The 'troika' of Mumbai: 3 dons, 3 spheres, 1 city's underbelly

MUMBAI: Long before Dawood Ibrahim became synonymous with Mumbai's underworld, the city had already produced a generation of crime bosses who controlled smuggling routes, gambling dens, illicit liquor networks and local rackets.They were different from the gangsters who followed them.Their power was often rooted in particular neighbourhoods and communities and their influence extended beyond the criminal world into cinema, politics and local social networks.Among the most prominent were Karim Lala, Haji Mastan and Varadarajan Mudaliar — three men who, together, formed the old guard of Mumbai's underworld in the 1960s and 1970s.A 'Troika'They were a troika that controlled the city's underworld during that period.Their era would eventually give way to a more violent phase.