Jaane Jaan flatters to deceive with a promising first half, leading to a disappointing ending.
Another day, another ‘adaptation’ of a foreign story with some lazy amalgamations. It seems that by now, the powers that be at production houses have even given up any pretense of caring for a coherent plot. The game plan is simple: swipe a story from somewhere, copy-paste, use all the budget on a few known faces, and hope that the audience won’t notice the gaping holes.
At least that seems to be the blueprint for Jaane Jaan, the Kareena Kapoor Khan starrer. The film centers around a single mother and her daughter who become inadvertently involved in a homicide case. As they deal with the ensuing police scrutiny, they discover an unlikely supporter in their neighbor—a modest yet brilliant educator.
So, does it do a good enough job? Let’s find out.
What’s the Story About?
The movie is based on the 2005 Japanese novel The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. This should have been the first red flag. While we have previously highlighted movies that have been blatant ripoffs that have not even bothered to integrate the themes and plotlines according to local norms, adaptations seem to be an even lower-level entity. Take the example of absolutely horrendous specimens such as Chef and the travesty that was Laal Singh Chaddha.
But we digress.
The narrative follows Maya D’Souza (played by Kareena Kapoor Khan), who relocated years earlier to Kalimpong, West Bengal, with her daughter Tara (Naisha Khanna) and now runs a café. One night, as she attempts to conceal the murder of her estranged husband, Ajit Mhatre (Saurabh Sachdeva), she crosses paths with her neighbor, Naren, also known as Teacher (Jaideep Ahlawat). Naren is a peculiar yet talented man who decides to assist her, driven by reasons only he knows. The arrival of the determined police officer, Karan Anand (Vijay Varma), marks the beginning of a rigorous investigation. With Maya as his prime suspect, yet all evidence seemingly in her favor, Karan is compelled to delve deeper. Over the span of nearly two hours, the film explores whether Maya can evade the investigation, why the Teacher chose to help her, and how Karan aims to uncover the truth.
What Works?
If you’re from a legendary Bollywood dynasty and have worked in some of the iconic films to have come out in the last two decades, doing a decent job should be a cakewalk. With your eyes closed. On a tightrope. That’s how easy and effortless it seems for Kareena Kapoor Khan. In Jaane Jaan, she is assisted by two other fast-rising heavyweights.
Ahlawat comes forward as another show-stopping actor. His expressions and nuances convey the coldness, insecurities, and weirdness radiating from the Teacher to the audience. Ahlawat effortlessly delights with every on-screen interaction and certainly deserves a few awards for his performance.
Varma is effervescent and charming in his portrayal of Karan. From his first scene in the kickboxing ring to his romantic storyline, Varma’s determination and quick wit make his presence on screen enjoyable. If there’s anything that saves Jaane Jaan from sinking, it is the impeccable performances of this trio. Collectively, they offer a satisfying experience to moviegoers. If we had watched them perform without thinking about what and why, the movie would have been perfect.
And therein lies the problem.
What Doesn’t Work?
When you make a movie such as the brilliant Kahani starring Vidya Balan, two things happen: You become a known entity, and so do your films. Whatever you do will be weighed and judged against your previous effort. For Sujoy Ghosh, that doesn’t seem to be good news, as his follow-up movies have all been snapshots of a gradual but definite decline in prowess.
With Jaane Jaan, the trailer raised high hopes, and things looked pretty exciting, but the film barely manages to live up to that hype or even come close to the intrigue quotient it set out to create. Halfway into Jaane Jaan, it became apparent that even Ghosh knew this was not among his best works. Still, maybe he relied too much on the weight his actors — Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, and Vijay Varma — hold, and he let them carry the entire film on their shoulders without bothering much about where the story is headed.
‘You Don’t Change Horses Midstream’
Just like choosing what to eat from the list of options available at our fingertips has made our lives easier, Bollywood has also come to rely on re-hashing other people’s works and relying on nostalgia and star power to get them across the line. God forbid if they had to think up an original plot.
But this is where we come to the issue of the ‘nakal ke liye aqal syndrome’ plaguing Bollywood. We’ve seen this too many times. Bollywood is still treating the audience like the 90s, and they’ll gobble up whatever you dole out.
Bollywood seems to have decided there’s a cache in naming movies based on old songs. With successful titles such as Raat Akeli Hai, Haseen Dillruba, Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein, and best of the lot, Monica, O My Darling leading the way, Sujoy Ghosh’s latest movie prefers not to buck the trend. To justify choosing the title, the song Aa jaan e jaan from the 1969 Inteqaam plays as flashbacks of Kareena’s former nightclub performing past are shown. When she sings the song again at the world’s weirdest karaoke competition, we start looking for the nearest sharp object to tear our eardrums. More on that later.
It’s this creativity on autopilot, almost verging on parody, that is disappointing. And once the movie starts, it continues to go downhill very fast.
Here, in no particular order, are some instances that made us want to tear our hair out so that by the time the movie ended, our scalp resembled Ahlawat’s Teacher character *spoiler alert* :
- Look, we get that it’s an adaptation, so you have to stay true to the source material, but the kickboxing bit to introduce Verma’s character, the coin trick with the hammy student, and Ahlawat’s weird jiu-jitsu sequences were unbelievable.
- We really loved the A=B=C theory, hence the A=C theory. Way to dumb it down. On second thought, we changed our mind. The Body = Mrs D’Souza, hence, no body = no Mrs D’Souza is our favorite math equation. Who knew Math could be so fun?
- Are there strip joints in India and pole dancers? There should be more effort put into showing a nightclub than a female gyrating around a pole.
- Why can’t a working woman, who has seen enough of the world, call the police on her creepy stalker husband?
- Who keeps money under the mattress? Why doesn’t Kareena’s character have a bank account? This makes us wonder how she financed the cafe and pays the workers who have nothing better to do than gossip about the Teacher’s slightly creepy vibes.
- For a movie that claims to be a thriller, the murder scene was so telegraphed and unbelievable that you must’ve seen it coming a mile away unless you forgot to wear your glasses.
- Respect on making us all feel nostalgic about the electric rod *sigh* good times…
- It’s funny that as soon as there’s a murder, Teacher finds his tongue in front of Maya.
- None of the three characters is scared or in a panic at the prospect of a dead body in their midst. It’s the most relaxed post-murder soiree we’ve ever witnessed. All that was missing was a plate of samosas and some doodh patti.
- The story that the film is adapted from has a lot of cerebral twists. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Jaane Jaan. In fact, a prerequisite for watching this movie is to leave logic and reasoning at the door. Just because Karan saw Maya in the cafe and then the school, that was enough to associate her with the dead cop. Rather than assume it is a local woman picking up her daughter from the local school, he immediately concludes that she is related to the case and starts spying on her. Just because he ran into her that morning? Apparently, Karan also studied under the same A=B=C Maths teacher. The only thing missing was when Maya hugged Teacher, and the latter explained his boner with another A=B=C equation. What a missed opportunity.
- While the US still hasn’t gone past blunt force trauma, the forensic experts at this remote hill station can tell from a burnt body that it was strangled by a cord and hit with a heater rod.
- Finally, we come to the Karaoke Bar. It’s the first of its kind where, instead of reading the lyrics, you guess the song from the video and then sing.
- Maya acts all guarded and serious. But one evening with the inspector at a Karaoke bar, she drops all her seriousness and starts dancing with him! Seriously? This is the guy who could ruin your life!
Final Verdict
Jaane Jaan had elements of Drishyam 2 in it, but sadly, it chose to go another way. What it comes down to is the aspect of believability. Do we believe that the three leads are actors who are great at their job? Hell yes! Do we really believe this jiu-jitsu-practicing-comb-over-locked-in stammering-weird-guy with the hots for his neighbor is a mathematical genius? Ummmmm….not really. The same goes for the other two leads as well. While they do justice to their roles, they don’t inhabit them.
We give it 1.5 out of 5.
