Jaane Jaan Review: Jaideep Ahlawat Steals The Show In Kareena Kapoor's OTT Debut

Sujoy Ghosh's latest murder mystery 'Jaane Jaan' dropped on Netflix today. The film has a stellar cast including Kareena Kapoor Khan, Vijay Varma and Jaideep Ahlawat.

New Delhi: Sujoy Ghosh's latest murder mystery 'Jaane Jaan' dropped on Netflix today. The film has a stellar cast including Kareena Kapoor Khan, Vijay Varma and Jaideep Ahlawat, despite that, the film faulters at moments and fails to deliver the way you would expect a Sujoy Ghosh film to be that has such a stellar cast.

The film, set in Darjeeling's Kalimpong, begins with Naren (Jaideep Ahlawat) trying to commit suicide. Next, we are introduced to Kareena Kapoor's character Maya D'Souza, who lives with her teenage daughter, works as a cafe owner and has been living a peaceful life in the quiet and picturesque city. But things go topsy turvy for her when her estranged husband Ajit comes looking for her and intends to turn the mother-daughter duo's life into a nightmare.

Following her, he reaches her home and threatens her, and is ultimately killed by Maya and her daughter Tara in a fit of rage and revenge. Naren aka Teacher (he is a Maths teacher in a school) is her neighbour who has an intriguing persona. He extends a helping hand to Maya and takes everything in his charge. Vijay Varma essays the role of a hot-shot cop, Karan Anand, who is sent to the small town to look for Ajit. As soon as Karan begins investigating the case, Maya becomes his only "hot suspect." After a lot of twists and turns, truths and lies, the murdery mystery is finally solved, but the reality is something else.

Kareena Kapoor Khan makes her OTT debut with the murder mystery and while the actor might have made the right choice with this film, the storyline does not seem to add much to her character despite the intriguing background that makes the viewers want to know more about her before she came to Kalimpong.

Jaideep Ahlawat shines throughout, bearing a persona that only he could have carried so well, sinking into his character and making it one of the most striking points of the whole film. At times he comes off as a creepy neighbour, who is perceived to be romantically inclined towards Maya D'Souza, but wait for the truth to unfold at the end. He steals every frame he is in with his brilliance.

Vijay Varma does justice to his part but the same cannot be said about the story doing justice to his character. While the actor does his best to make his part stand out, the character arc of Karan is faulty, lacking depth and missing out on the opportunity to utilise the actor's potential to its fullest.

The story that Ghosh and Raj Vasant co-wrote starts out with a fair amount of intrigue and develops beautifully as it goes along, but it quickly loses its way and becomes disjointed. A murder mystery or thriller of this scope and with such a superb cast is anticipated to provide an adrenaline rush, yet despite all that is happening on screen, including some graphic details, you never get that feeling. Additionally, the screenplay for 'Jaane Jaan' has simply too many giveaways, for instance, one of the main shocks is revealed in a flashback scene early in the script, which should have been saved for the climax.

'Jaane Jaan', an official adaptation of the 2005 novel 'The Devotion of Suspect X' by Keigo Higashino is an average thriller that can be watched for the acting chops of the stellar cast, if not the storyline.