Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi Wednesday led the nation in bidding an emotive farewell to legendary actor and Sports Minister Sunil Dutt who died in sleep following a heart attack.

As actor son Sanjay Dutt lit the funeral pyre amid Vedic hymns, tears welled in the eyes of the tens of thousands who thronged the Santa Cruz cremation ground for a final glimpse of the man the prime minister affectionately described as "a rare public figure".

People, some of them from the shanties in the North West Mumbai constituency Sunil Dutt represented in the Lok Sabha, clung on to a the flower-bedecked truck that ferried the body from his Bandra residence. Sanjay Dutt sat on the truck with film personalities like Salman Khan and Mukesh Dutt.

Across the city of Mumbai and indeed all over the country, people from all walks of life and cutting across political barriers mourned the death of the gentleman par excellence.

The central government announced a day of state mourning for Dutt, who would have been 76 on June 6 and who assumed office as the sports minister exactly on this day last year.

"A colourful and charismatic personality and a celebrity in the world of cinema, Sunil Dutt touched the millions in our country through many of his purposeful and socially relevant roles in numerous films and became a household name," said the prime minister in his condolence message.

Manmohan Singh, who along with Sonia Gandhi flew from New Delhi for the cremation, said the country had "lost a rare public figure who combined the best of the artistic traditions with a robust social vision".

He leaves behind his daughters Namrata and Priya and son Sanjay Dutt. His wife Nargis, an actress with whom he fell in love at first sight and married, died in 1981 after a prolonged battle against cancer.

Said lyricist Javed Akhtar: "I met him recently. He was so full of life and so full of plans. How could he die?"

A family member said Dutt had been feeling unwell for some days and had gone for a blood test Monday. But the tests did not turn up anything negative. "He seemed quite all right when he went to sleep last night."

As news of his death spread, people ranging from Bollywood stars and politicians to poor slum dwellers poured into his house.

His body was taken for the cremation amid cries of "Sunil Dutt Zindabad!" Thousands lined the streets of the 10-km route. Many showered flowers on the body draped in Indian tricolour. Some were perched on treetops.

Sonia Gandhi struck a personal note when she recalled the actor-turned-politician's close ties with the Nehru-Gandhi family and called him a man of secular values.

"He had a rare quality. Wherever there was problem, he was there first. He was truly secular. All his life he stood for secularism."

Before the state funeral, India's 'nightingale' Lata Mangeshkar spoke for millions when she said: "He was a rare human being. People like him are difficult to find."

Born June 6, 1929, in a village called Khurd in present-day Pakistan's Jhelum district, Dutt's hit movies among the 100 in which he acted included "Padosan", "Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai", "Mother India", "Waqt", "Humraaz", "Reshma Aur Shera", "Yadeein", "Gumrah", "Yeh Raastein Hain Pyar Ke" and the very recent "Munnabhai M.B.B.S."

Sunil Dutt lost his father at the age of five, and he and his family members - he was raised by his mother and father's elder brother - were among the millions who were rendered homeless by the 1947 partition of India.

The Dutt family moved to Ambala in Haryana and lived virtually on the pavement before the authorities allocated them a plot of land. A hardworking Punjabi, Dutt came to Mumbai to start a new life.

He first held a clerical job with the Bombay Bus Service. A chance encounter with a British advertising company helped him to interview leading actors for Radio Ceylon, making him a mini celebrity.

His first film was "Railway Platform". But the movies that fetched him stardom were "Ek Hi Raasta" and "Mother India", both released in 1956. He reigned supreme in the 1960s and 1970s. He eventually won the Padma Shree.

Nargis' death in 1981 shattered Sunil Dutt and he took to politics, joining the Congress party, and did social work on an extensive scale, quickly winning the admiration of people all over India.

He contested the Lok Sabha elections in 1984, and won from Mumbai North West again in 1989, 1991, 1999 and 2004. He did not contest in 1996 and 1998 on account of Sanjay Dutt's involvement in activities linked to the underworld.

At the height of Sikh militancy in Punjab, Dutt, accompanied by his daughter Priya, walked from Mumbai to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a distance of 2,500 km over 76 days in 1987.

Later, he motored through five South Asian countries including Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka preaching peace, and again walked from Hiroshima to Nagasaki in Japan to protest wars.

He also entertained Indian soldiers during every conflict, starting from the Sino-Indian war of 1962 to the Kargil India-Pakistan showdown in 1999. Over the years he became close to the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Whenever there was a natural disaster, Sunil Dutt raised money or helped the victims in whatever way he could.

After his wife's death, Sunil Dutt raised money for cancer hospitals in India and abroad. In the endeavour, he joined hands with Pakistan's cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.

His most trying time came when Sanjay Dutt fell a victim to drug abuse and was later linked to the underworld after the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

He had put back all that behind him when death came Wednesday.