Jaane Jaan Review: Kareena Kapoor, Vijay Varma And Jaideep Ahlawat’s Spectacular Performances Couldn’t Sail Ship

When the trailer for ‘Jaane Jaan’ was released, like many, I was pretty thrilled for Kareena Kapoor Khan’s OTT debut. The trailer left us with the anticipation of a classic mystery movie. And when it is the official adaptation of a worldwide popular novel, that too helmed by Sujoy Ghosh, the man who left the entire nation awestruck with his ‘Kahaani’, the expectation, of course, goes a little up. But even with a stellar cast like Kareena Kapoor Khan, Vijay Varma and Jaideep Ahlawat, ‘Jaane Jaan’ fell short of enlisting itself as a nail-biter.

The official Bollywood adaptation of the 2005 Japanese novel ‘The Devotion of Suspect X’ by Keigo Higashino, ‘Jaane Jaan’, comes with all the right ingredients to qualify as a classy mystery movie but the tragedy is the way they have been played with.

The story revolves around Maya (Kareena Kapoor Khan), a single mother running a restaurant in Kalimpong in West Bengal, her teenage daughter, their neighbour Naren (Jaideep Ahlawat), the shy and awkward math teacher and a sharp-edge detective Karan (Vijay Varma) from Mumbai in charge of the murder case. The Netflix film sets off with a lovely mother-daughter duo Maya and Tara, and their neighbour Naren aka Teacher's everyday routine. However, on the very day Maya’s past that she had escaped from finally catches up to her after 14 years and she lands herself as the only suspect in a murder.

The movie is not a whodunit. Rather the story focuses on a cat-and-mouse game between the sharp detective and his only suspect. On a fateful night, Maya ends up killing her estranged husband Ajit (Saurabh Sachdeva) and her neighbour comes to offer a hand to take care of the body. Karan lands in Kalimpong in search of Ajit and Maya turns into his only suspect. Will the detective be able to unravel the course of action? Will he find out Maya’s truth? Basically, the two-hour-long movie just tries to build suspense while trying to answer the questions. However, in dealing with the unfolding of all the crime thriller elements the movie couldn’t sail right.

Tell me a better setting than the backdrop of a foggy hill station for any detective story and no doubt here too it provided the edge to the story. The crisp dialogues written by Sujoy Ghosh and Raj Vasant start off well to the weave suspense but couldn’t keep up. The screenplay too falls short to play with the placement of the past to tell the background story right.

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The title of the movie ‘Jaane Jaan’ has been taken from one of the cabaret numbers by Lata Mangeshkar in ‘Intaqam’ in 1969, and was filmed on Helen. The title suggests something like a love affair but goes playfully well with the current riddle the movie has been dealing with. It also is the perfect background score for the showcasing of fleeting flashbacks of Maya’s cabaret life. The sound designed by Anirban Sengupta and the background score by Shor Police (Clinton Cerejo and Bianca Gomes) did their part in bringing the much-needed allure.

We expected more from Sujoy Ghosh’s directorial. More twists, more nuance, at least something to keep us hooked like his previous work. Jaideep’s character was troubled. There could have been more story to his background. Kareena Kapoor’s backstory only had a few flashbacks which could have been a great topic to delve deeper into. There were many loopholes to tighten and could have been written smarter. On top of that the disturbing level of objectification of the central character by the two male characters will leave a sour taste in your mouth. From the first scene of Ahlawat’s Teacher eyeing his next-door neighbour to the next male lead calling her ‘hot’ every time he mentions her it tells the story from the male gaze.

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The only thing that has been dragging the movie along is the spectacular performance of its cast. Kareena Kapoor in her bare makeup look of a single mother to a teenage daughter again proved her mettle but what stole the show was Ahlawat’s perfection in portraying the role of a troubled, shy, awkward, brilliant teacher and a creep with some anger issues. Vijay Varma without a doubt played his part beautifully. The horn lock between the two college friends and their wit was what kept us going.

If you are looking for some acting prowess showcased by the terrific cast then you should go for it. You don't have to be a mystery movie/novel lover to figure out the loopholes and what better ways the matter could have been dealt with. ‘Jaane Jaan’ is now streaming on Netflix.