GenZ reacts to Nana Patekar’s Krantiveer: An angry young man hero with a weak narrative would never work today

I was introduced to Nana Patekar as an actor with his iconic ‘Control Uday’ from Welcome (2007). On the other end of the spectrum were his brilliant Parinda, Prahaar and Ab Tak Chhappan. I had no idea that there was another Nana Patekar somewhere there, the one who starred in Krantiveer (1994). On his birthday, I, a GenZ, watched the action-thriller, which also stars Raaj Kumar and Dimple Kapadia. While Patekar’s performance was a winner in my eyes, the movie — the year’s highest grosser — didn’t work for me. Here’s my GenZ review of Krantiveer.

There’s no doubt that the angry man image suits Nana Patekar, but his character Pratap Narayan Tilak isn’t what our generation is used to watching. We have more flawed angry heroes, be it Ganesh Gaitonde in Sacred Games or Varun Dhawan in Badlapur. While his emotional intensity is important for the film, which also won him a National Award for his performance, his outbursts felt tiring and trite after a while.

Pratap starts as a textbook cynic, an apathetic man who simply doesn’t care, but eventually goes on to confront social injustice directly, painting quite a wide arc for his character. However, I, as a GenZ, relate better with characters who experience and showcase subtle emotional shifts, reflection, or narrative complexity. I appreciate nuance instead of volume. Moreover, the female characters, including Dimple Kapadia, have barely anything to do. Their existence was mostly decorative. Nana Patekar’s brilliant performance was compromised because of the way the story was narrated and stitched together. A film should look like a collaboration, a symphony, but in Krantiveer, everyone was operating at a different note, and the dissonace in their performance felt jarring.

Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan addressed several social issues in India, and ended up delivering a commercial action thriller in 2023, relatable for today’s mass audience. On the other hand, Krantiveer also tackled multiple social problems, including, corruption, land mafia, and communalism, but making it a crowded narrative. At certain points, the film felt chaotic, crammed and with zero nuance. For example, the communal riots and land grab plot moved from riots to fire destruction to Pratap’s denial of communal division, without completely exploring any of the matters.

GenZ reacts to Nana Patekar’s 1994 film Krantiveer

Whenever I sit to watch any old film for my GenZ reacts series, it’s mostly a fresh wave of air that has me intrigued in the very beginning. However, with Krantiveer, the Mehul Kumar directorial failed to have me hooked in the opening scene. From a modern cinematic lens, Danny’s antagonist Chatur Singh felt underdefined as it lacked the buildup to threat, making his role less impactful. His weak introduction delivered no added fear or seriousness of the fact he is the decision-maker for the entire village. There were several other boring scenes that made me want to skip them and get to the closing sequence. The obligatory song breaks, random dance numbers and hypnosis scenes (logic wasn’t it’s strength clearly) were the most uninteresting and felt unnecessary.

One of the biggest turn offs in Krantiveer was how how journalism was portrayed. The movie shows no balance between the media that is corrupt or the dramatic courtroom justice system, just waiting for a viral monologue scene. As a journalist myself, the black-and-white portrayal feels painful. Today’s Gen Z understands that journalism is messy, grey, and consists of different layered people – not a stage for powerful speeches that can instantly fix democracy. Moreover, activism then vs activism now also has a stark difference. Earlier, it was about shouting slogans, spreading awareness, impactful speeches, and more. Now the dialogue has shifted to the online medium completely – likes, going viral, reels, stories, social media digs, etc.

What was fun to watch was Patekar’s popular speech in the climax scene of Krantiveer. It was clear that a GenZ was watching the action-thriller because who else would relate the best to a famous meme? The speech in which he confronts corrupt politicians – “Aa gaye meri maut ka tamasha dekhne… (You’ve come to watch the spectacle of my death…),” was powerful but tickled my funny bone because of the joke’s muscle memory. After watching 2 hours and 10 minutes of the film, this part didn’t feel dated, it felt prophetic. It created impact back then, and it still does.

Watching Krantiveer in 2025 felt like accidentally opening X on a bad day, when everyone is in rage, high on emotions – not aligned, complaining about different selfish concerns. Nana Patekar as Pratap Narayan Tilak was refreshingly raw, but I wouldn’t give an applause to the movie. It might have been iconic for its time, but today’s generation would rather watch a silent hero, instead of one who is only complaining about the system.