Mr. Natwarlal

Review By Kamal K

Amitabh Bachchan dominates this masala hit, long on comedy and short on plot. As happy-go-lucky confidence man bent on revenge against a criminal boss played to the hilt by Amjad Khan, Natwar falls for a local village girl, played by Rekha, saves the village, and wrestles a tiger. Some nice songs by Rokesh Roshan and colorful costumes but not enough to save it.

I don't think that Mr. Natwarlal is a bad movie at all. Its a kind of adventure movie with an interesting story line and a good screen play. Its fun to watch and complete worth the money. Amitabh is so cool. and his chemistry with Ajit is amusing. some action scenes are unique for the time the movie was made and some are a bot exaggerated. but who cares for a couple of bad scenes when you are having fun. the movie has terrific songs too. the ones I remember are: Mere paas aao...., Pardesia..., Oonchie-2 baaton se....

some action scenes are unique for the time the movie was made and some are a bot exaggerated. but who cares for a couple of bad scenes when you are having fun. the movie has terrific songs too. the ones I remember are: Mere paas aao...., Pardesia..., Oonchie-2 baaton se....

Coool Comedy stuff.... utterly wanting in today's genre and equally cooolly executed by Big-B and party. Lot's of sidekick humour and a typical 'ram-katori' image portrayed by Rekha , controlled by the city slick 'B'. Changes the 'angry young man' concept to the 'jokey young man'. Good Fun....so much so I went ahead and bought the DVD too. Since this remark has to be 10 lines or more....here's the 'cut and paste' repeat again :- Coool Comedy stuff.... utterly wanting in today's genre and equally cooolly executed by Big-B and party. Lot's of sidekick humour and a typical 'ram-katori' image portrayed by Rekha , controlled by the city slick 'B'. Changes the 'angry young man' concept to the 'jokey young man'. Good Fun....so much so I went ahead and bought the DVD too.

Mr Natwarlal review :

A stop gap movie in between the making of Vijay Anand's delayed Ram Balram (1980), producer Tony used the spare dates of Superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha to make a quickie with director Rakesh Kumar and surprisingly, Mr. Natwarlal turned out to be a bigger hit than Ram Balram.

The title was inspired from real life chor Natwarlal but obviously, wasnt his biopic as such. The film was a racy adventure featuring Amitabh as the professional thief who whisks off an expensive necklace and reaches a small village for its delivery. That village is ruled and tormented by his arch enemy Vikram (Amjad Khan) who unleashes a tiger on the hapless gaonwallas to create fear.

Amongst the films highlight scenes count Bachchan's fight with the tiger as well as his first playback song - "Mere Paas aao mere dosto ek kissa suno"- which he narrates to the village kiddos and I invariably rewind it for a rewatch on my DVD. Always. Its a superbly sung and picturised number.

Amitabh's chemistry with Rekha is used to the optimum in this film and the 'Pardesia' number is an ample proof of it. Whenever the two stars appear together, the film just elevates to another level altogether. Amjad Khan as the main villain seems to enjoy his caricaturish role - Vikram who embosses a V on the body of his victim - and plays to the gallery brilliantly. Ajit plays Big Bs brother in a surprising positive role. No Mona Darling for him here!!

Mr. Natwarlal is a classic example of Amitabh Bachchan's star power where he rises above a mediocre script and makes even wrestling with a tiger seem like cakewalk. Well, atleast his audience believe so!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

It is one of the many Amitabh-Rekha starrers. Amitabh presents an excellent comedy and action as happy-go-lucky criminal Natwar. Dialogues between Natwar-Giridhari Lal, Natwar-Bhabhi Maa, Natwar-Shanno and above all Natwar-Lord Krishna statue/photo are particulary good. It has some good songs 'Pardesia' and 'Mere paas aao mere dosthon', the latter sung by Amitabh himself. Some other catchy ones are 'Thauba thauba' and 'Aere ye, oonchi oonchi bathon se'. Amjad Khan successfully does a more modern version his Ghabar Singh role. Satyen Kappu and Indrani Mukherjee are very good supporting casts. A truely watchable movie for the whole family.