Jayeshbhai Jordaar is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film written and directed by Divyang Thakkar. Produced by Maneesh Sharma and Aditya Chopra under the Yash Raj Films banner, the film stars Ranveer Singh as the eponymous lead. He plays the son of a traditional Gujarati sarpanch, and believes in equal rights between males and females in society. Shalini Pandey, Boman Irani, and Ratna Pathak Shah also play pivotal roles.
Principal photography commenced in Mumbai on 4 December 2019, which later shifted to Gujarat. The film wrapped up on 7 February 2020. The film met to multiple release date postponements during 2020–2021, as it wasn't unveiled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with makers waiting to release it theatrically rather than releasing it on OTT platforms. Finally, the film released theatrically on 13 May 2022. It did not perform well and was a huge commercial failure, causing great losses for makers.
Plot
Jayesh Patel (lovingly called Jayeshbhai Jordaar by his daughter) is an educated man who lives with his father Pruthvishbhai (the village sarpanch), his mother Jashoda, his pregnant wife Mudra, and his modern daughter Siddhi in the fictional village of Pravingadh. Mudra and Jayesh have a very superficial relationship, seeming that they are only together to produce a male heir. Regardless, Jayesh is madly in love with his wife and hopes to one day have his first kiss with her.
The family hopes that Mudra's child will be a boy, so that he can continue the family lineage and become the next Gujarati sarpanch after Jayesh. In a regular check up with the doctor, Jayesh learns that his second child is also a girl.
In a flashback, it is revealed that Siddhi's birth was forgiven because she was the firstborn, but after that, Mudra was forced to abort 6 female children in her womb in the past 9 years, for not being able to conceive a male heir; if Mudra has to abort one more child, it is likely she will not be able to get pregnant again. However, Jayesh, who strongly believes in having equal rights for both men and women, decides not to inform his family that the child is a girl as he wants the baby to be born.
He makes a plan to elope with Mudra and Siddhi to Laadopur, a fictional village in Haryana, whose entire population are strong males only. The men in this village posted a video to social media begging women to come to their town, saying that they will treat them with immense respect and love them like they are queens. Jayesh sees this video on the internet and decides that this will be the safest place for their family.
After Jashoda one day arranges a meeting with a doctor who could predict the gender for the expected child, Jayesh feels pressure to execute his plan. He, Mudra, and Siddhi put on an act where Mudra 'kidnaps' Jayesh and takes him hostage in front of Jashodha and Pruthvishbhai. She says she is leaving to have her child, and not to follow her.
This act sets off a series of events, some fortunate and some not, where Jayesh, his wife, and his child have to escape the clutches of his parents and all the men in the village of Pravingadh. Jayesh desperately tries to relocate his family to Laadopur, and will do anything to save his expected child. While doing this, he not only fights for the rights of his wife, who is starting to reciprocate his feelings of love, but also for the rights of all the other ladies in his sexist village; they face many issues along the way, one being Jayesh being forced to re-marry, but they push through all of the hardships.
When Mudra's water finally breaks and she is going into labor, Jayesh and her go to the hospital which is being protected by Siddhi, he men of Laadopur, and the women of Pravingadh. Mudra finally gives birth to a healthy baby girl, kissing Jayesh in relief. As Jayesh goes to the waiting room, he finds all the women of Pravingadh waiting to relocate to Laadopur, as they are sick of living in a sexist village. Jayesh explains to them that change takes time, and that he takes back everything he said about fleeing Pravingadh with his family. He says that although it is wrong, they must understand why their husbands are the way they are, and not give up hope on changing them. His speech is extremely moving, and touches the heart of not only the women, but also the men of Pravingadh and Laadopur.