STORY
In Kalimpong, Maya kills her husband Ajit in self-defense in her apartment. Her next-door neighbor Naru offers help and gets rid of the body. But Karan, the investigative officer, arrives from Mumbai in quest of Ajit because he is also a policeman.
INTRODUCTION
Jaane Jaan is an official adaptation of the Japanese novel “The Devotion of Suspect X” by Keigo Higashino. And with the involvement of Hyunwoo Thomas Kim‘s South Korean film production company “Kross Pictures“, the official remake is more distinctive because the same company also financed a Chinese film based on the same novel.
REVIEW
Jaane Jaan has a compelling tone of frankly addressing the elephant in the room. The film has a quality start and nicely introduces Maya and Naru. The first twenty minutes easily settles the viewers and grows their characters on us. Then the real game begins when Maya’s psycho husband predictably gets dusted. It is Naru whose character gets more interesting and surely we all viewers, at this moment, begin to take more interest.
The whole proceeding of the screenplay is fitting. There is no wastage of silliness as Bollywood does often. The film in its entirety is servant to dedication and novelty. Thanks to the adaptation that gifts us freshness in to the story. And this is why, Bollywood needs to refine their cringe content and prefer making films based on novels.
Yes some scenes looked pretty artificial to realism like Maya hugging Naru, Maya performing after karaoke, Maya changing her shirt (could have made sense if Karan had noticed some serious injury marks on her back), etc. These were avoidable and there were alternatives to proceed ahead.
Although this novel-based so the story cannot be curved but I was thinking, what if there could have been another angle of watching the entire story from the angle of Karan and then we might have enjoyed further more because then, the element of suspense would have thrilled us. But then the adaptation would have compromised.
TECHNICALITIES
The technicalities of the film deserves the praise. Besides the screenplay, what impressed me the most was fabulous editing. Much of the film’s credibility goes sound if the editing of a mystery thriller aids the screenplay.
Sujoy Ghosh has written the script and directed this film. And this is why Jaane Jaan is so good. He has a habit of bluntly moving a serious story. And he has done that before in Kahaani and Badla.
Shooting in Kalimpong may make the viewers wonder, why Kalimpong? Only the director knows a better answer but I felt such a plot heavily suited a small town or a district where mysterious Maya and her daughter wants to start a new life. And being a Japanese novel, I felt Kalimpong served the right aesthetics. The shots of that smoky place were beautiful.
PERFORMANCES
Jaane Jaan stars Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, and Vijay Varma, who are quite different actors from each other. I felt Kareena’s Maya needed more aggression after what she has been through. Vijay’s body language of a detective was skilled. Notice his interrogation scene with Maya in the police station. Jaideep is the winner between them, he impressively built growth of the character. There was sanity as well as insanity. I just felt that his character had such a strong reputation in the district, the director must have dramatized his teaching scene for a minute or two to justify why people of Kalimpong regard him highly.
CLOSING REMARKS
Jaane Jaan is a terrific mystery thriller that grabs a lot of attention due to a strong grip of the script.
RATING 8.5/10
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Sami Naik | Film Critic 