Jaadugar

Jaadugar
Directed by	Prakash Mehra
Produced by	Prakash Mehra
Starring	Amitabh Bachchan; Jaya Prada; Aditya Pancholi; Amrita Singh
Music by	Kalyanji-Anandji
Distributed by	Eros Entertainment; Prakash Mehra Productions
Release date	25 August 1989; ; ; ; ;
Running time	173 mins
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Jaadugar (English: Magician) is a 1989 Hindi fantasy-thriller drama film directed by Prakash Mehra and starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Prada, Aditya Pancholi, Amrita Singh, Amrish Puri and Pran. Prakash Mehra and Amitabh Bachchan collaborated for the eighth time on this movie (previous movies being: Zanjeer, Khoon Pasina, Hera Pheri, Muqaddar Ka Sikander, Laawaris, Namak Halal and Sharaabi). This was last collaboration between Prakash Mehra and Amitabh Bachchan.

Plot

Returned American Shankar Narayan is baffled to witness his former businessman and jailbird dad posing as a soothsayer by the name of Mahaprabhu Janak Sagar Jagat Narayan, in a small town called Dharampur. He comes to know that his dad has learned a few magician's tricks from a fellow inmate, and is able to fool the entire township with his "divine" powers. Shankar enlists the assistance of noted magician Goga, and brings him to Dharampur. Goga challenges the Mahaprabhu; he is able to dethrone him, ousts him from his temple, and takes over. His task over, Shankar asks Goga to leave; but power-hungry Goga, who now calls himself Gogeshwar, refuses to let go of his new-found position.

Actually Goga is not power-hungry as he seems to be. Mahaprabhu, however, refuses to give up and uses all deceitful methods to expose the fact that Goga is just a mortal, and it is he who is actually divine. He tries to poison the 'Prasad' that Goga gives to his 'followers' but they all escape. In the end, Goga completely exposes 'Mahaprabhu' in front of the whole public along with the fact that he himself is a common man who posed as a 'Divine' man just to match and teach 'Mahaprabhu'. He then returns to his best role – being the people's magician.

Production notes

This was the final film of Prakash Mehra with Amitabh Bachchan, which, although it did not do well at the box-office, was praised for its unique story and great performances by the total cast. The film is also best remembered for its many confrontational scenes between Amitabh Bachchan and Amrish Puri. Though it was not successful during its first release but later it became popular in video circuit and recovered its money by numerous re release. Prakash Mehera production recovered the entire money by earning profit sharing from the satellite rights later.