Sanjay Dutt's award winning movie: Vaastav

Today is a day when Sanjay Dutt's fans will be very sad and depressed. Their hero has been sentenced to 6 years in prison under the Arms Act. So, forgetting about the circumstances of the case, let us remember some good movies that he has done. One of them was Vaastav. Sanjay Dutt had acted in a variety of movies before and after Vaastav, but it was Vaastav that gave him a super reputation, that of being a good actor. The movie, released in October, 1999 won Sanjay Dutt the following awards:
1. Year 2000 Filmfare Best Actor
2. Year 2000 Screen Weekly Awards for Best Actor


There have been many movies made on the theme of a guy from a poor family becoming a gangster under circumstances, and this could be taken as another one of those, but there are many redeeming features of this film. It does not shirk from showing the death of the main character, nor of the reasons as to why the character of Sanjay Dutt veered away from the good path.
This was the first movie directed by Mahesh Manjrekar and he has taken Sanjay Dutt for many more of his movies after this. The movie stars a whole host of people, Namrata Shirodkar, Mohnish Behl, Deepak Tijori, Paresh Rawal, Ashish Vidhyarthi, Mohan Joshi and Reema Lagoo.
The story is typical of that of a man suddenly entering the underworld and rising through the ranks. So Raghu (Sanjay Dutt) lives in a chawl with his parents and elder brother (Mohnish). Raghu is not much of a student and prefers to hang out with his friends, leaving his father worried about his future. Raghu manages to persuade his father to lend him enough money to open a pav bhaji stall. He does open the stall, but one day in a dispute, he kills the brother of a local don.
To escape the sure death at the hands of the don, Raghu along with Deepak Tijori join the other gang lord Vitthal Kaanya (Ashish Vidhyarthi). Raghu starts his climb up through extortion and murder, and as his name becomes more known, soon the local Minister Babbanrao Kadam (Mohan Joshi) starts using his services to get rid of rivals. Raghu in the meantime pays regular visits to a local prostitute called Sonu (Namrata) whom he marries when she gets pregnant.
Raghu gets addicted to cocaine and alcohol, and soon as Raghu makes a minister, the minister starts feeling him to be a problem, and orders his death in an encounter. Raghu also needs to protect his family, and he realizes that there is no getting away from the 'encounter'. The entire movie is in flashback, with the story being told to Raghu's son about Raghu's death.