Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Kareena Kapoor, Jaideep Ahlawat, Vijay Varma, Naisha Khanna, Karma Takapa, Saurabh Sachdeva
Where to watch: Netflix
Rating: 2.5 stars
While watching Jaane Jaan, Sujoy Ghosh’s adaptation of The Devotion of Suspect X, I was transported back to my first viewings of the director’s Kahaani and Nishikant Kamat’s Drishyam. And no, it wasn’t because Jaane Jaan was so good that evoked memories of those stellar thrillers. It was because I found Jaane Jaan so predictable and dull that I wished I was watching one of those two films instead – to cleanse the palette figuratively.
Jaane Jaan is the story of Maya D’Souza (Kareena Kapoor), a single mother in Kalimpong, who encounters her estranged abusive husband after 14 years. One thing leads to another and the husband dies at her hand. Now, she must take the help of her devoted (obsessed?) neighbour – a shy Math teacher (Jaideep Ahlawat) to escape while a relentless cop (Vijay Varma) is hot on her heels.
Thematically, Jaane Jaan has a lot of commonalities with Drishyam. Both are rooted stories of everyday people who have accidentally killed someone and must now rely on their wits to escape a shrewd cop. If Drishyam had the serenity of Goa, Jaane Jaan has the mystique of Kalimpong, which is almost a character in this story.
Sujoy Ghosh is great at setting an eerie premise. He has done that several times in the past and here too, he transports you into Maya’s world very smoothly. You feel for her, laugh with her, and get scared for her when her abusive husband returns. Part of the credit must go to Kareena as well. In a splendid performance, the actress reminds you why she ruled the screen for so many years. She brings out Maya’s fears, apprehensions, as well as her sensuality so seamlessly that it is a lesson for young actors out there.
Jaideep Ahlawat breathes life into the role of the awkward genius and makes sure it never becomes a cliché. The actor makes his Naren likable and human. The subtle switches of facial expressions to convey a multitude of emotions are amazing to see. Vijay Varma as the antithesis – the youthful more athletic cop – is delightful to watch as well. The actor is coming into his own, finding his groove as an actor and in Karan, he brings out his A-game, making this otherwise monotonous character so engaging.
But Jaane Jaan makes the biggest mistake a thriller can – it becomes predictable. Why the aforementioned films like Kahaani and Drishyam worked is because most viewers did not see the plot twist coming. Here, the bread crumbs Sujoy Ghosh drops are too in-your-face. The end and the resolution become plain for all to see a little too early in the film. This makes the ‘mystery’ slightly less big of a deal and the viewer begins to lose interest. The greatest disservice it does is to Vijay Varma’s character who comes across as a little silly. After all, the viewer can crack the case but this supercop can’t.
Jaane Jaan promises so much but does not deliver all of it. The music, the setting, the cinematography are all top notch but the execution makes the final product less than the sum of all its parts. The film is also a reminder that you can take a great story (the novel is acclaimed) and give it to a good director but still not end up with a good film. It happens, only to the detriment of the viewers, and also the actors, who end up wasting such good performances in a film that probably did not deserve them.
