Jaane Jaan (transl. Beloved), released internationally as Suspect X, is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language mystery thriller film written and directed by Sujoy Ghosh. The film is an adaptation of the 2005 Japanese novel The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino, which had earlier been made into the 2012 South Korean film Perfect Number by Bang Eun-jin. The film is produced under the banner 12th Street Entertainment and Northern Lights Films in association with Kross Pictures and Balaji Motion Pictures. It stars Kareena Kapoor Khan as a single mother involved in a murder, alongside Jaideep Ahlawat and Vijay Varma. It released on 21 September 2023 on Netflix, to positive reviews from film critics, with particular praise directed towards the performances of the lead cast. Jaane Jaan broke the record for the biggest opening weekend viewership for an Indian film on Netflix. It was the highest-ranking Indian film on Netflix's engagement report for the second half of 2023, with over 20 million views, and emerged as the most-viewed Indian film on Netflix in terms of global viewing hours. At the 2024 Filmfare OTT Awards, Jaane Jaan received 8 nominations, including Best Web Original Film, Best Director in a Web Original Film (for Ghosh), Best Actor in a Web Original Film (for Ahlawat), and Best Supporting Actor in a Web Original Film (for Varma), and won 3 awards – Best Web Original Film (Critics), Best Actor (Critics) in a Web Original Film (for Ahlawat) and Best Actress in a Web Original Film (for Kapoor Khan).
Plot In Kalimpong, northern West Bengal, Maya D'Souza is a single mother who runs a cafeteria. Naren Vyas is a reclusive, but brilliant mathematics teacher, who lives next door to Maya and her teenage daughter Tara. Naren is solemn and introverted, though well-liked amongst his students, and his morning exchanges with Maya from whose cafeteria he buys lunch, is the brightest part of his day. Ajit, Maya's abusive estranged husband and a corrupt policeman, shows up one night to extort money from her which she stole when fleeing from him 14 years ago. He threatens both her and Tara, causing the situation to quickly escalate into violence and Ajit is killed by them via strangulation, partly in self-defense. Overhearing the commotion and deducing that Ajit has been killed, Naren offers his help to the mother and daughter. He not only disposes the body, but also plots the cover-up step-by-step. Inspector Karan Anand, a former classmate of Naren, is assigned to track the missing Ajit, which leads him to Kalimpong. There, he runs into Naren, along with burned remains with Ajit's credentials. Karan's suspicions immediately fall on Maya. Autopsy shows that the murder occurred on the 10 of the month. Maya and Tara have a detailed alibi. Unable to poke any holes in Maya's alibi, Karan is ready to go back. However, one of Maya's employees tells him about Naren's crush on Maya. Karan becomes suspicious of Naren, who had previously claimed to not know Maya very well. Karan finds incriminating evidence against Naren, who does not have an alibi for the night of the murder. Maya apologises to Naren when she finds out what her employee said. She tells him that she clarified to Karan that there is nothing romantic between them. A heartbroken Naren goes to the police station and confesses to Ajit's murder, saying he did it at Maya's behest. Naren starts to frame himself as delusional, setting up evidence of him stalking Maya. Maya confirms the evidence, including cryptic messages sent to her. The murder weapon is also found in Naren's house. Karan accepts that Naren killed Ajit in a delusional state to protect Maya and Tara. At the police station, a guilt-ridden Maya asks Naren why he took the blame for her. Naren reveals that he had spent 10 years of his life on one of the Millennium Prize Problems, which he solved. However, someone else had reached the solution 46 hours before him. Depressed, he was going to commit suicide. Right then, Maya had knocked on Naren's door, giving him a new lease on life. A grateful Maya offers to visit him in prison but Naren refuses, wanting her and Tara to move on in peace. In a flashback, it shows how Naren covered up the murder. Since Ajit's murder occurred on the 9th and Maya did not have an alibi for then, he killed a homeless man on the 10th, a day Maya and Tara had meticulously created an alibi. Karan had previously noted that the burned remains had a smashed face and burned fingerprints to hide Ajit's identity so the body would not be connected to Maya. In reality, it was done to make sure that no one would realise that the dead body was not Ajit's. Naren is sentenced to 25 years in prison, which he uses to solve another of the Millennium Problems.
Cast
Production
Development Ghosh started working on the script in 2015 and wanted Saif Ali Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to be cast. However, was shelved. According to him, the film belonged to the crime thriller. He stated that the day he read ‘Devotion of Suspect X,’ he wanted to adapt it into a film. On casting Khan for the character of Maya in the film, Ghosh opined that he needed somebody at that age and to be fearless. Fearless in terms of whatever she had to do, however she had to look, completely ignore any kind of vanity or anything, including a vanity van. He wrote the character of Maya as a single mom, who works and takes care of her child, has no time for herself. Also, they wanted Maya to wear one costume (jacket) during the whole film, depicting she did not have time. Also, Ghosh did not wanted the film similar to that of the original, citing it 'non-palatable' to Indian audience. He interpreted it more of a man's unrequited love for a woman rather than a murder-mystery. On opting for Kalimpong for filming, he said that the misty weather and silence suited the film's subject. On writing the character for Khan, he said there were certain requirements like Maya being a single mother who's running a cafe, who's looking after a kid, who's 24 hours kind of working in a cycle. There were certain things she couldn't afford, like even to deck herself up, or she has to be just a normal mother. In an interview with The Indian Express, Ahlawat said that he was about to refuse the role. Ghosh was particular on aspects like he was making this film for a Hindi speaking audience and thus, characters that fit within our social norms, their behaviour had to be something that this audience could relate with.
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