The real life Hero

This is in response to article: “THE REAL LIFE HERO” (Screen, 06th June 2008) on Sunil Dutt.

It was a really warm and heart touching tribute on his birthday and was a rare treat for your readers who got a glimpse of “Balraj”s (screen name Sunil Dutt) kaleidoscopic life from his initial struggling days in the early fifties, to his establishment as an actor of some merit in the sixties, his acceptance as a reliable box office hero in the seventies and his gradual journey to the pinnacle of his success in nineties and two thousands.

This “Birju’s” (his role of a short-tempered and a fiery son in “Mother India”) dare-devil act of saving a damsel in distress (Nargis) during a fire on the sets of the movie, and which ultimately culminated into a lifelong commitment by way of marriage, is stuff of which such fairy tale romances are made of.

With very humble beginnings as a refugee from Pakistan after the Partition of 1947, he started his career as a popular radio announcer on Radio Ceylon and sometime in 1955 shifted to Mumbai (then Bombay) to realize his dream of making it big on the celluloid medium. His last role was a guest appearance in “Munnabhai MBBS ” (2003) where he probably shared screen space with his son Sanjay Dutt, for the first time in his career (He had earlier starred in “Rocky” which was Sanjay’s launch pad film, but if I recollect correctly, this father and son duo had not acted together anywhere in the story.)

Sunil Dutt, during his long career/life span till his death in May 2005,had donned many hats —as an actor, producer, director, Sherrif of Mumbai, Cabinet Minister for Youth and Sports in Manmohan Singh’s Government and as an elected parliamentarian of Congress (I) winning his seat for 5 times from his opponents. His Nargis Dutt Foundation is doing yeomen service for cancer patients. His fight for justice for his son Sanjay, when he was jailed in the aftermath of Hindu Muslim clashes, as a concerned parent, speaks volumes about his family values.

Sunil Dutt has been honoured with 2 Filmfare Best Actor awards, around 3 Life Time Achievement Awards by various TV channels, Padmashri , Glory Of India Award and of course with the crowning glory of Dada Saheb Phalke Award. He has acted with all the top notch heroines of yester years like Meena Kumari, Nutan, Sadhna,Waheeda Rehman, Mala Sinha and Asha Parekh. This speaks of his salability and immense comfort level he enjoyed in Bollywood in those decades. I think “Sadhna”, “Sujata”, ”Khandaan”, “Padosan”, “Gumraah”, ”Waqt”, “Milan” and “ Hamraaz” are some of his memorable movies, which are watched avidly by his fans when ever they are re-run on the TV channels. He had also worked in some socio-religious Punjabi movies in the seventies and was a force to recon with, in that media / region as well.