Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel, Karim Lala, Sadhu Shetty, Sharad Shetty, VardaBhai, Haji Mastan... First name was the only one I knew, before I wiki search it out of curiosity... rest of them were linked in some or the other way, to Dawood...
The stories behind all these names are as fascinating as their names... The more I read about them, more inquisitive I became... and more interesting facts started coming out of the closet, through various articles ...
Fiction cannot offer the sense of authority, the real life stories behind these names offer... They were all regular "aam" people who rose to power because of the circumstances they faced... Bootlegging and " matka " business were the initial steps towards the rise of their kingdom... They were honest in their business.. Strict rule of "tit for tat" followed.. exceptionally loyal towards their mentors..
Chhota Rajan.. Why the name, Chhota Rajan??? His mentor was Bada Rajan ( Rajan Mahadeo Nair ) ... Chhota Rajan's real name was Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje... They both started selling black market movie tickets at the Sahkar Cinema. Black marketing of cinema tickets was one of the main sources of income for Mumbai gangs between the years 1970 and 1985. It was also during this time that Bada Rajan formed his own gang with Chhota Rajan as his chief lieutenant. Bada Rajan served as a great mentor to Chhota Rajan and the two would remain close friends until his death... Abdul Kunju planned the assasination and got Bada Rajan killed.. Chhota Rajan took the pledge and killed Abdul..
Abdul Kunju was a cricket enthusiast and often managed a good-sized crowd to come and watch him play. ( I am thinking about going to watch local matches n make friends there ... :) ...) This gave Chhota Rajan the opportunity to use Kunju's own passion against him. During one such match in 1985, as Kunju hit a boundary, three young gangsters dressed in T-shirts and sneakers, including Sanjay Raggad, Sadhu Shetty and Chhota Rajan himself, entered the arena on the pretext of retrieving the ball. After doing so, they walked right up to Kunju, pulled out their guns and shot him dead at point blank range...
What a daring revenge they took ... I do not know what society thinks about them, but one thing I admire and have noticed in all the stories, is their daredevilry...Their stories are as fascinating as of any other celebrity...
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