Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro- Second Viewing

In my teenage years, old movies regularly re-ran at theatres in Hyderabad. Why this practice was discontinued I don't really know-must be the DVDs that are rampant, and downloads, legal and illegal. But it is fun to watch some old movies in a theatre for the experience. We had one such recently, watching Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro at Pune's new PVR in a mall at Nagar Road.

The antics of all the characters are amazing- Satish Shah as DeMello, the Commissioner who takes commissions, eats Switzerland ka cake (Thoda khao, thoda phenko), and lives and dies for the gutter, the perpetually drunk Ahuja (Om Puri) in a perfect Punjabi accent, Pankaj Kapur as Tarneja the builder who gives good logic for extending buildings beyond permissible limits, Bhakti Barve the 'saviour' of society and editor of Khabardar, Satish Kaushik as Namboodripad the bumbling assistant to Tarneja, Neena Gupta as his sexy sidekick, and so on.

And to top all this, the lead characters played beautifully by Ravi Baswani and Naseeruddin Shah. Script, direction and dialogue are absolutely brilliant, and I think deserve an Oscar-equivalent recognition. Of course, the viewers have already recognised it as such. Kundan Shah, the maker, you are immortal just for this creation. So many dialogues are immortal. Wahan hum dekha, peene ka pani alag, gutter ka pani alag (about America which DeMello has just visited), Or Dhritarashtra's lament, "Yeh kya ho raha hai", through the twists and turns that Draupadi's cheerharan takes, or "Shaant, gadadhaari Bheem" in the same scene. Bhakti Barve also plays her part of seducing Naseer into doing her dirty work to perfection. All in all, a heady cocktail, though it was made in 1983- by a bunch of talented FTII alums (Sudhir Mishra and Vidhu Vinod Chopra are also in the team). Definitely should be on everyone's bucket list. My daughters liked it too, and they are in their 20s.

4 comments:

Meghna said...

I remember watching this movie for the first time before I entered my teens. I watched it again when I was in my late teens. Obviously, the second time I was able to grasp the dark humour and appreciate the movie on the whole. It is a one of its kind, no doubt.

Rajendra said...

Yeah. Reading about its making makes it even more enjoyable. It seems the top payment was 15,000 rupees to Naseer, and they had to scrounge for basic facilities-no AC vans, soft drink bottles used for movie scenes only, as NFDC had a tight budget. But the govt tag of the producer helped them get locations near Haji Ali for free.

Meghna said...

Interesting. This is, I presume, from the book you were reading sometime back.

Rajendra said...

Yes, the same one, about its making. I just finished it. The mivie had to be cut from about 3 hours plus, so a lot of scenes had to go.

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