Suspect X

About the film

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.

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.

Production

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.

Ghosh stated that most of the casting evolved from the original book, the character Naren was heavily built, knows martial arts and was interested in Mathematics. A careless attitude about living life where he felt Jaideep Ahlawat fitted. For Inspector Karan's character, he wanted someone who can be super cool and charming, thus roped in Vijay Varma. Whereas for Maya's character, he was certain to cast a popular actor. In a conversation with Firstpost, Varma was quoted saying: "Jaane Jaan was a film I jumped at the minute Ghosh shared that he wanted me to play a role like this. I am playing a witty, charming and sharp police officer, refreshing break from the baddies I’ve played before."

Soundtrack

The original songs for the film were composed by Sachin-Jigar whereas the background score was composed by Clinton Cerejo and Bianca Gomes. For the title track, Sachin-Jigar recreated the composition "Aa Jaane Jaan" from the 1969 film Intaqam. The recreated version was recorded with vocals by Neha Kakkar. Visuals from the original compositions were used in the film. Vijay Ganguly had choreographed the dance number. The song featured in the first teaser of the film. In the film, Maya (played by Kapoor) sang the track at a dance bar with young Maya (played by Uditi Singh) performing a pole dance in short golden dress. In his character as an inspector, Varma was filmed as a visitor at the bar with Maya's live performance. The title track was released on 11 September 2023. The second single "Doriyaan" was released on 18 September 2023.

Key details