Raja Natwarlal : Watch it for the first half
Beware! Serial Kisser Emran Hashmi is back with another film. And I will tell you at start itself that his on screen kisses in this movie are worth watching too. Credit shall also go to the debutant actress from Pakistan, Humaima Malick.
Having done with the kissing part, let’s now move to the review of the movie.
This movie name is inspired by biggest con man of India, Mithilesh Kumar Shivasta, often called as Natwarlal. It often references him throughout the screenplay. So the story is about a conman who gets trapped in the big game and how he makes the game his own and wins in the end.
Raja (Emran Hashmi) is a small time crook and conman who believes “One who worry about saving do not know how to earn more” and throws all his money on a bar girl named Ziya (Humaima Malik) who is also in love with him. Raja wants to earn more and more and that too faster and faster. He urges his guardian brother and partner in crime, Raghav (Deepak Tijori) to get into a big game. Raghav explains him that big game means big risks but Raja convinces him. Raghav also tells him about the bad shah of Big games, Yogi (Paresh Rawal) who lives in Dharamshala. Later Raja and Yogi join hands together to catch the big fish Varda Yadav (Kay Kay Menon).
What happens after that? Are they successfully able to win the big game or does the risk involved gets them to some undesired result? For the answers of all these and others, do watch the movie.
Story by Parveez Sheikh is not novel but such movies are not repeated often so this is interesting topic. Screenplay is very fluid and interesting till the interval. Infact, the interval point is at a very intriguing point. However, the flaws in the screenplay in post interval portion mars the speed and panache of the first one. It’s dull, stretchy and predictable. Suspension of Disbelief is abused and there are loopholes in the plot which any layman can even point out (Eg Why didn’t the hit man (mohammed zeeshan ayyub) send photo of Raja to Varda). Still the movie is worth a watch for the first half. Dialogues by Sanjay Masoom are very interesting and remain in memory after one leaves the theatre. The dialogue writer makes his presence felt. Good job at that.
Director Kunal Deshmukh crafts the con movie with simple storytelling sans much style. But it gives a different essence to the movie. He unfortunately is not able to hide the flaws in writing in the second half and movie goes flat and drab at most places post interval. If he could have got it corrected in the second half, the movie was worth 4 stars. He should definitely look for perfect written material to demonstrate his directorial prowess. Editors Manan Mehta and Anand Subaya did a decent job with the material at hand.
Kunal Deshmukh extracted best performances from his cast. Emran Hashmi is in his elements as the role is tailor-made for him. He excels in the restless, go-getter, overconfident characters and is in his own zone while portraying Raja. Paresh Rawal does justice to his role but is sidelined in second half. New girl, Humaima Malik is oozes oomph and can act adequately. It is nice to see Deepak Tijori back on screen. He does good job as the soft spoken kind hearted big brother. Kay Kay Menon as Varda Yadav is underused. I think Kunal Deshmukh did injustice to Paresh Rawal and Kay Kay Menon in bid to raise the character value of the Emran Hashmi. However, the more stronger the supporting cast, the better is the movie. All other actors do best in their roles. So we can say that casting by Anmol Ahuja is spot on.
Production Design by Mayur Sharma is good, Costumes by Rick Roy are noteworthy. Cinematography by Raaj Chakravarti adequate. Music by Yuvan Shankar Raja is ok and surprisingly without any chart busters in an Emran Hashmi movie. Sandeep Shirodkar’s background music is good.
On the whole, Raja Natwarlal is a fun and interesting movie to watch.
Rating: 
Recommendation: Watch it for the 1st half.
However, if you can not accept anything but perfection (or wish to save money for next week’s release Mary Kom), then skip this one to watch on satellite or DVD.
