Honestly, I hardly know Sanjay Dutt well enough to form an opinion on him. I won't be able to say whether he was an innocent, gullible but decent and truly unfortunate boy with a heart of gold, or a fatally flawed superstar who routinely played with his own life and the law and mostly got away, thanks to his and his parents' fame and connections, and has now run out of luck. Not being a regular movie watcher, I am not even particularly qualified to speak of him as an actor. My personal and professional acquaintance with him is limited to a one-hour conversation for a Walk the Talk interview on NDTV 24x7 on May 20, 2007 (http://goo.gl/vlq35). I had found him gentle, even vulnerable, surprisingly honest and humble in talking about his past, his mistakes, even his tryst with drugs and his fightback. What had obviously helped was a phone conversation with his sister Priya on the way to their Pali Hill home. You could see how his younger sisters mothered and protected him. Priya had called to counsel him to be kind and open with me, and Namrata was in attendance on the sidelines along with her most adorable poodle.

So this is what we have: talented, vulnerable, gentle, well behaved, blessed with comic timing, a sometimes obedient older brother to two doting sisters, and now we have it on good authority, even on Justice Markandey Katju's, a good husband and father of three children. But here is the question that matters: does all that absolve him of the charges for which he was convicted in a verdict now confirmed by the Supreme Court? The answer, regrettably, can only be no. Because justice is about laws and evidence. It is not about what a nice guy you have been, or how kind, wonderful and successful your parents and siblings are.

... contd.

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