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.

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.

Amitabh Bachchan is the superstar of the millenium.However that does not mean that none of his movies are bad.there have been instances when the fans of the superstar have walked out of theatre disappointed by the film. Although some of his good movies have flopped there are instances when some of the bad movies had a good run at the box office.Mr.natwarlal heads the list of Big B's bad movies which ran to packed houses.It was very rare to see bachchan doing such a moronic and idiotice stuff and reducing himself to a stunt man and buffoon. A really pathetic movie.The only good thing about it is the song''Mere Paas Aao..'' sung by big B himself.This was the first solo which Big b sang for hindi movies.

This is a waste of time watching this movie. Initially it creates some interest, afterwards this movie goes directionless. Waste of high profile actors. I started watching this movie after seeing this review. however, It was very disappointing. The movie starts like most of the Desai Type movie but later it turns out to be clueless story build up and with poor subplots. This movie makes you boring with full of illogical sequences. This movie jumps the sequences without building any depth in the story line. I really do not mind watching masala movies, however, this type of masala movie will definitely test your patience. It is really disappointing for Amitabh fans. My Vote is 2 out of 10.

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.