Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro

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.

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.

This is one of India's best comedy movies. Well made, well directed, very well acted, the movies picks up more laughs as it develops and the climax is certainly the most hilarious. The theme is corruption in business, government and the media. Everybody is on the take, the Police Commissioner, the big bucks businessman, newspaper editor, etc.

Two hungry-for-work photo studio owners accidentally take the picture of a murder and then "all hell breaks loose". The climax at a small theater where "The Mahabharata" is being staged will have you in splits. Crime has never been so much fun. Yet the film never loses its edge, its cynicism of what happens in the real world. The good guys always win in the end, right? Yeah, right... See the movie. I have no doubt this is one of India's classic comedy films.

A lot of comments about this movie have centered on the apparently slapstick comedy, ignoring its usage to lend a sense of the grotesque in what is a essentially a masterful farce, and beneath the surface, more of a tragedy.

This movie centers around the two young protagonists, full of ideals and the will to win against the powers of endemic and ubiquitous corruption, a corruption that is so manifestly present that the others do not seem to question its existence, but implicitly assume it and use it to serve their own ends. However, our heroes find the going quite tough.

Although partly inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-up", this movie is in a class by itself, with dark humor reminiscent of Kafka and Gogol. The star cast includes some of the finest actors to ever grace the screens of Bollywood (or for that matter, anywhere else). Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor and many others deliver stellar performances in this tragi-comedy which is one of finest pearls produced by the New Wave movement in Indian cinema.

Regretabbly, comprehension of the movie requires intimate knowledge of the background, something which you would only have if you have lived in India, where corruption is as natural as breathing, and if you are familiar with the turbulent times when New Wave Cinema was taking off, a time of discontent and idealism among youth, a time of unemployment and the times of the angry young man (as typified by Amitabh Bachchan in many commercial films from this era).

However one can still enjoy it for it is a comedy worth watching. Hopefully, the viewer will see the tragedy beneath the humor.

I rate this movie among the finest movies of all time, and in the class of farces, it stands alongside Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove".

Let me first clarify that I have been a fan of this movie for a long time. When I say its overrated, I mean to say that its still a very good movie, much much ahead of its times, but its not as great as its made out to be.

I will just outline some of the negatives that may or may not have been pointed out by prior reviewers. Positives are many obviously. The biggest positive is the fact that a film of this nature was conceived, that too back in 1983, with a budget of barely around 800k rupees. The comic sequences are nice, the satire is accurate. I especially loved the portrayal of early 80s Bombay, India. The people and the places of that era.

Coming to the negatives, the whole plot is so superficial, so shallow, so vain. may be that type of a premise was necessary here, to combine the comic and tragic aspects of the movie. But it makes all the characters of the movie seem incredible, in the bad sense. Too inconsistent. They keep switching from being normal, to being idiotic, to being intelligent, randomly. Perfect example of it is the scene between Naseeruddin and Bhakti Barve in her office. It could have been an awesome scene, but it doesn't reach that potential. And the same is true for so many other scenes. May be the film was made in a hurry.

Another thing is, when you watch the movie now, the humor doesn't work much. Its like a movie playing on slow-mo. Even the actor's reactions and dialogue deliveries seem to be delayed, everything seems too slow. There are a number of Priyadarshan movies, that are way funnier than this one. Of course its unfair to compare movies like that. The point is, its just not as hilarious as I first found it to be.

There are other issues too. The whole Murder-Deadbody segment is so flawed logically. Why would Tanreja murder someone in a park, that too in broad daylight? and why would he choose to return there in the middle of the night to pick up the dead body. And then, why would anyone dump the body under a bridge to be inaugurated to the public the next day.

The satire is monotonous. We Indians are all already aware of corruption. the film doesn't really say anything new. and the worst thing is, there isn't really any greater message to the film. I mean if its a satirical movie, it should have something to say. shouldn't it? This one just announces that the COMMON man is doomed in corrupt India.

I still do endorse this movie. My favorite scene is the one under the bridge, where the two innocent citizens, Naseer and Ravi get harassed by the constable. Unfortunately, its 2014 and the same is still happening in India. I guess thats the ultimate message of this movie. To laugh at it, or to cry over that, is left to the viewers choice.