Jaraan Movie Ending Explained And Full Story: Is Radha Dead Or Alive?

The word “Jaraan” literally means using black magic or witchcraft to hurt someone; it’s as sinister as it sounds. But when it comes to witches on screen, Indian cinema hasn’t quite cracked the code. Despite all the spooky folklore and oral tales we’ve grown up with, witch stories usually end up being either over-the-top or underwhelming. Only a few films like Makdee and Bulbbul have actually attempted to tap into that eerie, mysterious vibe and do something interesting with it. The latest Marathi horror/psychological thriller on Zee5, Jaraan, is a pretty grounded take on witchcraft, deeply rooted in Indian folktales and rural superstitions. This Marathi gem took me by surprise, with twists that don’t let up till the very end.

Spoilers Ahead

What happens in the movie? 

Radha lost her husband in an accident, but she refuses to let him go, pretending he’s still alive and even drawing her young daughter, Saie, into the act. Beneath that denial lies a deeper wound: as a child, Radha was bewitched by a woman who practiced black magic and cursed to live a life of unhappiness. Now, she numbs herself with stress pills and chats to her dead husband as if he’s just on the other end of the phone. When her father calls for a final family gathering at their ancestral home before it’s demolished, Radha is forced to return to the very place where her nightmares began, and the visit peels back the layers of her past. 

Who is Baggabhai?

When they reach the village, oddly enough, neither Radha’s parents nor her cousins dare to tell her that she’s being weird about Shekhar, her husband. But Saie finds her way to the room the witch lived in, and she finds the doll the witch once used to bewitch her mother. Saie names the doll Baggabhai and starts to carry the doll around with her all the time. Surprisingly, Radha is also pretty okay with all this and doesn’t tell her anything. Radha herself finds some planchette beads in her old trunk, and she and her cousins (all grown ups) try to summon a spirit rather than minding their own business. By the time they roll the beads, they can’t see the letters and go away to answer Radha’s mother, but something sinister has already entered Radha’s life. On top of that, her father finally confronts her about her “talking” to Shekhar, revealing that the phone she’s using is broken, and she’s been carrying it around since the accident. Radha is devastated that her father would try to ruin her life like this, and even her psychiatrist now starts to worry. 

Why did Ganguti curse Radha?

After coming back to the city, Radha starts to see a therapist, insisting that all she needs is counselling, and her psychiatrist, Dhananjay, knows her from too young an age to actually help her. In spite of  that, she doesn’t stop with the pills which she takes for stress relief, and by now she’s pretty much addicted to them. She starts hearing  strange noises in her house, as if someone is calling out her name. Radha even sees a reflection of the witch on the window, and when she goes to check on Saie, she finds her playing with Baggabhai. Saie tells her that the puppet made its way to her on its own, and Radha finally decides to dump it. But she finds her diary in the process, and the diary reveals a lot more about her than she ever knew. 

Ganguti was a tenant in Radha’s house when she was a little girl, and she used to kill animals to sacrifice them and perform all sorts of black magic rituals. The villagers started to get concerned and advised Radha’s mother, Sudha, to throw her out. But Ganguti didn’t like any of them, and she openly challenged them to not cross her, as even powerful demons couldn’t dare to mess with her. Well, that turns out to be a hoax, as the villagers drag her out of the house. Now, desperate for revenge, Ganguti sneakily comes back to the house when the elders aren’t there and tricks Radha into letting her in. By the time Radha’s father and Sudha arrive, she’s already bewitched Radha, and the curse says she won’t have a single day of peace in her life.

Is Shekhar alive?

Radha’s therapist, Rashmi, tries to look into Radha’s diary, and she figures it has real dark magic spells and symbols on it, the ones that can even wake up the dead. Radha even gives Rashmi a different number when she asks for the number of her psychiatrist. Back in her home, Radha finally snaps when she sees the puppet back in the house, and when she tries to snatch it from Saie, it slaps her—yes, it slaps her. Ganguti isn’t playing anymore, and Radha starts to see her playing with Saie. The doorbell rings, and voila, it’s Shekhar, and it’s not his ghost; the man is alive. But by now Radha thinks it’s all in her head, and she hits Shekhar on the head. After talking to Dhananjay, Rashmi goes to check on her, only to be beaten up by her. After much fighting and Rashmi almost getting stabbed, Shekhar manages to calm her down. Meanwhile, the spirit of Ganguti is sad that Radha isn’t killing people, and she eventually disappears. 

What really happened to Radha?

Dhananjay finally explains everything you need to know about this whole saga. The curse of Ganguti, Shekhar’s apparent death, Saie’s behavior—everything is connected to one thing: Radha’s imagination. Radha has always been a very imaginative child, and she used to daydream and concoct stories all the time. When the whole Ganguti thing happened, more than anybody else, she took it as reality. She really believed that she’d been bewitched and fell sick, and no modern medicine or religious superstitions could help her that much. That’s when Dhananjay comes in, who took his time to treat her, completely. Radha eventually got a good job and a kind husband in Shekhar, who knew everything about her childhood and didn’t have a problem with it, and they were quite happy together. But things started to change once again for her when they had the accident. Shekhar didn’t die, but she grew frustrated with him for not being able to give her a child. That’s right, Saie was never really there, and Radha made her up. Let me tell you how. 

Shekhar eventually left for London, worn down by Radha’s worsening condition. Then the COVID lockdown struck, trapping Radha in a silence she hadn’t felt since childhood. Saie, her neighbor’s little girl, had always seemed impossibly cute to her, especially after her own miscarriage. She never harmed or kidnapped Saie, but in her mind, the child became hers.

As the delusion deepened, Shekhar faded from her life. She spoke to him through a phone that no longer worked, and when he actually called, she would cut him off. In the world Radha built for herself, Shekhar was already dead. It was just her and Saie now, and she was content with that fiction. Rashmi unknowingly became part of the scaffolding of this false reality, listening to Radha’s stories as though they were truth, trying to “therapize” her without realizing the lies. Dhananjay later explained that this was why Radha didn’t want Rashmi to reach out to him; contact with reality would shatter the fragile world she had made. Rashmi still wonders how the puppet returned to the house, but Dhananjay suspects it was never really gone. People in such states often believe in their lies more fiercely than anything else, and they will do anything to protect them. The miscarriage had broken something in Radha. The isolation of the lockdown was simply the final nail in the coffin of her sanity. When she finally woke from her delusion, she told everyone she wanted to get better. And that, friends, is why one should never allow black magic to find a place in any home.

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