Jaane Jaan fails to convey real story of the novel The Devotion of Suspect X

Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor recently made her OTT debut with Jaane Jaan. The actress played the role of Maya D'Souza in the Sujoy Ghosh directorial. Bebo featured in the movie with Jaideep Ahlawat and Vijay Varma. The film had a digital release on Netflix on September 21, 2023. For the unaware, Sujoy's Jaane Jaan is an adaptation of the 2005 Japanese novel, The Devotion Of Suspect X, by Keigo Higashino.

Is the film completely adapted from the Japanese novel? Well, the ones who have watched Jaane Jaan, would know that it has failed to convey the real story of The Devotion Of Suspect X. And for the ones who haven't watched the film, let us tell you how different is Jaane Jaan from the 2005 novel. Spoilers ahead!

Also read: Jaane Jaan review: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, Vijay Varma's dramatic brilliance anchors this 'Drishyam' with loopholes

Jaane Jaan's premise

Kareena Kapoor plays the role of Maya D'Souza, who runs her own cafeteria. She is a divorced and single mother to Tara. The story revolves around Maya, along with Tara, killing her ex-husband Ajit when he tries to extort money, threatens them and gets violent. Jaideep Ahlawat, who plays the Mathematics teacher Naren Vyas and Maya's neighbour, gets to know that Ajit has been killed and offers help to the mother-daughter duo. 

When Ajit's body is identified, Inspector Karan Anand (Vijay Varma), delves deep into the case. Though he is not sure of Maya's involvement in Ajit's murder, Karan believe there's something wrong with Maya's alibi. In the meantime, when Karan meets Naren (his former classmate), he is convinced that Vyas has something to do with the murder.The cat-and-mouse game between them begins.

Towards the end, it is revealed that Naren decided to help Maya because she unknowlingly helped him save his life while he was depressed and wanted to die by suicide. To decieve the investigation, Naren murdered a second person, a homeless man, and made police believe that he was Ajit. Naren ends up confessing that he committed the crime, to protect Maya and pretends that he is mentally unstable. The film ends with him being imprisoned.

How Jaane Jaan fails to convey real story of novel The Devotion Of Suspect X

The beginning of Jaane Jaan's storyline matches to that of novel, The Devotion Of Suspect X. However, a major character of a Doctor, as mentioned in the novel, has been completely ruled out in the Sujoy Ghosh directorial. While in Jaane Jaan, it is shown that Naren is Inspector Karan's former classmate, the novel has Dr. Manabu Yukawa playing the math teacher, Tetsuya Ishigami's old college mate. In fact, it is a detective's character, Shunpei Kusanagi, who introduces Manabu in the novel. Here again, a detective's character is replaced by that of an inspector in Jaane Jaan.

And towards the end, the novel mentions that Dr Yukawa figures out the math teacher's thought to protect his neighbbour, Yasuko Hanaoka. Unable to accept his friend's sacrifice, Yukawa tells the truth to the single mother. While Tetsuya is imprisoned, Yasuko ends up meeting him in jail and informs that she and her daughter Misato have confessed to killing Shinji Togashi. The book ends with Yasuko and Misato being determinded to serving the jail term with him.  

Also read: Jaane Jaan on Netflix: Story of The Devotion of Suspect X, the Japanese novel that Kareena Kapoor Khan’s film is based on

Well, that's how the Sujoy Ghosh film is different from the 2005 novel, The Devotion Of Suspect X.