‘Jaadugar’ Detail Review: The viral fever had fueled India’s appetite for new content. As soon as Amol Palekar became an adult, making films on the middle class had stopped and star power kept the box office engine running. From the beginning of television till about two decades, it would have been nice if serials made for the middle class used to come. Then came the time of Kanjivaram’s ironed sarees and poor women smeared with nine hundred grams of make-up, in which artists used to sleep and wake up with make-up on.
Television also started looking at the middle class from the point of view of the consumer, due to which business was done but the art went somewhere else. Then came the viral fever. Middle class young hero and heroine. Clever, clever, a little corrupt but very pure at heart, that is, a true representative of the changing middle class. They did not get success but won in the end because their moral values were similar to those of middle class parents of small towns. This emotional concept was very much liked by all those boys and girls who used to run away from their identity, their economic condition and the so-called “backward” life of the village after coming to the metros.
Used to see the whole family doing farming naturally, and came to the city and presented it in the name of organic farming. This was the reason for the success of the content of Janta The Viral Fever. Now this public is responsible for the abundance of such content due to which there is a famine of good and true stories. A recent example is the film “The Magicians” on Netflix created by a team of former crew members of The Viral Fever.
Who can tell better than Arunabh Kumar that even after leaving IIT, the hobby of making films or television or OTT content can arise. He founded The Viral Fever in 2010, starting with the YouTube channel. He was joined by his juniors; Biswapati Sarkar and Amit Golani. Some such friends and associates like Jitendra Kumar, Sameer Saxena. After being associated with The Viral Fever for a long time, Biswapati, Amit Golani, Sameer Saxena and Saurabh Khanna together started their own film company Poshampa Pictures.
His latest offering in planning to make web series and films for OTT is – Jaadugar. There is neither magic in the film nor any innovation in the presentation of the story. This type of content is expected from this team and may or may not be. The story has everything like other TVF productions. Middle class, small town, lives influenced by film and television, and a love story that must culminate in a Neemuch neighborhood team winning the football cup. If the hero loses, then he wins, then the heroine has an angry father, a divorced heroine, and the hero’s almost unsuccessful uncle.
There is also a team of self proclaimed players of the locality and there are professional football teams in front of them. There are also many emotional angles which are expected to hook the audience but alas, the film misses here. Jitendra Kumar is a good actor, but now he has started appearing in the same roles. His acting in Panchayat entertained everyone well, but his magic failed in ‘Jaadugar’. The story of becoming a magician because of the desire to eat Kulfi seems fake in today’s date. Instead of loving his girlfriend, he is busy in wooing her with filmy ways. He doesn’t like football and doesn’t know how to play, but as it happens, he scores a goal in the moments of need.
Javed Jaffrey is never given good roles. His character never fully develops. Same is the case in this film as well. He wants to win the cup with the Gali Mohalla team, but he never prepares for football with them throughout the year and directly appears in the tournament. Aarushi Sharma is the heroine in the film. When given to all the characters, they also have a backstory. She is a divorcee, got married after quarreling with her parents and then stayed away from her family members, when the marriage broke down and she came to her father’s house, her mother had passed away and her father had lost his mind. This backstory was not needed. A normal, sensible, educated doctor girl has an understanding of good and bad. It is good to see Manoj Joshi on screen because he does not experiment much, he has not done this time also. Have become senior magicians, except magic everything works.
The story is written by Biswapati Sarkar. Perhaps forgot the difference between writing a web series and writing a film. Every character has a backstory. It also happens in normal life but it is not necessary to show every backstory in the film. Time is a bit more in web series, the writer also has opportunities. Jitendra Kumar has many stories in this film, from why he wants to become a magician to the death of his parents in an accident, a failed love story, a Dronacharya-Eklavya relationship, another love story, ways to impress a girl Performing magic in front of his house, playing football, a strained relationship with his uncle, playing football and scoring a goal, betraying the team and making things right in the end are some of the types of tracks.
Similar is the pain of Javed Jaffrey’s character. To show the atmosphere of a small town, the writer did not need to show everything influenced by the small town. Director Sameer Saxena has the disease of Alfred Hitchcock or Subhash Ghai, he appears in a role in every film. The film which could probably have been enjoyable in two and a half hours, became three and a half hours because of the writer’s habit of putting such backstory.
Good music is expected from Nilotpal Bora, so there are one or two good songs in the film. The songs of Jadugaari and Khulene Do will remind you of an old song, if you put a little effort, you will remember it. There are abuses in two or four dialogues, the rest of the film is clean. There is no obscenity as expected, the story moves in a straight line and there are moments where the small town – middle class – extreme emotion is the right mix. It is possible that keeping aside the technical aspects, the film may look good, but remember that it is not made in TVF’s factory, so there is every possibility of not feeling any connection with it.
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Tags: movie review
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 20, 2022, 17:10 IST
