Raja Natwarlal’ review: Emraan Hashmi cons you again

Raja Natwarlal’ review: Emraan Hashmi cons you again

What do you expect from an Emraan Hashmi flick – strings of kisses followed by several passionate moments encapsulated on screen? Well, this one is different. Emraan Hashmi’s avatar as a con man ‘Mithilesh Kumar’ will startle you but at the same time entice you. The actor has indeed evolved since his ‘Murder’ days, and how!
In this Kunal Deshmukh film, Emraan aka ‘Raja’ is a brilliant in conning common men and making merry out of the gains. A clear picture of one happy-go-lucky man, who has a heart of gold (when he gives out some Rs 6000 bucks to a street kid selling cigarettes) will make you wonder where the movie is going. However, there is a twist in the tale – Raja’s ‘badey bhai’ Raghav, played by Deepak Tijori gets shot dead in front of him.
Raghav’s words of wisdom keep reverberating in Raja’s mind and pinch hard every time he feels his ‘bada bhai’ is not with him any more. His conscience keeps saying that Raghav died because he provoked him to con Vardha Yadav’s man in a fool-proof plan, which however fell flat on their face. This guilt of ‘he-died-because-of-me’ sort of kicks him out of India and he reaches the beautiful landscape of Cape Town, where Mr Yadav resides.The conman inside Emraan takes up a new kind of pace in order to kill the uber stylish and sleek Vardha Yadav (played by Kay Kay Menon), seeking revenge for Raghav’s death. The entire journey will keep you on the tenterhooks and is interspersed with spells of laughter.
The screenplay is linear till the time veteran actor Paresh Rawal makes an uncanny entry from Dharamshala. His get-up and dialogue delivery will certainly make you believe that the screen brightens up every time a senior actor like him makes his presence felt. Paresh as Yogi, is the mastermind whose help Raja takes to con the big man Vardha. Pakistani import Humaima Malick looks hot and that is how her character ‘Ziya’ is meant to be. Her acting talent is realistic, and she suits the role surprisingly well.
Music by Yuvan Shankar Raja will please you and the songs are quite melodious. The song ‘Tere Hokey Rahenge’ by Arijit Singh and Shweta Pandit is already a hit among Emraan fans and Mika Singh’a ‘Dukki Tikki’ is quite a foot tapping number.
The director has made sure that Emraan’s signature style kissing is inherently embedded in the script beautifully. The serial-kisser can give Hollywood a cut-throat competition in that department, hands down.
Cinematographer Raaj A. Chakravati’s work is also worth a mention. A special reference to actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, who looked impressive in his small bit as a hit-man. Wish he had a meatier role in the movie. Besides Zeeshan, the other side-kicks in the film too have played their parts very well.
Filmmaker Kunal Deshmukh’s ‘Raja Natwarlal’ starts with a small con game and towards the climax, the movie ends with a huge con, making the audience applaud seeing our ‘hero’ Emraan Hashmi. We can safely say that the con is on, beware