From Vaastav to Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., here are some of Sanjay Dutt's best performances

Sanjay Dutt is a curious personality. There are many shades to his aura. He can be a man-mountain beast, he can mellow in seconds, he can be intimidating with his towering physicality, he can melt hearts with his reservoir of emotions. The man has seen and experienced it all.

In an interview back in 2018, Ranbir Kapoor, while talking about his film Sanju, a biopic on Dutt, stated how it was impossible to showcase all of the actor’s experiences in a span of mere 160 minutes. What would be needed is a web series. Fondly addressed as Baba by fans and Sanju by the industry folks, Sanjay Dutt, four decades later, is still an enigma. Fortunately, we get a better sense of the actor and the star through his films.

He began all the way back in 1981 with his father Sunil Dutt’s film Rocky and here we have him in 2022, 63, blazing and blistering as ever. He has reflected multiple shades through his career of more than four decades. Let’s revisit some of them on the occasion of his 63rd birthday:

The vulnerability in Naam

There are many instances of an actor becoming a star, this was an instance of a star blooming into an actor. Mahesh Bhatt’s Naam had shades of Yash Chopra’s Deewar, with two brothers on the opposite sides of the law and a mother torn apart in between. Unlike Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt was almost gullible and vulnerable once he landed in Dubai in search for a job, only to be conned and cheated later. One encounter and many circumstances force him to drift away from family and pave way for tragedy. The actor put his droopy eyes to good use.

The tenderness in Saajan

Five years later, Dutt, with long hair, brooding aura, and dropping shoulders, made his way to the celluloid in this charming love triangle about passion, poems, lies and longing. Saajan saw Dutt at his softest best. He played a poet who falls in love with his fan, the ethereal and eternal Madhuri Dixit. The triangle was completed by Salman Khan. Saajan wouldn’t have been what it is today had it not been for its soulful music and the remarkable restraint of the leads, particularly Dutt.

The volatility in Vaastav

The chawl that Mahesh Manjrekar showed in Vaastav had real people residing in it. You could sense their language, smell their sweat, and swell at their success. Once again after Naam, Dutt had tragedy awaiting him. His transformation from Raghu to Raghu Bhai is both intimidating and insignificant. Intimidating because we think he cannot be overpowered, but insignificant too because we know how this man’s story would culminate. And Dutt was at his volatile best in this crime-drama that will never make us see a Paav Bhaji stall with craving again.

The humour in Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.

Raghu Shastri and Murli Prasad Sharma, both have let their parents down. Unlike the former, the latter chooses redemption. In the world of Rajkumar Hirani, there are no villains, there are humans with flaws that are transformed by the heroes. In many ways, Munna Bhai was Vaastav in reverse. A gangster throws away his anarchic ways and aspires to be a doctor, a family man. Dutt let loose his bulging muscles and tickled the funny bone after what felt like ages. He cured people who cured people. What would happen if he ever encountered Raghu Shastri?

The hideousness in Agneepath

Sanjay Dutt is technically introduced thrice in the film, and we get to sees face only the third time. The first time we sense his arrival, his photo is hanging on the wall with his face torn off, mostly by him. The second time, we see that iconic drooping walk of the silhouette, and then we see his hideous face that scares him too. He’s afraid of the mirrors, but fans relished seeing him in what remains his most hideous character till date. Both ironic and iconic.

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