Raja Natwarlal

Raja (Emraan Hashmi) is a small-time conman who cons people for a living along with his partner in crime Raghav (Deepak Tijori). He is in love with a bar girl Ziya (Humaima Malick). Feeling sorry for her, Raja decides he wants to go for a big catch so that he can marry his lady love and she wont have to work in a bar any more. Thats when the trouble starts. Along with Raghav, Raja makes a grand plan to swindle a huge amount of money from two baddies.

The plan is successful and Raja decides to celebrate.This is when Varda Yadav (Kay Kay Menon), a billionaire based in Cape Town, enters. The money actually belonged to him and upon realising it has been stolen by two street-cons Vardha orders them to be killed. Vardas men find Raghav and kill him. Raja witnesses this and decides to avenge the loss.

He seeks the help of a seasoned crook Yogi (Paresh Rawal), whom Raghav used to talk about before his murder. After a lot of persuasion, Yogi agrees to help Raja have his payback. Yogi trains him, and eventually they form a team of crooks, and set out to Cape Town to finish off Varda.The film received mixed reviews upon release. The Times of India gave 3.

5 stars out of 5 and wrote, With its twisting story, good-looking frames and zingy acting, Raja Natwarlal keeps you entertained. Rachel Saltz from The New York Times wrote, Mr. Deshmukhs setup can be overly fussy some of the con machinations seem needlessly complicated and hard to follow, or maybe not quite worth following but his payoff works. And his cast, too, hits the right notes and finds an easy rhythm. Bollywood Hungama gave 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, Kunal Deshmukh does a reasonably good job in Raja Natwarlal.

There are a few repeated moments from his earlier films, but the plot of the film overshadows that. He manages to get the audiences glued to their seats throughout the film, a few loopholes notwithstanding. Anupama Chopra from Hindustan Times gave a rating of 2.5 and wrote, If you can get past the foolishness of the plot, director Kunal Deshmukhs film is mildly engaging. Raja Sen from Rediff gave the same rating, while writing, Raja Natwarlal has some smarts but tragically lacks the skill or the sleight-of-hand.

Kusumita Das from Deccan Chronicle gave 2.5 stars as well and wrote, Theres a gripping premise of a revenge plan, little bit of comedy, some interesting dialogues and convincing performances from the chief cast. But in a bid to broaden the suspense and make the twists more unpredictable, the story gets entwined in all the yarns it manages to spin for over two hours. Shubha Shetty-Saha from mid-day gave 2.5 stars out of 5, too, and wrote, This film had huge potential but sadly one walks out of the theatre unimpressed by Raja Natwarlals antics and this film.

Rahul Desai from Mumbai Mirror wrote, This film is far from perfect, but makes for an acceptable non-Italian version of The Indian Job-by entertaining solely within the confines of a revenge drama. Sify wrote, The film, with an impressive intermission point, is pacy and full of twists in the second half.Where the film falters is in insinuating incongruous melodrama and unnecessary characters. Shubhra Gupta from Indian Express gave 1.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, A caper flick necessarily has to do a couple of things: it has to have some surprises, and it has to be fun.

On neither of these counts Raja Natwarlal comes up trumps. The Economic Times reported, With its many twists, the film actually has enough potential to stay gripping, but fails woefully at it as it gets a hackneyed treatment. Faheem Ruhani from India Today, gave the film one star and said, Unfortunately for Emraan, there is very little in this film that is enthralling. In fact, this story.is nothing but plain boring and exhausting to sit through.

Mihir Fadnavis from firstpost.com wrote, Raja Natwarlal is a con film about con men, and it succeeds wonderfully in conning you into coming to see it. Raja Natwarlal is a Stupid Mans Oceans 11. Sanjukta Sharma from livemint wrote, You probably wont remember this film after you have watched it. There is no inventiveness in plot, treatment and characterization unlike the best con movies, not for a moment do any of the characters seem to be duping each other, and their wiles or avarice hold no surprises.

Raja Natwarlal is unimaginative pulp; it begins and ends on a lukewarm note.