Jaadugar is a Netflix original movie starring a wonderful ensemble of actors. This sports dramedy is the first feature of Posham Pa Pictures, the new production company formed by the TVF members. TVF gave some really good and popular web series like Yeh Meri Family, Humorously Yours, Permanent Roommates, Tripling, the first season of Kota Factory, Hostel Daze, and Panchayat.
Cast
Starring Jitendra Kumar and Arushi Sharma in the lead, the film features Jaaved Jaaferi, Rukshar Dhillon, Dhruv Thukral, and Bikram Malati.
The film is directed by Sameer Saxena (who surprisingly, makes a guest appearance in the film) and is written by Biswapati Sarkar.
Story
The film follows the story of Meenu (Jitendra Kumar) who is a magician and comes from a community where football is loved by everyone. Even though his family has a legacy of football legends, Meenu does not like the sport also because there has been a lot of peer pressure in his family. His interest lies in doing magical tricks. Meanwhile, he falls in love with a girl, Disha (Arushi Sharma), and the only way to win her heart is by winning the town’s football tournament.
Jaadugar is a film about Meenu’s journey of pursuing his dreams and how far he is willing to go for his love for Disha.
Review
The premise of the movie is very typical of a guy falling in love but can only be able to win the girl’s heart by doing the only thing he hates, and also struggling to pursue his dream. The film explores all these storylines but it does not do it in an organized manner. The two elements – love and sports, and also magic – unfortunately, could not do justice to the film and each other.
Considering the length of the film i.e. almost 3 hours, it feels like a very long stretch. The multiple storylines intertwining create confusion for the viewers that makes it difficult to understand. The dialogues are a cheesy bunch of references to the magic that are completely unnecessary. But they also go well with Jitendra’s character as it portrays his childlike personality.
Coming to the comedy aspect of this comedy sports drama, it’s very dull. The laughter is forced at some points.
As for the acting, Jitendra has been known for his solid acting skills in series like Panchayat, and Kota Factory, he does not disappoint with his performance. Jaaved Jaaferi deserves special mention for his performance in the film.
The movie gives a simple message that winning is not always important. But it seems that the message it is trying to convey and the story were lost somewhere. The number of topics that the film covered makes it very confusing for the audience to keep track of the main plotline.
Many things that needed an explanation in the movie are never addressed like the male football team has a female member, it does not have relevance to the story, but it does make the audience question its significance.
