His upcoming book “Neta Abhineta – Star power in Indian Politics (Hachette ) has gone to press.