Dutt plays multiple roles

Even the roles Sanjay Dutt played in Bollywood pale before his latest performance in real life. First, there was the arrival in Lucknow to play the role of the city���s wannabe MP in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Then, when the Supreme Court ruled that a convicted person could not contest elections, there was the dramatic appearance on an NDTV programme where Dutt, accompanied by Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, stated that he had conducted a sting operation on a Union Cabinet minister who had told him on the eve of the court decree that he would not be allowed to contest as long as he was an SP candidate.

Asked by interviewer Barkha Dutt whether he did not feel nervous about conducting a sting operation on a Union Cabinet minister, Dutt nonchalantly replied, ���I am an actor���. Dutt added that he did not mind going to jail again since he knew he was in the right. He stated that he would continue to be an affectionate brother to his Congress-MP sister Priya but that he would serve the SP as a politician.

His late father, the actor-turned Congress minister Sunil Dutt, would, he added, not disapprove of his decision to serve the SP. His father had, Sanjay added, been terribly distressed towards the end of his life by the Congress decision to induct Sanjay Nirupam who, as a Shiv Sena candidate, had used foul language against Sunil Dutt.

Even Sanjay���s award-winning filmi performances as a mafia don, as a khalnayak and as a tough cop don���t quite match up to his ongoing real-life roles. There is the politician who says he is an actor and is, therefore, not nervous when he conducts a journalistic sting operation on a Union Cabinet minister but who remains a loyal son, a caring brother and a faithful friend.

Surely, even the most dynamic director in Bollywood can���t extract that kind of multi-skilled, multi-dimensional performance out of one actor, even a star! Amar Singh is a director par excellence!