Jaadugar review :
1989 was a pretty bad year for Amitabh Bachchan. He started the year on a sour note with Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswathi (GJS) ( released December 23rd 1988) crashing at the box office in its second week. Director Manmohan Desai (MKD) was particularly devastated by its failure and decided to postpone his son Ketan's Toofan initially scheduled for February release.
MKD requested a reshoot from Amitabh as he wanted to make certain changes to Toofan's screenplay particularly downplaying the lost and found angle after GJS failure. Amitabh couldnt refuse..
At the same time, Prakash Mehra was filming Jaadugar aiming for a mid year release. Amitabh was simultaneously shooting both the films and it was slowly turning in to a race as to who would release first.
Toofan made it to theatres on 11th August. Not a bad film for 89, it took a good opening but slumped in its second week due to new release Elaan-E-Jung hogging the show. Jaadugar arrived a week later on 25th August and bombed badly. Toofan was also declared an underperformer by that time.
What was appalling was that Amitabh Bachchan played magician in both the films. Toofan was about a superhero and his twin brother Shyam jaadugar while Prakash Mehra's Jaadugar had magician Goga exposing the fake godman Amrish Puri. As if that was not enough, the characters of Shyam and Goga were similar in nature - humourous, flirtatious and talkative.
Expectedly, the print media accused Amitabh of sabotaging both MKD and Prakash Mehra and held him morally responsible for this mess. Prakash Mehra gave stinging interviews stating that MKD had pinched not just his titular character but even some of his magic tricks. He also lambasted Amitabh for hiding the fact that he was playing magician in both the films.
Amitabh Bachchan, in one of his interviews, clarified that as a professional, he never questioned his directors nor divulged any details about his films.
Jaadugar ended Prakash Mehra's successful jodi with Amitabh (they made hits like Zanjeer, Hera Pheri, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Laawaris, Namak Halaal, Sharaabi together) and they never worked again. Mehra turned to Anil Kapoor for his Zindagi Ek Juaa (1991) and Mithunda for Dalaal (1993). Similarly, Manmohan Desai didnt make a film with Amitabh again and the last film under his banner was Rishi Kapoor's Anmol (1993) which released a few months before his death.
Personally, out of the two, I prefer Toofan as it has its moments of fun and the superhero concept appealed to the kid in me. Goga Kapoor asking for a matchstick every day for fourteen years in order to escape jail was also an interesting element by writer Salim Khan. "Dont worry be happy" albeit copied, is one of my favorite songs of Bachchan.
As for Jaadugar, it was arguably the worst film made by Prakash Mehra with bad editing and some cringeworthy songs like "Padosan apni murgi ko rakhna sambhaal". Having said that, its basic theme of fake godmen influenced a lot of later hits like OMG : Oh My God (2012) and PK (2014).
Regards,
Sumeet Nadkarni
