Dutt is really a 42-year-old boy with a penchant for fast cars and Harley Davidsons and a perennial lump in his throat. As a young man, he found relief in cocaine and brown sugar. It was around that time that Dr Yusuf Merchant met him. He describes Dutt as "a wonderful human being" and an "addictive personality", in that order. Those days Dutt wanted to become a drummer but life took him down different lanes of fame and infamy. The reason why almost everybody who's known him for long thinks of him so fondly is that he was a man who could have 'cutting' chai with anyone. It must have been a glorious moment for many backbenchers of life when the son of Sunil Dutt and Nargis spoke to them as an equal. Some feel that it is his free association with the lowest rung of the film world that first made him an easy prey to the underworld. Interestingly, while he has spoken warmly with Shakeel, he has also acted in films said to be backed by the rival Abu Salem. Dutt mysteriously flitted about in the different camps of the Bollywood underbelly without any qualms.
There are people who loathe him for his shady side. Filmmaker Ashok Pandit says, "If he's talking to Shakeel in this manner, there is no difference between him and a terrorist. If he is friends with men who bombed Mumbai, then he's an anti-national and an enemy of the country." Extreme words that for a moment balance out the seemingly undeserving love that he gets from all quarters. A producer has a quaint observation. "For some reason, he always felt he was a Muslim. I think he had a soft corner for Muslims." But nobody fully understands why the 6 ft 1, 80-films-old Dutt keeps going astray even when things are looking up. An inscrutable mind that a CBI official describes as "criminal".
