oh my stars...

I have to confess I feel sorry for Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan. To begin with, Sanju is sortof my favorite Bollywood star. I like other folks, like Om Puri, Saif Ali Khan and Irfan Khan better--but only because they act in non-mainstream movies that are more to my taste. In both that Reservoir Dogs ripoff (Kaante?) and Munnabhai, though, Sanju impressed me with naturalness on camera and charmed me with his easily recognized charisma. He's no genius. But he's damn likable.

With Salman, the talent is harder to see, as his acting in the movies I've seen has been truly horrible. But the charisma is there. I used to dismiss him out of hand as a lout (girlfriend-beater, poacher, drunk driver--there wasn't a lot to like). But in the past few weeks of watching interviews with him, I started thinking of him in much the same way I think of Sanju: OK, he's an idiot, but....

It's sad that the Indian courts operate so slowly that by the time these guys--and millions of others whose problems are not followed with bated breath--actually get punished for their crimes, they've already repented and turned over a new leaf, and we've already forgiven them. There's no easy answer, of course. They can't be let off just because the courts have been so shamefully slow that we've all had time to decide they are genial idiots rather than thugs and criminals. But it is undeniably terrible that this is the way it is, and it's likely to remain this way for many years to come.