Jaane Jaan is a thriller film based on the Japanese novel The Devotion of Suspect X. It is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
In West Bengal’s Kalimpong, Maya D’Souza lives with her daughter, Tara. Their neighbour, who frequents her cafe in the town, is fondly known by all the staff and her as ‘teacher’, referring to his profession as a mathematics teacher in a local school.
The staff likes to tease Maya about teacher coming to the cafe every single day, and it’s obvious for everyone to see that he is smitten by her.
Maya is shocked when her ex-husband, Ajit, enters her cafe. She does not know how he has managed to find her. Ajit is a police officer.
Ajit forcefully enters Maya’s, who changed her name from Soniya after running from him. She is further stunned when Ajit reveals he knows about his daughter.
He extorts money from Maya, and she gives him all she has. But he now has his eyes on her daughter, whom he wants to turn into a stripper, just as he had done to Maya in the past.
Tara hits him on the head with a heater coil and the two proceed to strangle him to death. They are unsure about what to do now.
Teacher reveals that he knows they have killed Ajit and offers to help them. He asks them to do exactly what he asks. He is confident that his genius level intellect will save the two.
Karan Anand, a capable cop, is informed by the commissioner that Ajit has been linked to hawala by multiple drug traders. He asks him to find Ajit.
As Karan reaches Kalimpong, he visits Maya’s cafe, where he recognises Naren, calling him Naroo. Naren is an old classmate of Karan.
Karan visits the lodge that Ajit was staying at. He is told by a staffer that he went to a school nearby. Karan sees Maya and Tara there, and realises there is a connection. She is now his prime suspect.
Naren tells Maya they will never locate Ajit’s body, but they apparently find it. Even the DNA traces on the clothes prove this.
Karan is apprehensive, as all traces of Ajit’s identity were destroyed, except the clothes, which would have taken just 5 more minutes to burn completely and eliminate any evidence.
Although Maya had said at first that she does not recognise Ajit, she confesses that he does. When Karan asks why she lied, she tells him about their dark past but keeps acting as if Ajit is still alive, on Naren’s instructions.
Karan probes further. He asks what Maya did on the night of 10th, and she says that she and her daughter went for the movie Pets 2 and then to a karaoke bar. Her daughter repeats the same exact story.
Karan visits Naren’s house, where the latter tells him about math problems that take years to solve. He solved one particular problem in 10 years, but someone else solves it just two days ago.
When the forensic reveals that Ajit was struck by a heater coil, Karan asks Maya to go to a karaoke bar, and his officers steal the heater from her house in the meantime.
Jaane Jaan ending explained in detail:
How does Karan identify Naren’s link to Maya?
When the heater coil is brought to the forensic department, it does not match the murder weapon. Karan tells Kalimpong’s local police that they are calling off the investigation.
All the evidence that Maya has provided so far has proven to be authentic. All her alibi is solid as well. Karan has no choice but to call off the investigation and continue from Mumbai.
Karan returns to Maya’s cafe to tell her that they won’t bother her now but has an epiphany when one staffer mentions that Naren visits the cafe daily and is attracted to her, even though he had earlier told Karan that he barely goes there.
He joins the doubts and realises the mastermind behind Maya’s impeccable evidence. Karan waits outside his dojo and interrogates him. However, there is no proof to where he was.
Maya tells Naren that his staff told Karan about his affection for her. At this moment, Naren realises that Karan will do anything to prove the murderer.
How does Naren save Maya and Tara?
Naren tells Maya there is only one way left to prove their innocence. But no matter what happens, they must not confess.
Karan is still hell-bent on exposing Maya. Just then, Naren confesses that he is the murderer and that Maya told him to commit it.
When Karan questions Maya, she states that she is unaware of everything Naren is saying. According to Naren, Maya told him about Ajit and their past.
However, he says that he listened to her conversation through the wall, but understood that she was trying to tell him everything.
It is extremely obvious that Naren is trying to show the police that he is mentally unstable and committed the murder on his own, without Maya ever realising.
He knew that if he said Maya asked him to do it, it would further strengthen her innocence, as it was coming from someone they deemed unstable.
As Naren is put behind bars, Maya thanks him. But he thanks her instead. He wanted to commit suicide by hanging himself after someone else solved the math problem. When he met her, she became his second love, after mathematics.
Now, during his time in prison, he can solve a problem that will take 15 years and all his attention can go back to his first love. He starts shouting and acts unstable to protect Maya.
At home, Maya tells her daughter that ‘teacher’ has saved them.
How did Naren pull off his plan?
Naren remembers how you can either solve something or believe in someone else’s solution. This is how he planned everything.
The murder was committed on 9th, and Maya would be the only suspect. However, if it was committed on the 10th, there would be an unknown suspect; ‘suspect X’.
Naren found a random homeless person who was the same height as Ajit. He murdered him on the 10th, when Maya and Tara went out, in exactly the same way Ajit was murdered.
He destroyed his identity, but left Ajit’s clothes, to make the police think it was Ajit’s body. This also made them believe that the murder was committed on the 10th.
His last resort was always to become suspect x and save the woman that he was devoted to, and he ultimately won.
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