Nana Patekar is a rare phenomenon in Indian cinema thanks to his ability to internalise deep emotions while relying on what we generally call ‘histrionics’ and ‘over-the-top’ dialogue delivery with an impeccable control over his craft. The first film that comes to mind when you think of Nana is 1989’s Parinda, where he plays a dreaded gangster named Anna Seth. It is a character that instills fear in others around him and among the audience right from the get-go, and Nana plays it like he relishes the opportunity to portray the villain. This is what great actors do: they transcend mere ‘hero’ or ‘villain’ categorisation, putting themselves in the character’s shoes without judgement and embracing the brunt of being the bad guy like only they can. Being a villain in India can earn an actor the audience's wrath, but Nana Patekar clearly did not care. He is an absolute master at inhabiting his role, regardless of its type, and his Anna in Parinda is a pinnacle of his craftsmanship.
There are several moments in the gangster drama from director Vidhu Vinod Chopra where Nana Patekar takes his acting game to a level few can match. One of these comes early on in the film when Anna Seth tells his henchmen to kill Kishan (Jackie Shroff) and his brother Karan (Anil Kapoor) if their brotherhood gets in the way of his business. “Dhande mein koi kisi ka bhai nahi hota,” Anna says, espousing his Krishna-esque wisdom, before delivering a death threat with a sense of callousness suggesting that killing comes second nature to the man. It tells you everything you want to know about Anna: cruel, conniving, and cold-blooded.
Now, the beauty of Anna Seth is that Nana makes you look beyond all the histrionics and empathise with him for the human being he is. This duality is nowhere more evident than in the film's second standout sequence. As he remembers his dead wife at the sight of a flame, Anna suffers from a psychological breakdown characterised by violent, involuntary movements and self-harm. “Yeh dukh naam ki bimari ka ilaaj kisi doctor ke paas bhi nahi,” Anna says at one point in the film, drawing the audience’s empathy and making them forget momentarily that the man is essentially an animal. Of course, Shiv Kumar Subramaniam and Imtiyaz Husain’s dialogues help considerably, but you still need an actor to deliver these with conviction. Nana Patekar is that actor. With his distinctive baritone voice and expressive eyes, the actor conveys Anna's deep sense of guilt and inner trauma.
Every other performance from Nana Patekar is a tour de force, but there is something special about Anna in Parinda. It is the benchmark of his art. It has been years since yours truly has watched the gangster drama, but the film, just like Nana Patekar’s performance, is so powerful that recollecting its best moments is hardly a task.
Nana has always had the ability to marry menace with mercifulness, which probably explains why the actor has excelled as much as a protagonist as he has as an antagonist. His remarkable range allowed him to rein himself in and perform with plenty of restraint or explode with trademark theatrics, according to the demands of the screenplay.
Take, for instance, his vengeful cop in the masterful Ab Tak Chhappan (2004). The 2004 film has few of Nana’s trademark quirks and yet is just as memorable as any other Patekar gem. You travel with his cop character, knowing information bit by bit, and empathise with his profound feeling of revenge thanks largely to Nana’s command over his craft. At the same time, few can be as funny as Nana when he decides to let his hair down, as evident in his goofy turn as an adorable don named Uday Shetty in 2007’s Welcome. Of course, even those who have not watched any Nana Patekar film might be familiar with the ubiquitous meme that comes at the end of every other Instagram reel where Uday Shetty bursts out in laughter. Remarkably, the same hysteria and unhinged energy, with a bit of tweak, followed some of the ‘Maar Do Sale Ko’ type death threats in Parinda. What an actor! One of Indian cinema's best-ever.