India, Oct. 9 -- In his tribute to Nana Patekar on Thursday, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray did more than mourn an actor. He placed Patekar within the story of the city and society that had produced him.

"Mumbai could never be separated from its theatre, its cinema, its chawls and slums, its middle and lower-middle classes struggling to find a place for themselves, the decline of the working class, the rise of the underworld, the unravelling of communal harmony and the new aspirations unleashed by liberalisation. Through all those changes, Nana had remained present, on stage and screen," Thackeray posted on X.

While it is an unusually political way of remembering an actor, no other frame fits Nana Patekar quite as ...