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Release date:
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August 29, 2014
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Director:
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Kunal Deshmukh
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Cast:
Language:
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Emraan Hashmi, Paresh Rawal, Kay Kay Menon, Humaima Malick,
Deepak Tijori
Hindi
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It’s been a while
since I’ve felt this uninspired to write a film review. Raja Natwarlal – centred around a confidence trickster called Raja
– suffers from being overly aware of its own cleverness. For a con film to
work, it has to catch us by surprise. As viewers of the genre, we’re staring at
the screen with eyes wide open, on high alert, ready to catch every trick up
the story’s sleeve; in spite of that the film has to catch us off guard. Here
in Raja Natwarlal, not only is the
con too easily executed to be believable, but too many of the ‘surprises’ are
visible from a mile. A pity because it had the potential to be a thoroughly
enjoyable, bite-your-nails, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat,
stare-aghast-at-the-screen, Ocean’s-11-kind-of-slick
thriller.
The premise is
brimming with possibilities: a team of con men sell a non-existent cricket team
to a cricket-crazy billionaire. They’re led by the smooth-talking Raja (Emraan
Hashmi) and his new-found teacher in the business (Paresh Rawal). Their victim is
South Africa-based Indian industrialist Vardha Yadav (Kay Kay Menon). With this
trio of lovely actors and an interesting premise, you would think director
Kunal Deshmukh would deliver, if nothing else, a fun film. As it happens, Deshmukh
already shares a certain comfort level with his leading man who played the hero
in his other three directorial ventures too: Jannat, Jannat 2 and Tum Mile. Unfortunately, Raja Natwarlal’s screenplay lacks
substance, the narrative is too self-conscious with its “look at me, see what a
breathtaking scheme I’m pulling off!” tone, and its not-brilliant pace is
further slowed down by a lacklustre romance that is pivotal to the plot.
Pakistani actress
Humaima Malick – making her Bollywood debut here – plays the love of Raja’s
life, a bar dancer who he wishes to rescue from her life of indignities. Malick
is an excellent actress; we saw that in the social drama from her home country Bol that was released in theatres here
in India. Raja Natwarlal does little
with her innate acting talent and tries instead to convince us that she is a
hottie – which she is not. There are no sparks flying between her and Emraan
either. Besides, those gyrations on the dance floor, the acres of flesh on
display, the awkward love-making scene in a bathtub between her and Raja are
all tedious and out of place in a film that needed to be constantly on the
move.
Worse, songs are
abruptly inserted into the proceedings at each point where it seems like things
might just speed up as they ought to. Tere Hoke Rahenge in Arijit Singh’s
powerful voice starts off well, but dissipates into a slightly generic tune –
it’s the best of the film’s musical numbers.
Humaima is not the
only one being wasted in Raja Natwarlal.
The wonderfully talented Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, familiar to viewers from Raanjhanaa, appears here in an
inexplicably teeny role. On the other hand, Deepak Tijori makes his presence
felt in a small but significant part as Raja’s partner-in-crime who is murdered
halfway through the story. I don’t remember thinking much of him as a young man, but there’s
something endearing about Tijori here, chubbier and far more wide-waisted than
he was when he danced to Galyan sankli sonyachi in Dil Hai Ki Maanta
Nahin, yet also a more substantial screen presence. It would be nice to see
him in more films in bigger roles.
In terms of story
and storytelling, Raja Natwarlal suffers
from the same lacunae as Bunty Aur Babli did,
without that delightful film’s over-riding strengths. It certainly sounded
cool, for instance, that the lead pair in BAB
intended to sell the Taj Mahal to gullible tourists. But the execution of that
scam was weak because it relied not on human greed or the chinks in the armour
of a strong, intelligent individual; it relied on the absolute stupidity of the
potential target. Here in Raja Natwarlal,
Vardha is so foolish, that it’s hard not to wonder how this ass became a
billionaire in the first place. He doesn’t have a mega-team to back him, in
fact he seems to operate with a solo associate who is a sounding board and not
an adviser. Unlike B&B though, Raja Natwarlal does not come armed with Rani
Mukerji’s irresistible pizzazz, the chemistry between her and Abhishek Bachchan
or between Abhishek and his off-screen dad, the rarely seen nuggets and
insights on life in small-town India, Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s fantastic music or
the utter perfection of Kajra re.
Besides, Raja Natwarlal has a been-there-seen-that
feel to it. Emraan himself has played this character – the golden-hearted
rapscallion, the con man who is not such a bad guy after all – with slight
variations in most of his films. If you’ve seen him in Shanghai, you know how brilliant he is capable of being and how he
ought to be challenging himself more. There are some moments to be enjoyed in
his relationship with Rawal’s character Yogi, but it’s not enough to lift the
film.
I didn’t hate Raja Natwarlal. I didn’t dislike it
intensely either. To be fair, it has a couple of interesting twists here and
there, and it’s hard to completely ignore Emraan’s mischievous charm. That being
said, the film as a whole is decidedly forgettable. C’mon Mr Hashmi, chuck the
cliched characters. Give us another Shanghai.
Rating (out of five stars): *1/2
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CBFC Rating (India):
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U/A
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Running time:
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141 minutes
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Video courtesy: Effective Communication
“Tere hoke rahenge” song video :
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