This story is from August 2, 2007

Is Munnabhai really a Khalnayak?

TNN / Aug 2, 2007, 00:00 IST

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A collective outburst of sympathy was seen after Sanjay Dutt was sentenced. Is it because he is a good guy or do we really forgive our icons easily?

A collective outburst of sympathy was seen after Sanjay Dutt was sentenced. Is it because he is a good guy or do we really forgive our icons easily?A collective outburst of sympathy was seen after Sanjay Dutt was sentenced. Is it because he is a good guy or do we really forgive our icons easily?A collective outburst of sympathy was seen after Sanjay Dutt was sentenced.Is it because he is a good guy or do we really forgive our icons easily?doweshowbellyad=0;

HIT HARD: Sanjay Dutt (PTI Photo)
A collective outburst of sympathy was seen after Sanjay Dutt was sentenced. Is it because he is a good guy or do we really forgive our icons easily?
Long arm of the law
Sanjay Dutt’s celebrity status has not affected the judgment in this case at all – Satish Maneshinde, Sanjay’s lawyer

Sanjay has had the sword hanging on his head for 14 years. At least he knows it’s six years now – Jackie Shroff
This judgment has proved that however big a star, he/she is the same in the eyes of the law – Ujjwal Nikam, public prosecutor
“SIX YEARS!”
A collective, disappointed cry of “Oh, no!” would sum up the popular reaction on Tuesday afternoon as millions of viewers glued to television screens responded to what was, for once, actually ‘breaking news’. Everyone seemed to be sharing that bit of news with everyone they knew.

As a collective reaction, it was something like the minutes after India were knocked out of the World Cup. It may well have been correct, it may have been the result of a fair and square process, it may even have been deserved, but somehow it was not easy to reconcile to. Sanju baba probably had more people thinking and speaking sympathetically of him in the moments immediately after the verdict than at any other point in his life. The judge may have told him not to get sentimental, but thousands who’d been following his story all these years did, even if momentarily.
Why did we react this way to a reasonably well documented, properly investigated, thoroughly scrutinised and dissected judicial trial, none of the other convictions and sentences in which have raised a fraction of the sympathy for the persons sentenced by the court? Why is it that a politician’s conviction generates much glee but a cine icon’s sentence is met with such disappointment? Is it about Sanju baba, or is it about us?
‘He’s the sweetest guy’
This is what Neha Dhupia says, and much of the industry echoes it. Sanjay’s abiding image in the public eye, as he went from one hearing to another over the past months, has been of the man who made an innocent mistake and has already suffered more than adequately for it. So even as the satta bazaar was more accurate in its general backing of a conviction, the common man’s thinking, wishful though it may have been, was that there would finally be a happy ending to this script. The goodwill that Sanju baba enjoys in the industry rubs off on his public profile.
Suniel Shetty explaining that “being a fellow Leo”, he understands how Sanjay works – “Baba thinks from the heart and that is why he generally gets into trouble” would have sounded bizarre in any other context. All Leos who think from the heart needn’t necessarily dabble in AK-56s. But with Sanjay, even that sounds reasonable.
The Dutt surname, the closeness he shares with friends and family, all go to make people identify with him as a good, even vulnerable, guy. His wanting to make phone calls to his daughter and sisters after the sentence was pronounced is the instinctive reaction of someone who needs to speak to his loved ones, not that of a criminal mind analysing the implications of the verdict.
Lawyer Pinky Anand, while reiterating the seriousness of his crimes, can’t help but admit that “personally I feel sorry for him, because in the last few years, Sanjay has made efforts to appear as a good guy devoted to his family”.
So many of his most memorable screen roles, from Naam to Lage Raho Munna Bhai, have told the tale of the sentimental man with no evil in his heart who just sometimes gets on the wrong side of the law. And they have fitted him to a T. Arms Act or not, how can people not love him?
‘He’s got less than he deserved’
The Sanju-is-a-great-human-being discourse, however, serves to obscure that he’s got as fair a deal as anyone else in the case. Sanjay said to the judge, “Sir, I made a mistake 14 years ago”. Now, he is being asked to pay the price. The process has been torturous but it has been equally fair or unfair to all. Lawyers and policemen have understandably a less sentimental take on the issue.
A “very happy” YC Pawar, Mumbai’s former joint commissioner of police, asserts that “there was never a question that Sanjay Dutt would have got away unpunished. The atmosphere was falsely created. I think even now, he has got less punishment than he deserved.”
Supercop KPS Gill thinks that the problem is that “we tend to identify filmstars with the roles they play and therein comes the sympathy. People must understand that these on-screen characters are very different from what these stars are in real life”.
The mixed blessings of stardom?
The question of whether Sanjay has got a fair deal or not is unlikely to die down anytime soon. The fact is that he stands convicted. The fact equally is that there is substantial public sympathy for him. Even the judge acknowledges that his crimes have not been “anti-social, ghastly, inhuman, immoral or pre-planned”. Has he had a raw deal because of who he is, a star, who’s toppling invariably draws attention, whom the system loves to make an example of? Or are we as a society, quick to forget and forgive?
From Salman’s reckless driving to Rahul Mahajan’s party gone wrong to Sanju baba’s quest for a sense of security by way of arms, do we let bygones be bygones and the only thing that’s left in our collective psyche for our celebrities is sympathy? The question, as often in the past few years, is open to debate.
There has been much sympathy for Sanjay after his sentence. Even those who accept that he is guilty as charged, wish he could have got an easier deal. Is it because he is such a good guy, is it or because we inevitably forgive our icons?
Email, mytimesmyvoice@timesgroup.com with ‘Sanjay’ mentioned in the subject line.
Blog on www.mytimesmyvoice.com.

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