Before Jailer 2 arrives, why not recap Jailer 1? So, grab some snacks and stay tuned until the end.
Muthuvel Pandian’s Peaceful Life Takes a Dark Turn
The movie begins with Rajinikanth’s character, Muthuvel Pandian.
Muthuvel is a retired jailer who is now leading a normal family life with his wife Vijaya, son Arjun, daughter-in-law Swetha, and grandson Rithvik.
Rithvik makes videos on YouTube and Muthuvel helps him in making videos.
Muthuvel’s son, Arjun, is an honest police officer currently investigating a crucial case.
Authentic religious idols are being stolen from various temples and replaced with fakes.
This is where the movie’s villain, Varman, enters the scene; he is a ruthless, unpredictable gangster who primarily smuggles stolen idols for sale to foreign buyers.
One day Arjun catches a truck full of Varman’s idols, then Arjun reaches Varman’s man Seenu and tries to extract information about Varman from him.
Arjun is investigating very aggressively because he knows that if he reaches towards Varman then the entire idol smuggling network can be caught.
But one day Arjun suddenly disappears; instead of investigating the matter properly, the police department also spreads the word that perhaps Arjun killed themself. Due to pressure, Varman’s people have killed him.
This is a big shock for Muthuvel. Muthuvel also blames himself because he had always encouraged Arjun to be an honest and fearless police officer.
Muthuvel Returns as Tiger Pandian
Now Muthuvel himself decides to take action to take revenge from Varman, for this he comes back in his old jailer avatar.
First Muthuvel catches Seenu and kills him.
Now the problem is how to dispose of Seenu’s body?
It is here that Muthuvel meets Vimal who is a normal taxi driver. With his help, Muthuvel throws Seenu’s body into the water.
But Varman comes to know that Muthuvel has killed his man Seenu. So his men try to kill Muthuvel’s grandson Rithvik. But being with Muthuvel, Rithvik does not suffer even the slightest scratch.
Muthuvel tries to convince Varman not to involve Arjun’s family anymore after the matter.
But Varman is in no mood to back down. He threatens to eliminate Muthuvel and his family.
Now Muthuvel also decides that if Varman targets his family then he will also break Varman’s entire network. Will destroy him and his business.
For the safety of the family, Muthuvel shifts them to a psychiatric hospital.
Muthuvel brings him to the hospital saying that after Arjun’s death he is not able to sleep, is restless and is mentally very disturbed. That’s why he wants to meet a psychiatrist.
Then going there, Muthuvel blackmails the doctor in private by telling him his personal secrets. Due to which Doctor becomes ready to keep Muthuvel’s family in the hospital.
Muthuvel asks the doctor to tell his family that Muthuvel has a different kind of mental problem. To understand this, Muthuvel’s family will have to stay in the hospital for a few days.
Hearing this, Muthuvel’s family gets ready to stay in the hospital.
After this, Muthuvel starts his plan against Varman without worrying about the safety of the family.
First, Muthuvel goes to his old connection, Narasimha, played by actor Shiva Rajkumar, who is himself a former criminal. But because of Muthuvel, he has changed his life.
Muthuvel asks for help from Narasimha then Narasimha gives him one of his right hand man and four of his trusted men. Who are very skilled in using sniper.
Now, Muthuvel has the necessary backup to confront Varman.
Muthuvel’s First Battle Against Varman
Subsequently, Muthuvel apprehends one of Varman’s men and discovers the route the trucks loaded with Varman’s idols are scheduled to take.
Essentially, this man was plotting against Varman himself; Muthuvel possessed a recording of this plot, which he used to blackmail the man into revealing the route the idol-laden trucks would follow.
Subsequently, Muthuvel and his team intercept one of Varman’s trucks containing the stolen idols.
Meanwhile, Varman and his men arrive at the hospital, intending to kill Muthuvel’s family.
Just then, Varman video calls Muthuvel. Just as Varman is about to attack Muthuvel’s family, Muthuvel shows him the stolen idols, which are now under his control and also has information about Varman’s future deliveries.
Seeing this, Varman agrees to compromise with Muthuvel.
Muthuvel tells Varman that if he wants a compromise, he must beg his family for ten rupees.
Varman begs Muthuvel’s family for the money; he receives ten rupees, hands them over to Muthuvel, and a compromise is reached.
Afterward, Muthuvel brings his family back home from the hospital.
Meanwhile, Varman realizes that his adversary is no ordinary retired man, and his ego has been wounded.
Consequently, Varman contacts Kamdev—a gangster from Bihar played by Jackie Shroff—and sends his henchmen to Muthuvel’s house to kill him and his family.
However, Narasimha’s trained snipers eliminate them all.
It is here that Muthuvel’s family witnesses a different, violent side of him—one they had never seen before.
Later, when the gangster Kamdev—whom Varman has enlisted for help—learns who the target is, he recognizes Muthuvel.
Kamdev reveals to Varman that years ago, Muthuvel was a jailer at Tihar Jail and was known then as Tiger Muthuvel Pandian.
While Muthuvel was extremely strict with the inmates, he did not merely punish them; he also gave some of them a chance to turn their lives around.
For this reason, many criminals continued to respect Muthuvel and remained in touch with him even after their release.
Kamdev was one of those very people.
Varman Reveals That Arjun Is Alive
Varman now realizes the kind of man he has crossed paths with. Subsequently, Muthuvel tracks down Varman’s hideout, intent on killing him.
However, Varman drops a bombshell: Arjun is not dead but is alive and being held captive by him.
Varman agrees to release Arjun only if Muthuvel retrieves a priceless ‘anti-crown’ kept at the Adinarayana Temple in Mangalagiri for him.
This crown is a protected national artifact, and security surrounding it is extremely tight.
Muthuvel accepts the deal to save his son, Arjun.
As a precaution, Varman sends two of his men along with Muthuvel to keep a close watch on his every move.
The Crown Heist: Muthuvel’s Clever Plan
Muthuvel then hatches a plan to steal the crown. For this, he enlists the help of Blast Mohan, a film actor who also happens to be one of the temple’s trustees.
In the process, Muthuvel learns about Blast Mohan’s romantic entanglement; Blast Mohan is shooting a movie with the actress Kaamnaa, a film directed by Balu.
Blast Mohan is interested in Kaamnaa, but she likes the director, Balu.
This situation arose because the expensive gifts Blast Mohan sent to Kaamnaa via Balu were actually presented by Balu as his own gifts to impress her.
This was because Balu also liked Kaamnaa.
Kaamnaa becomes impressed by Balu and develops feelings for him, though Blast Mohan remains unaware of this.
Muthuvel seizes this opportunity and blackmails the director, Balu.
Muthuvel gets director Balu to add a scene to the film’s story showing Blast Mohan stealing a temple crown.
This scene is then filmed. Subsequently, Muthuvel manipulates this footage by combining it with actual CCTV footage from the temple—remember that five-lakh-rupee detail?
This leads the authorities to believe that Blast Mohan has stolen the real crown.
Upon seeing the footage, the CBI decides to transport the crown to Pune to verify its authenticity.
If the crown turned out to be genuine, Blast Mohan would have been in the clear; however, if it were a fake, action would have been taken against him.
It is during this transfer that Muthuvel sees an opportunity to target the crown.
Seizing this chance, he goes to meet his friend Matthew—played by Mohanlal—who is a smuggler based in Mumbai.
Matthew provides Muthuvel with a large number of guns and assists him with his plan.
Then, Muthuvel’s team attacks the convoy transporting the crown and seizes it.
However, Muthuvel’s true plan is revealed here; the entire convoy operation was actually a ruse.
Muthuvel wanted to make the two men sent by Varman believe that he had stolen the real crown.
But that wasn’t the case; Muthuvel had orchestrated a staged theft with the help of Director Balu. He then had the fake crown—the one used in the staged scene—delivered to Varman through those two men.
Meanwhile, the CBI verifies the crown in Pune and confirms it is authentic. Consequently, Blast Mohan is spared.
However, he discovers the affair between Director Balu and Kaamnaa.
Surprisingly, Blast Mohan takes no action against Balu; instead, he brings Kaamnaa and Balu together.
The Biggest Twist: Arjun Betrays His Own Father
As soon as Varman receives the crown, he fulfills his promise and releases Arjun. However, there is a twist.
In reality, Arjun is not an honest police officer. He had been investigating Varman solely to gain access to him and join forces to make more money.
Frustrated with his ordinary life, he teams up with Varman and turns against his own father, Muthuvel, in pursuit of wealth.
But Muthuvel had already set another major trap.
The fake crown handed to Varman contained a hidden camera. Through this camera, Muthuvel witnesses the entire conversation between Arjun and Varman, finally realizing the true nature of his son.
Jailer Ending Explained: Muthuvel Kills Varman and Arjun
When Varman discovers that the crown is actually a fake, he flies into a rage. He kills the two men who had been sent along with Muthuvel.
Then, through Varman, Arjun learns that his father has found out the truth about him.
Varman subsequently attempts to kill Arjun as well. However, just as he is about to strike, Muthuvel and Kamdev—along with their men—launch an attack on Varman’s hideout.
Muthuvel and his team first eliminate Varman’s henchmen.
As Muthuvel advances towards him, Varman warns him that his network is vast; if his associates were to learn that Muthuvel had killed him, they would not spare Muthuvel.
However, Muthuvel pays no heed to Varman’s words.
Meanwhile, Narasimha protects Muthuvel’s family from Varman’s henchmen, while Matthew destroys Varman’s smuggling trucks.
Ultimately, Muthuvel kills Varman.
After Varman is eliminated, Muthuvel gives Arjun one last chance and asks him to surrender.
However, even though Arjun admits his wrongdoing, he refuses to surrender. Instead, he pulls out a gun to kill Muthuvel so that the truth about him remains hidden.
But then, at Muthuvel’s signal, Narasimha’s men shoot Arjun, and he dies on the spot.
Naturally, Muthuvel is devastated to witness his own son’s death, yet he walks away without saying a word.
As he leaves, Muthuvel removes and discards the locket he wore around his neck—which held a baby tooth Arjun had lost in childhood—and that is where the movie Jailer ends.
Final Thoughts on Jailer
So, that was the complete recap of the movie Jailer before the sequel; I hope you enjoyed it.
Seriously, what a movie Jailer was!
- It had so many twists and turns—my mind was absolutely blown at one point.
- It was just one “Oh wow!” moment after another.
- It doesn’t just *present* twists and turns; the movie *is* a series of twists and turns.
Take my word for it and definitely watch this movie if you haven’t already; it’s available on Prime Video with a runtime of 2 hours and 48 minutes.