There's An Indian Crime Drama In Netflix's Top 10 That Demands Our Attention
If you find yourself in the throes of scrolling fatigue as you desperately navigate the various streaming platform catalogs, we might just have the answer for you. "Jaane Jaan," which translates as "Beloved," "Sweetheart," or whatever English term of endearment you prefer, is a Hindi-language thriller that's gone bonkers since hitting Netflix on September 21, 2023.
Based on the 2005 novel "The Devotion of Suspect X" by Japanese author Keigo Higashino, this adaptation is helmed by director Sujoy Ghosh, who told Variety the original novel is a "massive, complicated mind-numbing, mind-f*****g love story." And it seems that's also the recipe for a massive Netflix hit, with the film debuting at number one in numerous countries and becoming the top non-English movie in the world on the streamer.
Starring Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor Khan in her streaming debut, "Jaane Jaan" follows single mother Maya D'Souza (Khan) who becomes the number one suspect in the murder of her ex-husband. Luckily, her brilliant neighbor, Naren 'Naru' Vyas (Jaideep Ahlawat) decides to help her evade determined police inspector Karan Anand (Vijay Varma), making for a taught cat and mouse game between gifted math teacher and driven cop.
Evidently, people are lapping up this Indian thriller, which has not only proven successful but has also broken Netflix records — though it's worth keeping in mind that Netflix viewer metrics are dodgy at best.
An immediate hit
"Jaane Jaan" didn't waste any time racking up views. For the week of September 18 to September 24, 2023, "Jaane Jaan" was the most-watched non-English film on the streamer globally, with 8.1 million views. As per the official Netflix Top 10 site (launched back in 2021 to distract us from the company's flimsy viewing metrics), "Jaane Jaan" hit the top 10 film list in 52 countries around the world and was watched for a total of 18,800,000 hours that week. All of which puts it at number two on the global watch list for both English and non-English films.
The second most-watched English movie for the week was "Spy Kids: Armageddon" with 6.7 million views and 11,000,000 hours of viewing time, though it did arrive a day after "Jaane Jaan." The surprise Indian hit also couldn't quite topple the number one global movie overall, Netflix's romantic comedy "Love at First Sight."
Still, "Jaane Jaan" had an outstanding run in its debut week. According to streaming statistics aggregator FlixPatrol, the film performed best in its native Asia, where it hit the number one spot in 12 countries including India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and the United Arab Emirates. In fact, the film not only reached number one in those countries for the week of September 18 to September 24, 2023, it debuted in the top spot. On top of that, it hit number one upon release in countries outside Asia, such as Canada and a handful of African countries including Kenya and Morocco. No slow climb to the top for "Jaane Jaan," then.
In the U.S., audiences were less enthusiastic about the film, but still devoted enough viewing hours to propel "Jaane Jaan" to the number eight spot for all films during the week of its debut.
A doomed love story
This isn't the first time Netflix has given global exposure to films that might otherwise have only been hits in their native countries. One unequivocal positive of the age of streaming is that global audiences are much more willing to watch films from outside their own countries and cultures. Just this year, Indian noir series "Khorra" proved a hit for Netflix, while German thriller series "Liebes Kind" climbed the global charts upon its debut.
But there's no doubt "Jaane Jaan" has reached an unprecedented level of popularity. Star Kapoor Khan spoke to Variety about the film's success, saying:
"The reactions, messages from fans and audiences around the world have strengthened my belief that good stories can go everywhere [...] I hope the film continues to top all the charts for many many weeks to come."
It's worth noting that "Jaane Jaan" isn't the first adaptation of "The Devotion of Suspect X," which has previously been turned into Japanese, Korean, and Chinese films. There was even an Indian Tamil-language adaptation back in 2019 and there's a Hollywood version in the works. But none of them have achieved the kind of global popularity of "Jaane Jaan." Interestingly enough, director Sujoy Ghosh told Variety he sees the film less as a thriller and more as a love story, adding, "This is a love story I always really wanted to make because for me doomed love stories are the most beautiful love stories ever." Perhaps focusing on the love story element had something to do with the streaming success of "Jaane Jaan," then. Hey, "Love at First Sight" was the biggest Netflix movie in the world that week ... With that said, we know by now that if it's in the "newly-added" category, we'll pretty much watch anything.