| Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro | |
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Film poster |
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| Directed by | Kundan Shah |
| Produced by | National Film Development Corporation |
| Written by | story and screenplay Sudhir Mishra, Kundan Shah Dialogues Ranjit Kapoor, Satish Kaushik |
| Starring | Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Shah, Bhakti Barve, Satish Kaushik, Neena Gupta |
| Music by | Vanraj Bhatia |
| Cinematography | Binod Pradhan |
| Editing by | Renu Saluja |
| Release date(s) | 12 August 1983 |
| Running time | 132 min. |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
This article is about the 1983 film. For the 2007 film with a similar title, see Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (2007 film)
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (Devnagari: जाने भी दो यारों, English: Just Let It Go, Friends) is a 1983 Hindi film directed by Kundan Shah and produced by NFDC. It is a dark satire on the rampant corruption in Indian politics, bureaucracy, news media and business, and stars an ensemble cast that includes the likes of Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Shah and Bhakti Barve.[1][2]
Kundan Shah won the 1984 Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director for his work. 'Indiatimes Movies' ranks the film amongst the 'Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films'.[3] The film was part of the NFDC Retrospective at India International Film Festival in 2006[4]
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Professional photographers Vinod Chopra (Naseeruddin Shah) and Sudhir Mishra (Ravi Baswani) open a photo studio in the prestigious Haji Ali area, and hope to make enough money to keep it running. After a disastrous start, they are given some work by the editor of "Khabardar", a publication that exposes the scandalous lives of the rich and the famous. They accept it and start working with the editor, Shobha Sen (Bhakti Barve), on a story exposing the dealings between an unscrupulous builder, Tarneja (Pankaj Kapoor), and corrupt Municipal Commissioner D'Mello (Satish Shah). During their investigation, they find out that another builder Ahuja (Om Puri) too is involved in this dealing.
While working on their story, Sudhir and Vinod decide to enter a photography contest that carries a prize money of Rs.5000/-, and take a number of photographs all over the city. On developing their pictures, in one of the photographs they see a man shooting someone. Upon enlarging it, they realize that the killer is none other than Tarneja. They immediately return to the park where they had shot that picture and realize that the body is lying behind the bushes. Before the duo get to the body, it disappears, but they manage to retrieve one of a pair of gold cuff links. Sometime later, they attend the inauguration of a bridge dedicated to the memory of late Municipal Commissioner D'Mello who is supposed to have died of a terminal disease. It is there that they discover the other cuff link. They return at night and dig up that area and unearth a coffin containing the dead body of D'Mello.
The duo take a number of photographs of the corpse, and wheel it with them with the hopes of exposing Tarneja. Suddenly the body disappears. Later they find out that the body is with Tarneja's rival, Ahuja who had, in an inebriated condition, carried the coffin tied to his car to his farm house. They provide this information to Shobha, who in turn starts blackmailing Tarneja. He invites her and her associates to crack a deal, and plants a bomb to kill them. Unfortunately, the bomb explodes right in the face of Tarneja and his henchmen, and the trio escape from the scene. Later, the duo realize that Shobha and Ahuja are up to no good, and so they take the corpse, and wheel it with them, but not before Tarneja, Ahuja, the new Municipal Commissioner Srivastav (Deepak Qazir), Shobha and others also get involved, resulting in a series of comic mix-ups including one with some burkha-clad women.
The climax is set upon a stage dramatization of the Mahabharata, particularly the enactment of the Draupadi Cheer-Haran episode, which is turned on its head with the duo and the group following them inserting themselves into the scene. The corpse plays Draupadi and the vile Duryodhana, who orders the disrobing in the original version, ends up pledging to save Draupadi's honor at any cost. To make things even more hilarious, a new act - that of the ill-fated romance of Salim and Anarkali - is introduced, with the corpse playing Anarkali.
The film had a budget of seven lakh rupees (Rs 7,00,000).[5]
The film was not immediately successful at the box office when released, but was eventually regarded as a cult classic, which is refelcted in a recent comment by Indian Express that film high recall value even after 27 years, is due to "it(s) superb satirical depiction of the essential, timeless, human condition: supreme self-interest versus some moral/ethical anchor. What made the depiction particularly powerful was its setting: India of the early ’80s".[6]
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