"Raja Natwarlal" seemed to me to be an unofficial Indian remake of "The Sting". The basic plot setups in both films are identical. A small-time con artist and his friend pull off a big (for them) score, but turn out to have unwittingly stolen from a very dangerous man. When the friend is killed in retribution, the small-timer seeks out a big-time con artist with a connection to said friend. After some reluctance, that man agrees to train the small-timer, and they form a team to carry out a big con on the dangerous man to avenge their friends' death. While "Raja Natwarlal" isn't nearly as good a film as "The Sting", it still manages to have a lot of fun with the premise.
Anyone looking for realism in a film like this is going to be disappointed. Most of the fun comes from watching the big con while not fully aware of the entire plan. Each new piece sliding into place evokes a gratifying chuckle at the cleverness of it all. There is, of course, a montage near the film's end that details how everything was pulled off, revealing the moments of misdirection. It's easy to poke holes here if you want to. There are several times where, in retrospect, luck plays a huge role--the villain and others needed to behave in just the right way in order for the plan to proceed.
The goal here, however, isn't to be realistic. It's simply to be entertaining. And when a con film like this is made with such energy, entertainment is usually going to be found.
I usually mention the musical sequences when I review an Indian film. In this case I found them to be especially impressive. It's not that the songs or choreography were necessarily better than those in the others. It was how vibrant and energetic the sequences were. The frame was filled with bright, lively hues, and I can only assume that there was some post production work involved in making the sunglasses frequently worn by the main character impossibly, yet gloriously, reflective. These sequences were a visual treat.
While the film clearly lives in the shadow of "The Sting", it is a fun, energetic film with a good cast. Plotwise, it is probably the most "Western" foreign film I've seen this year.
B
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