Sujoy Ghosh’s Netflix Original, Jaane Jaan is out for everyone to savor the tale of a cat-and-mouse chase between a police official and an alleged culprit. The police are hell-bent on going after the person they think is the killer, while the actual criminal is at large, who slyly hid themselves in the crowd. The film had a convoluted ending, but some theories can be discussed on the subject related to it and make speculations about the characters once all ends are tied up.
Jaane Jaan ends when Naren, ‘The Teacher,’ comes forward and confesses to having killed Ajit. Naren claimed that he is Maya’s bodyguard and has remained so since the day she became his next-door neighbor. Naren admits having seen Ajit hovering around them and luring him to believe that Maya would want to meet him. He killed Ajit to protect Maya from him, who was capable of harming her and her daughter in every possible manner. However, for the audience watching the movie, Naren’s confession is only partly true. It was a white lie created to convince Karan that Naren is indeed a mentally insane person who went out of his way to save a woman he claims he knows and loves. The irony is that they did not know each other, but the screenplay is presented in such a bizarre manner that it doesn’t allow us to understand and pinpoint who is telling the truth.
A possibility could be that Maya and Naren planned and decided one of them would take the fall for the murder. Maya knew ‘The Teacher’ liked her, and she probably figured he had become a loyal friend. Maya had made it clear that she could not live without Tara and that she would want to stay with her as long as she could. Understanding the sentiment the mother and daughter shared must have made Naren take the plunge to show his love and devotion towards the woman, whom he claims saved his life.
Another interesting aspect of this ending is that Maya comes back home happy, knowing that Naren took the gamble, and she and Tara are now safe. It’s bizarre that Maya seems to be so self-centered and happy for someone else going to prison for her. There is probably a path decided for the two of them once the storm around this case settles down. Maya and her daughter Tara will most likely move to another hilly town far away from Kalimpong to restart their lives from scratch.
Maya has lived a lie all her life; it will not be very difficult for her to work on her identity and adjust to her surroundings. Maya moved from a crowded Mumbai to a sparsely populated town on the border of India and Nepal. She lived as another person for the past fifteen years without being recognized until her estranged husband showed up. Moving to another town with a new identity will not be that hard of a decision for her.
Maya and Tara could also plan to stay back and wait until the Teacher is released from prison. Maya could have lost everything if she had gone to prison, but since Naren did that for her, it would only feel right for her to wait for him. Naren may have sacrificed his reputation because of his act and the devotion he showed, but it will be Maya and Tara who will decide to stand by him by taking a decision to stay back. Even though she was the first person to let him know that her staff only make up stories, in reality, nothing was brewing between him and Maya. She will stay back as a friend, the kind he probably never had all this while in town.
Maya made sure her daughter could have a secure life away from trouble. This was the reason she left her dreadful life in Mumbai and moved to Kalimpong. It is essential for Maya that Tara remain insulated from the traumatic life she has led. We are not sure if Maya ever spoke about it with her daughter. But Maya did claim that she shared everything with her daughter; she is the best friend a mother could ask for.
Maya was petrified at the idea of Tara being forcefully taken to Mumbai by Ajit. Her reaction was clear enough to convey that, as a mother, she would never let Tara out of her sight. With Ajit and Karan also gone from this small town, living the life that she always wanted is her only goal. The mother and daughter will always stay together, no matter where they plan to move.
Sujoy Ghosh is known to present female characters who are not damsels in distress. They take charge of life and chart their destiny. This is the arc we had seen in the female leads of Kahaani, Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh, and Badla. These women were independent, made their own choices, and allowed themselves to make mistakes on the way. The same could be said about Maya in Jaane Jaan. She will survive the ordeal she was put through after the murder of her estranged husband. She lived through the trauma she was put through as Ajit’s wife. She ran away from that life, which was a bold decision, and raised her daughter on her own. She rebuilt her life from scratch in a secluded border town. Maya and Tara can survive anywhere, especially the mother, who has seen and experienced the worst and reached a point where she is now financially independent and wants her daughter to be the same.
Maya always hoped her daughter would not have the life she led. She taught her daughter to be a survivor as well, which is why we believe, post this ordeal, none of them will be filled with any form of guilt regarding the murder of a man who could have wrecked their lives. The mother-daughter duo has a long way to go.
