Nana Patekar: 15 films, many roles and dialogues that refuse to fade

Nana Patekar’s best movies and roles: Here are 15 memorable performances, including Parinda, Krantiveer, Welcome, Ab Tak Chhappan and Natsamrat.

New Delhi: From the menacing Anna in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda to the hilarious Uday Shetty in Anees Bazmee’s Welcome, Nana Patekar has built a career on characters who are difficult to forget.

Nana Patekar has never been the kind of actor who needed a romantic song, a stylish entry or a carefully choreographed fight to make his presence felt. Give him a good scene, and he could turn it into the most talked-about moment of a film. Sometimes all it took was an angry outburst. At other times, a pause or a disapproving look did the job.

His dialogue delivery has inspired mimicry artists, become part of everyday conversations and, more recently, found a new audience through internet memes. But there is more to Patekar than his famous lines. His filmography includes men who are cruel, principled, insecure, affectionate, eccentric and occasionally downright funny.

Here are 15 films and roles that show why Nana Patekar continues to occupy a distinctive place in Indian cinema.

1. Anna in Parinda (1989)

Anna was not the sort of gangster audiences were accustomed to seeing. He could be terrifying one moment and strangely vulnerable the next. In Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda, Patekar gave the underworld don an unpredictable personality that made even ordinary conversations seem dangerous. The performance won him a National Film Award and helped establish him as an actor capable of dominating a film without playing its conventional hero.

2. Major Pratap Chauhan in Prahaar: The Final Attack (1991)

With Prahaar, Patekar took charge both in front of and behind the camera. His Major Chauhan believes in discipline, honesty and personal courage, but discovers that the world outside the army operates by a very different set of rules. The film allowed Patekar to explore a subject that has surfaced repeatedly in his work: the frustration of an individual confronting a society unwilling to change.

3. Inspector Shivajirao Wagle in Tirangaa (1993)

Put Raj Kumar and Nana Patekar in the same film and there was bound to be a battle of personalities. Tirangaa gave audiences exactly that. As Inspector Wagle, Patekar was aggressive, outspoken and ready to take on anyone standing in his way.........

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