Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro

I remember when this movie came out it faired poorly at the box office and was off the theatres within a week. But I think it generated an underground sort of movement amongst youth who wanted to watch a different kind of cinema and soon it had a cult of its own. You ask any Indian cine fan between 30s and 40s his/her top 10 favorite movies and I think this movie will figure in the list somewhere.

The plot is simple; two struggling photographers accidentally get involved in the filth that Indian 'system' is and which includes everybody from the police to media to politicians to builders etc. etc. etc. Once involved they try to expose everyone involved but the question is 'will they survive?'

Performance wise, everyone from Naseer to Ravi Baswani to Pankaj Kapoor to Satish Shah to Satish Kaushik to Om Puri have given brilliant performances, probably amongst their best. It's almost like magic that you know that it happened but you never know how. The film is bustling with synergy of all these performers (actors, writers, director and the whole crew) who are just happy to work with each other and in such a creative environment and are out to make a difference. And difference they made. It is and will remain a cult classic with people from our generation.

Many people don't know that this film is based on real story yet it is so humorous and very much interesting.

Story is similar to political storm of 1980s regarding Bridge collapse. The characters name also matches. Tarneja = Raheja (Builder) shobha = shobha de (Reporter) D'mello = rebello (Commisioner)

Kundan Shah has to be acknowledged for writing this beautiful story with current affairs. Every details of film is outstanding and also dialog's. This is not best comedy film but also best film. Every actor has to be credited for his work. Naseerudin shah, pankaj kapur, om puri and satish kaushk specially.

They've never quite managed to make a movie like this one. Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Vaswani play photographers caught in a messy affair involving corrupt politicians, wicked businessmen, canny journalists (and some hammy actors). Giving director Kundan Shah (who has, surprising, gone on to the make some of the most awful films of the last decade) the chance to unleash his brilliant satire. He hits all his targets. Satish Shah is hilarious as a dead body on roller skates, and the 'Disrobing of Draupadi' scene in the theatre is one of the funniest ever shot. Like the rest of the film, it could have been cringe-inducingly-awful. If it weren't so funny, that is.

Rib-tickling, side-splitting .. but also cynical, intelligent, and very, very dark. Comedy as it should be and so very rarely is. Corrupt politicians in cahoots with thieving contractors, their scheming rivals and their inept secretaries ... add two bumbling, idealistic, naive young photographers in the 'right' place at the 'right' time ..... throw 'em all together and all hell breaks loose, and boy is it hilarious!! I've seen this several times and never failed to collapse in helpless fits of laughter. Wonder why they don't make them like this anymore, and wish they did!

Quite apart from its social satire, unimaginably ahead of its time for the dour early '80's Delhi, JBDY managed to bring together a slew of talent, Shah(s), Baswani, Kapoor, and of course the inimitable Puri 'Ahuja'. Folks over at NFDC still take the movie apart frame by frame, deconstructing its topical references and attempt to interpolate a social conscience to it. More than its concluding 'Draupadi vastraharan' scene, symbolic of the wretched disrobing of the Indian polity however, the film managed to make me cry out loud with laughter even as an impressionable twelve year old, merely for its slapstick content. This is a movie which gets better with every viewing, and reveals slick, symbolic and subversive undertones worthy of Kundan Shah's maverick vision.