Name: Jaadugar
Director: Sameer Saxena
Cast: Jitendra Kumar, Arushi Sharma, Jaaved Jaaferi, Manoj Joshi
Release: Netflix
Rating: 1.5 / 5
There are some films that have a good intent at the outset, but to achieve that they often get lost along the way. Director Sameer Saxena’s Jaadugar is a testimony of the aforementioned statement. Starring Jitendra Kumar, Arushi Sharma, Jaaved Jaaferi, and Manoj Joshi, this Biswapati Sarkar written film revolves around a magician, who for the sake of love does something that he totally hates. However, as one would expect it is this loathe, that helps him achieve his desired goal, pun intended.
What I loved the most about this sports dramedy, is how it introduces the main premise and the central characters of the film. At this point it truly manages to hold your attention, but it is the overall pace mixed with several intertwining plotlines, that makes this Jitendra Kumar headlined movie a yawnfest. Another interesting part about Jaadugar is the usage of game cards to describe characters and situations, which most definitely is not unique but are well executed portions. 
Though what I struggle to understand is the overdose of many cheesy dialogues. I wonder if they were intentional to give a certain amount of innocence or a childlike personality to Jitendra‘s character Meenu, or was it the lack of enough effort from the writing team. Dialogues like ‘Main Meenu, raaton ki neendein chinun’ and ‘Kabhi sapnon ya sadkon pe milta hun’ were very puerile. Some of the lines seem extremely forced, and fail to create its desired impact on the emotions.
Not to forget, this 2 hour 47 minutes film stretches way too far with unnecessary scenes, and could have been brought down in terms of it’s run time on the edit table by the film’s editor Dev Rao Jadhav.
As far as the performances are concerned, everyone tried their best to add conviction in this half baked script. Jitendra Kumar is able to make his character believable, Arushi Sharma does a decent job as Dr Disha, and there is probably nothing that Manoj Joshi can’t play onscreen. However, the star of the film for me is Jaaved Jaaferi, who aces his part. Rest of the cast also give able support to the movie.
Overall, Jaadugar has its heart in the right place. However, the message it tries to convey gets lost while juggling multiple ideas of love, football, passion, women empowerment, family, and more, which make this Sameer Saxena directorial less entertaining and more exhausting.
