SOWMEN MITTER | সৌমেন মিটার

I grew fond of Nana Patekar after I saw Prahaar: The Final Attack. Following that, I sought out some more of his films, in which he played either the protagonist or an important character. An actor extraordinaire, he had almost acquired the status of a cult figure during those days when we were barely out of college. There was something unusual about his screen presence. He was not the conventional Bollywood hero: he did not depend upon glamour, romance or physical perfection. His appeal came from somewhere else—from intensity, authenticity and an ability to embody the anger and anxieties of ordinary people. That is perhaps the most interesting way of understanding Nana Patekar sociologically. His career coincided with a period when Indian society was undergoing enormous transformation: rapid urbanisation, economic liberalisation, political instability, communal tensions, the growth of organised crime, weakening traditional institutions and the emergence of a more assertive middle clas...