Jaadugar is a sports comedy-drama film that revolves around Meenu (Jitendra Kumar), a promising magician, and his goal to win a local football tournament to be able to marry the woman he loves. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
In the small town Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh, Meenu’s father has loved football and dreamt of winning the inter-colony tournament; the Dhabolkar Trophy, named after a legendary professional player, Shrikant Dhabolkar.
While he was always the best player in the tournament, he could never win the trophy before he and his wife lost their lives on their way to Gwalior for a football match. Since then, Meenu has blamed football for his parents’ death and hated the game.
His father’s brother, Pradeep, took Meenu in, as well as his dream of winning the trophy and started coaching the colony team; Adarsh Nagar Panthers. However, it was the worst team in the tournament for years and Meenu was just the water boy.
He, on the other hand, developed a talent for magic after watching his idol and teacher Jaadugar Chhabra.
He intends to marry his girlfriend, Iccha, but she leaves him after he fails to remember important details that she mentioned and realised he only hears what he wants to hear.
Meenu meets his mentor, Jaadugar Chhabra, for advice, who tells him that only those who carry love in their hearts can do true magic and true love needs sacrifice, which Meenu is unable to do as he is an inherently selfish person.
He then meets Disha and it’s love at first sight. After getting close to her, he asks for her hand in marriage but she tells him she is divorced. She ran away with her ex-husband as their families did not agree to the marriage. Her husband left her later due to family pressure.
When she returned, her mother had already died and her father has been unable to forgive her. If he wants to marry her, he must convince him as she won’t get married without his consent.
Meanwhile, Pradeep struggles to get the colony team registered for the Dhabolkar Trophy as the entire Neemuch believes they don’t deserve to be in it.
Nobody takes him seriously, not even his nephew. Meenu criticises his obsession with the trophy and blames him for his father’s death, as it was Pradeep who was originally supposed to go to Gwalior but couldn’t, leading Meenu’s father to take his place.
Unable to withstand the hurt, Pradeep jumps off the balcony and injures himself. The entire team decides to register for him.
On the day of registration, Meenu goes to talk to Disha’s father instead, leaving the team short of 12 required players.
However, Pradeep registers Riju George as the 12th player, who is not even a resident of the colony. He provides him a house in terrible condition to stay.
Surprisingly, Disha’s father turns out to be Jaadugar Chhabra, who challenges him to get to the final, as that would be true magic and only those who love can do that.
Now named Adarsh Nagar Sikandars, the team of misfits manages to reach the final with Riju as their star player and using Meenu’s tricks occasionally to gain the the upper hand. During the matches, Disha is brought in as the team doctor but claims she will never be able to get herself to love Meenu.
Now one big family, the team helps Meenu conduct his magic show as well and shows true solidarity. At the end of the show, he narrates the story of a father and daughter, which is actually Disha and her father’s, who watch on.
The rift between them is closed and Jaadugar Chhabra thanks his protege. Disha also falls in love with him due to his kind act.
He now needs to do second magic on Jaadugar Chhabra’s request. As Disha’s former husband left her for his family, Meenu must abandon his family for her.
He wants him to ensure that they lose the final. Meenu hesitantly agrees to this with the intention to do anything for his love.
Jaadugar ending explained in detail:
Anything for love
Meenu exposes Riju as an outsider, putting his entire team in trouble for the final and Riju is disqualified. Disha meets him and tries to give him a push towards the right path.
Pradeep does not want to attend the match as he believes they’ve already lost. But one of the players confesses that he thinks of him and his brother as his heroes and he plays only for them, motivating him to attend.
Pradeep arrives and the match starts, without Riju in the team. Meenu continues to sabotage them and gets one of the players sent off.
The team fights hard and manages to keep the game in the balance. The score is at 3-2 and the Sikandars get a penalty.
Lali, who knows the entire truth about Meenu, tells Pradeep that he is intentionally trying to throw away the game. He and the team confront Meenu.
True magic
Pradeep tells him that they care a lot about the trophy but not more than they care about him and that goes for each and every player.
The players simply tell him he should have told them before. They would never want to ruin his marriage for a mere trophy.
Hearing this, Meenu is overcome with emotion about how his team considers him family. They decide to miss the penalty and lose.
Knowing how bad Meenu is with penalties, they task him with missing it and he gets ready to take it.
However, he has a change of heart at the last moment and uses a kulfi stick as a magic wand to hypnotise the goalkeeper, rendering him unable to move.
Meenu kicks the ball into the goal as the keeper stands still. Everybody believes it’s the legendary Dhabolakar kick where the keeper doesn’t even have a chance to move.
Adarsh Nagar Jaadugars
Despite the effort, the opponents score again and win. Left disappointed, the Adarsh Nagar Sikandars are cheered by the crowd for their performance and winning hearts, including Riju.
Pradeep consoles Meenu and lets go of his obsession with the trophy, telling him that he is his father’s real trophy.
Meenu requests Jaadugar Chhabra to make sure Disha marries someone she loves. He is left shocked at Meenu’s choice to do the right deed and has been convinced. Disha clearly supports his decision and loves him as well. He is also a changed man, remembering details that Disha mentioned, like the marigold flower she chose instead of rose.
A few months later, all of them are watching a match on TV as Neemuch has found their own Dhabholkar.
While the viewers are led to believe it’s Meenu at first, the characters are only referring to how him making tea is a good luck charm for the real football talent of Neemuch.
Meenu declares that it’s impossible for him to make tea and for Riju not to score, as the young boy takes a fantastic free kick. His ‘family’ cheer him on.
Pradeep tells them that their team has been chosen to play the first match. But, since they specialise in winning hearts and not trophies, they will carry a new name.
Remembering how Meenu always says that those who win hearts are called Jaadugars, the new name is decided to be ‘Adarsh Nagar Jaadugars’, bringing the film to a close.
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