Letter from the soul

Dear Creator,

In a sinking moment of pain,

You were beside me as strength.

Numbed senses staring at my empty glass.

You whispered in my ear, “This too shall pass.”

Dark nights metamorphosed to radiant days

Unrelenting efforts blossomed into colorful blaze

Charged with Your vibrant energy around

Optimism and vigor found steady ground

Then You gave me sweet moments of leisure

Comfort and abundance to decadent pleasure

Unaware, confidence changed to conceited pride

You laughed, jokingly, knowing I was in for a ride

Alas my folly!! Realized I am merely a medium

Up and down, You hurl me around the datum

You are always the mighty motive force.

I drown into depths if You drop the oars

Sincere prayer, strong reminder of my smallness

O Almighty, please protect me with this awareness

Your magnanimity, untamed and wild

Love n regards, signed Your own child

Jaane Jaan – Movie Review

Jaane Jaan (2023) is a thrilling mystery movie in Hindi, based on the struggle of a single mother, Maya D’souza( Kareena Kapoor), who is caught in a crime investigation. This movie is directed by Sujoy Ghosh (Kahani , Badla) and shot in the beautiful hill town, Kalimpong. It is available for viewing on Netflix from September 2023.

The story of Sujoy’s Jaane Jaan is an adaptation of Keigo Higashino’s award winning Japanese novel, the Devotion Of Suspect X (2005). Most of the story is preserved intact — like the meeting of Maya with her ex-husband (Saurabh Sachdeva ), who still wants to extort money from her. The encounter turns violent when her daughter gets involved as well. Finally the ex-husband ends up dead in her apartment. Hearing the commotion the middle-aged neighbor, who is a Mathematics teacher (Jaideep Ahlawat ) tries to help Maya. Though in the Japanese story there is an additional character, the physics professor and math genius, who solves the mystery in the end, I thoroughly enjoyed Sujoy’s adaptation especially how he preserved the element of mathematical puzzle. But the clever plan of the neighbor appears to fall apart when his former school friend and cop (Vijay Varma) starts a meticulous investigation to get to the truth. This is similar to the Chinese movie The Devotion of Suspect X (2017). Sujoy Ghosh adapts the climax to bring a unique surprising ending!

Interestingly, this movie reminded me of the blockbluster Hindi thriller Drishyam(2015) that also had a similar crime that was covered up using the same tricks by the hero, the father of a teenage girl, who along with her mother was involved in the crime of killing her abuser.