Jaane Jaane Movie Review | filmfare.com

Jaane Jaan is an adaptation of Keigo Higashino’s acclaimed Japanese novel, The Devotion of Suspect X. The 2005 novel revolves around a brilliant mathematics teacher who becomes infatuated with her next-door neighbor and helps him find a convincing alibi for a murder, when she and her teenage daughter unknowingly murder her husband. Let’s give. If this premise sounds familiar, well, it formed the basis of Jeethu Joseph’s brilliant Malayalam film Drishyam (2013). Jeetu took the original plot but Indianized it so well that you would be hard-pressed to find parallels with the novel. In the current film, director Sujoy Ghosh has been more or less faithful to the source. The only thing they changed is the merger of Detective Kusanagi into Dr. Manabu Yukawa and the physicist into Vijay Varma’s character. Yukawa is the one who ultimately solves the murder. In the novel, both Kusanagi and Yukawa discuss crime while acting on their own ideologies. Yukawa eventually solves it but realizes the human concerns behind it. Here, the ending is changed, with Vijay Varma’s character never learning about its inner intricacies.

Jaane Jaane is set in Kalimpong. Single mother Maya (Kareena Kapoor Khan) lives with her daughter Tara (Naisha Khanna). Maya runs a small café that sells everything from coffee, cookies, pastries to noodles and momos. Her shy neighbour, Naren (Jaideep Ahlawat), who is a much-loved mathematics teacher at a local school, is a frequent visitor. Mumbai Police Inspector Karan (Vijay Verma) is assigned to Kalimpong to hunt down a rogue policeman Ajit Mhatre (Saurabh Sachdeva). Ajit is Maya’s long lost husband and the police suspect that he may have gone to meet her. Karan learns that Ajit has been killed and Maya becomes the prime suspect. He starts chasing her but she is always one step ahead of the police. Perhaps, his college friend Naren has something to do with it…

Sujoy is present in the casting. His biggest coup is convincing Kareena to play a role defying her age. She still looks beautiful without makeup and is every inch the worried mother, the worry lines on her face speak volumes. Vijay Varma, known for his anti-hero roles, has been cast as the clean-shaven inspector. Positive roles suit him very much. And Jaideep Ahlawat owns the room as the eccentric teacher whose first and last love is mathematics. The second ‘hero’ of the film is cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhyay, who has filmed the fog-filled locations brilliantly.

The film has plenty of twists and turns to keep you engaged but not everything is explained medically. What the director has excelled at is giving the proceedings emotional gravity. You sympathize with the heroes, want them to win, want them to see their bluff through to the end. You are witnesses to their crimes but for the sake of humanity you are willing to turn a blind eye to it.

The film rests heavily on the shoulders of its three lead heroes. Vijay Varma plays the good cop with the right amount of guile and cordiality, making the suspects feel safe at all times while searching for clues. Jaideep Ahlawat, playing the reticent neighbor, is the epitome of reticence, saying everything through his expressions and body language. Kareena Kapoor Khan has outdone herself. She combines both grace and sensitivity to play the role of a woman who has made a home for herself away from her violent past and is willing to do everything possible to protect it. This is one of his best performances till date.

Watch the film for the brilliant performances by Vijay Verma, Jaideep Ahlawat and Kareena Kapoor Khan.