A mourner touches Sunil Dutt’s forehead as his body is carried to the crematorium. (AFP)

Sunil Dutt died the way he had come into public attention ? as a hero.

But as a real life hero.

On June 6, 1929, Dutt, whose real name was Balraj, was born to a Punjabi land-owning family that had lost its properties in Pakistan after the Partition.

A student of Mumbai’s Jai Hind College, he started off in the entertainment world as a radio show host and celebrity interviewer. He also met his future wife Nargis in the course of this work, but their romance would take off many years later.

Dutt got his break in cinema when director Ramesh Saigal offered him the hero’s role in his Nalini Jaywant-starrer Railway Platform (1955).

But he stormed into the limelight with the 1957 Mehboob Khan film Mother India. The film, which featured Dutt as the rebellious, conflicted Birju and Nargis as his mother (and also an obvious symbol of the young nation besieged by problems), became a landmark of Indian popular cinema. It became a landmark in the two actors’ lives, too. Dutt and Nargis fell in love.

They came from two different worlds. Dutt was from a conventional Hindu family and Nargis was the daughter of Jaddanbai, a Muslim thumri singer from Allahabad. But they got married ? and went on to live one of Hindi filmdom’s most celebrated romances.

Although Nargis died in 1981, he always felt her presence, in their son Sunjay’s eyes, in the cancer foundation he established in her name and everywhere in their Bandra home.

Nargis, one of Bollywood’s leading actors, left work after marriage and Dutt continued to work in films.

He established himself as a dependable leading actor through films like Sadhna, Sujata, Main Chup Rahungi, Mujhe Jeene Do and a string of B.R Chopra movies, like Gumraah, Waqt and Humraaz.

In 1968, he took a sharp turn from the image of the traditional hero and featured as an endearing idiot in Padosan, a side-splitting comedy also featuring Saira Banu and Kishore Kumar.

With the appearance of younger stars like Rajesh Khanna, Dutt’s popularity declined a little, but he was playing lead actor till the late seventies in films such as in, Jaani Dushman opposite Reena Roy.

In the sixties, he had turned producer. Yeh Raaste Hai Pyaar Ke, Mujhe Jeene Do and Reshma Aur Shera were his home productions.

By then, Dutt had come to be known as “Dutt Saab”, a veteran in the industry, but his personal trials were just about to begin.

Nargis was diagnosed with cancer. She died a few days before the premiere of Rocky, their home production launching son Sunjay. It was about the same time that it came to light that Sunjay, who was very close to Nargis and was still in shock over her death, took drugs.

Dutt fought his demons. He did everything to cure his son of his addiction ? and a few years later, Sunjay would emerge as one of the biggest stars in Bollywood.

In 1984, handpicked by Rajiv Gandhi, Dutt joined the Congress.

A five-time MP, he contested his first Lok Sabha elections the same year, not to lose the seat even once. He won again in 1989 and 1991, but the demons returned.

Sunjay was chargesheeted in the Bombay blasts case for his alleged connection with the underworld and was behind bars for some time.

Dutt did not contest the 1996 and 1998 elections as he was preoccupied with the case against his son. But with Sunjay working hard in films and rising to become one of the leading stars of the day, Dutt again put his worries on hold and bounced back into politics.

He won the 1999, 2000 and 2004 elections.

Everyone remembers him as a person who spoke ill of no one. No one speaks ill of him, either. They only heap on him superlatives.

They remember his concern for others. Waheeda Rehman, who featured with him in Reshma Aur Shera, says that while they shot in the Rajasthan desert, Dutt ensured that everyone ? from the spot boy to the heroine ?was comfortable and ate the same food. “He was a wonderful human being,” she says.

Saira Banu says the same. She adds that he was a very simple man, too.

“He was a wonderful person, a very decent human being,” says filmmaker-producer Yash Chopra, a close friend.

He was also tireless. During campaigning last year, Dutt would work 18 hours a day, regardless of his age or the complaints of his children.

He would always be ready to address the next meeting, even if he looked ready to drop off.

But when asked about his age, he would answer with a wink: “I am very young.”