The story of Jagga Jasoos revolves around the high-profile case of Purulia Arms Drop, which took place in 1995 allegedly to overthrow the then Communist Government of West Bengal, India. Jagga, a curious and shy young boy in a quaint little town lives a happy life with his accident-prone adoptive father, Badal Bagchi. Jagga, being self-conscious of his stammer, doesn't speak much. One day, Bagchi teaches him to "speak" in song. Sometime later, after admitting Jagga into a boarding school, Bagchi suddenly disappears. Feeling abandoned, Jagga's only contact with Bagchi is a VHS tape that he receives in the mail every year on his birthday. Armed with sharp detective skills, Jagga sets out to solve the mystery of his missing parent. Along the way, he finds a partner in Shruti Sengupta, an accident-prone journalist with her own international criminal case to solve. Using a few tricks he learnt from Bagchi, Jagga, along with Shruti, embarks on a mission to uncover the details of his father's mysterious secret life and finds himself embroiled in a worldwide smuggling racket. The film later ends on a cliffhanger as it shows Jagga and his father on a cruise ship having been captured by the Two-Headed Bashir Alexander.
Filming took place in Cape Town, South Africa.[6] Reports from Cape Town were that the real-world romance of Kapoor and Kaif was falling apart and occasional arguments between the two caused some delays and resulted in scenes not having the impact intended by Basu.[7][8] By 20 March 2014, Basu had completed 20 days of filming with his leads and, being unhappy with initial efforts by Kapoor,[9] intended to use the additional schedule time to re-shoot some scenes.[10] Kapoor was simultaneously shooting for Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet and Imtiaz Ali's Tamasha. Basu explained, "We've to shoot Jagga Jasoos during the gaps in the shooting of Bombay Velvet. We completed one schedule. Now we'll go into a lengthy schedule from August. By the end of the year the shooting would be complete."[11]
The film was originally going to release on 27 November 2015, but the film's release date was pushed to April 2017.[12]
It was reportedly made as part of a franchise with further sequels planned, as also indicated by the film's open ending, but after a poor box office performance these plans were reportedly shelved.[13]
The film is a musical and has a total of 29 songs which are part of a narrative.[14][15] Ranbir Kapoor sang most of his dialogues rather than saying them.[16]T-Series released the film soundtrack album.[17]Tushar Joshi sung the songs Musafir & Khaana Khaake in this movie.
Release
The film was released on 14 July 2017 worldwide. A sneak peek of the film was released on 19 December 2016. The movie earned around 331.7 million in its first weekend.[18]
Jagga Jasoos received mixed reviews from film critics.[20] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of 12 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9/10.[21]
Baradwaj Rangan gave a positive review, calling it "A mad, magical, parts-greater-than-sum musical that's a total treat", concluding his review with "Anurag Basu has made a right-brain movie. I’m not sure it can be defended logically, and I’m not sure I care when the result is so mad, so magical.".[22]Namrata Joshi of The Hindu called the film "A comic book swamped with music", observing that "Basu is aiming at reaching out to the children and the kid in every adult" while also noting the "Broadway musical format" of the film and the "distant, exotic" locations, saying "Jagga Jasoos's fantasy does get fantastic".[23]Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com rated 3.5/5 and said, "Jagga Jasoos revels in its lavish imagination, meddlesome inquiries and delicious bongness, never once pausing to catch a breath or make sense."[24]
Conversely, Rachit Gupta of Filmfare rated the film at 2.5/5 and said,"Jagga Jasoos could not have been so much more. But it just feels like a long and winding screenplay that tries to fit in too many foolish and lavish ideas."[25] Sarita A Tanwar of Daily News & Analysis gave a 2/5 rating and said, "Despite the novel treatment and outstanding aesthetics, this Ranbir Kapoor-Katrina Kaif film's a mistake!"[26]Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave 1.5/5 rating and said, "Trouble is, in its zeal to put together novel locations and exotic hot spots, ‘Jagga Jasoos’ forgets to give us a story. The good-looking leads are left to fend for themselves in a sinking plot."[27]
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