Jaadugar (2022) stars Jitendra Kumar, Javed Jaffrey, Arushi Sharma, and Manoj Joshi, among others. The Netflix Hindi movie is directed by Sameer Saxena and written by Biswapati Sarkar. The 166-minute movie has music composed by Nilotpal Bora.
The synopsis reads, “A small-town magician with zero interest in football must lead his local team to the finals of a tournament if he wishes to marry the love of his life.”
Netflix India Film Jaadugar Review Contains No Spoilers
The story of the Netflix movie Jaadugar is set in the Neemuch town of Madhya Pradesh. Every year, there’s a local football match between the teams of two different areas. Adarsh Nagar’s Sikandar’s always failed to win every match.
Meenu (Jitendra Kumar) has no interest in football. His interests cater more towards magic and love (chasing girls). His uncle (played by Javed Jaffrey) does his best to get Meenu interested in playing football. But nothing helps. However, it’s love that changes Meenu’s mind. To win the love of his life, Meenu has to learn football and help his team to reach the finals.
We’ve grown up listening to ‘Haarke jeetne waale ko Baazigar Kehte hai’ (The one who wins after losing is called Baazigar). But in the Netflix movie, the dialogue is twisted entirely. I tried to make peace with it. I know I shouldn’t have. But I thought the plot would get better. Sadly, it didn’t. I was confused with the premise and the time it took to make sense.
Also Read: HIT The First Case (2022) Review: Rajkummar Rao’s Crime Thriller is a Guessing Game Till the End
Maybe, the writer and director would’ve thought that bringing together the story of football, magic, and love would create something exciting. Maybe, it looked exciting enough on paper. But as a movie altogether, it struggles. It’s tough to keep up with a simple story that isn’t even complicated but stretched for 2 hours and 47 minutes.
It’s not that Jaadugar didn’t have any fun moments. There are scenes when the Sikandar football team players make you laugh. Jitendra Kumar tries his best to bring out the romantic side. But it looks caricaturish. It is hard to take the love angle and his motive to learn football seriously.
Another issue with Jaadugar is the songs. Is it also a musical? I believe, it’s not.
Jitendra Kumar left a good impression with his performance in Panchayat Season 2. So watching him try to perform the scenes that weren’t matching his potential was heartily disappointing. The same goes for Javed Jaffrey, who is such a talented actor.
Netflix’s Jaadugar Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, the Netflix movie not only fails to capture the essence of a small town story, but it also doesn’t deliver an enjoyable plot. The runtime is a big put-off because not everyone wants to watch a 160 minutes+ tedious movie while sitting in the comfort of their rooms.
The movie is now streaming on Netflix.
Also Read: Don’t Make Me Go Review: Father-Daughter Road Trip Story With An Unexpected Ending