An actor is no actor if he can’t charms the pants off a girl or the candy off a kid. Advertisers pay millions for this quality, to sell their products, and the political parties beg them to campaign for them.
Rajesh Khanna was a sadist. Under the influence of liquor, he’d remove his belt and bash his secretary, friends (read chamchas) and even the women in his life (ask Anju Mahendru, Dimple Khanna, Tina Munim and Anita Advani) and yet, win them over with apologies, smiles and gifts. I remember Dimple talking about how Kaka angrily pulled an earring from her ear and leaving her ear lobes damaged and bleeding. She had walked out on him only to return when he used his charm on her. Few will believe it thanks to the charm of the superstar.
Amitabh Bachchan used this charm to win over the press of the entire country when he was embroiled in Bofors scandal.
Rekha always used it while buying expensive diamonds or furs, asking the shops to charge her (then) current ‘boy friend’ (whoever he’d be).
Govinda would use it when he’d arrive in the evening for the morning shift and offer his wrist, “I have fever.It is a hundred three.” The producer would smile as he’d feel the wrist that’d appear totally normal.
When they want to manipulate the world, they use charm with a story.
Salman Khan, the bad boy became a generous do-gooder with (planted) stories about how he’d pick up injured people to hospital, visit kids in cancer hospital, give expensive gifts to friends and is a man with a heart of gold. He even started an NGO called ‘Being Human’. This along with playing a Muslim card wearing muslim cap kufi or taqiyah when he visited police station was to let people forgive and forget his hit and run case that killed one injured four, besides ruined the star witness of this case, police body guard Ravindra Patil, who ended up dead on footpath!
Aware that our is a culture that is becoming more and more story-stupid, Salman even tried inventing a Salim-Javed type story – in black buck case – that he was doing a good deed by protecting someone else! Seeing that no one, not even his fans, were willing to buy it he found shelter behind his advocate and the notorious delaying tactics.
Sanjay Dutt had learned these tricks of the trade from his parents. Much before the notoriety that followed him in the wake of Mumbai Bomb Blasts Case, he was caught with cartridges on a flight. Sunil Dutt used his clout to suppress the news, and even his secretary Sarvar Husain told me, “Sanjubaba abhi bacha hai…he loves guns, like girls love dolls!”
For a long time, everyone swallowed this ‘Sanjubaba bacha hai’ as a defense and even the stories about his unhappy, lonely childhood that turned him into a junkie. The chickens came book to roost with Mumbai Bomb Blasts Case.
I remember a quote of Deb from ‘The Secret Life of Prince Charming’, “People who inspire pity in you are very powerful people. To get someone else to take care of you, to feel sorry for you–that takes a lot of strength, smarts, manipulation. (They are) very powerful people.”
After spending 18 months in jail, out on bail, Sanjay Dutt has used this strategy. Playing Munnabhai is a part of this strategy. The mask of genial friendship has slipped occasionally – the few observant souls notice it – but remained on in public, among the powerful people in Bollywood. He has always known he’d need them all. The sword of Damocles (of SC judgment on his case) was always hanging.
It is to create this sob-story for the emotional crowd that Sanjay Dutt got married and has kids. People do become emotional when they think of that…but what is the difference between this and a woman who is always pregnant to avoid being hanged?
You think of Sanju’s kids with sympathy but no one tells you the stories about the victims of the n Bomb Blasts. Those are more tragic. But no one writes about them. They are not beautiful people. They don’t know how to charm you.
Papers are writing about Rs 100 crores (or Rs 250 crores) riding in Sanjay Dutt films and the producers are talking of being concerned for him, wanting to be by his side and are privately sure that their Sanjubaba would be spared.
I don’t doubt the honesty of Justice Markandya Katju when he appeals for a pardon for Sanjay Dutt, or the desire of Jaya Bachchan to mother (and protect) ‘Sanju’.
Sanju belongs to them, the charmed circle. They stand by each other.
As for the rest who are supporting Sanjay Dutt, who believe that he has reformed…I call them suckers for emotional blackmail and manipulation.
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