Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro- The Making

I am simultaneously reading two books. The first is about the Kundan Shah cult comedy- Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, the making of it, by Jai Arjun Singh. Lots of nuggets about the inside story. The guy who made it apparently looks like an accountant, and is not at all funny at first. There are a lot of script changes from the first draft. For example, it did not contain the Mahabharat climax scene with the immortal Dhritarashtra dialogue- Yeh kya ho raha hai?

Second major change was that the gorilla scene was axed. There was a gorilla who turns up to give some gyaan to the heroes- a talking gorilla, in a scene. It was axed to give a crisper run to the film. And the famous scene where Om Puri finds the corpse of the Commissioner on the road was modified to make it easier to shoot. The original was too complex.

NFDC, a govt body, was the producer of one of the greatest comedies in Bollywood. You dare not say that the govt. lacks a sense of humour!

The second book I am reading is called The Sky is Crazy by Yvonne Lee, a Malaysian air hostess who narrates funny incidents from her career. As you can imagine, they range from groping 'uncles' to a guy who pisses on the cockpit door in a drunken stupor, and many more in-between, including a guy going to Mecca who refuses to let the crew revive his wife after a heart attack, claiming God wants her to come to him. An air hostess has to be a counselor, baby-sitter, weather forecaster, and a gourmet guide, among other things, according to the author. A well-written book!

4 comments:

Diamond Head said...

am still not sure why they have any hosting inside the airplane..there is none on a bus or train so why in the air? I tell you discrimination has reached sky high proportions..and what's with the belts?

Rajendra said...

That is a point. You can have a self-service counter with booze, and you won't need any hosts. Maybe a vending machine at the other end with bags and shoes for the non-drinking women.

Meghna said...

Both the books sound interesting. Reminds me, the digitally restored version of JBDY must have been re-released by PVR and NFDC yesterday, Oct 26th. It will be available pan-India exclusively at PVR Cinemas only. (Now I should collect my digital media marketing fee from PVR)

Rajendra said...

I don't mind seeing it once more in a theatre. And yes, you should get paid for this.

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