When I started my career in the Film industry as an assistant director with Vidhu Vinod Chopra,( He’s not one of the most easy-going bosses trust me. If you can survive him, you can survive anywhere!) there were a couple of films he asked me to watch besides some films by directors like Akira Kurosawa (who’s his favourite), Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron was among them in the list of suggestions. I wasn’t very sure about it at first but when I did watch it, I didn’t regret it one bit!

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron was way ahead of its time. The film was about a flyover that has collapsed and how the people responsible for constructing it are trying to cover up the matter. Unfortunately, that is something that is still relevant even to this day. Nothing has changed over the years. We woke up just this morning to the sad news of the flyover collapse in Kolkata where people lost their lives and many were seriously injured.

So you see, flyovers are still collapsing, innocent people are still dying and no one takes responsibility for it even today. The construction mafia still thrives. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is therefore relevant even today and every aspiring filmmaker needs to watch this film. Firstly this film was made on a shoestring budget but nowhere in the film does it reflect that the budget was so low.

Image Credit: Movie – Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron

Though Vidhu had a small role to play the film, the Mahabharat scene is one of the most hilarious scenes. He played the role of a theatre actor Dushasana in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron directed by Kundan Shah. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro released almost over 3 decades ago but the film’s re-release in 2012 is a testament to its popularity even today. What is surprising though is that the film was not a huge hit, neither did it have big stars.

The best part about the film is that it’s not preachy, something that the current audience absolutely dislikes. But it takes a comic approach towards things, so much so that your stomach starts aching with all the laughter! Photographers Vinod ( Naseeruddin Shah) and Sudhir ( Ravi Baswani) are out to expose the wrongdoings of two construction mafias (Pankaj Kapur and Om Puri) only to realise that the battle between good over evil is not an easy one!

Another interesting thing about the film is that all the introduction scenes are hilarious and the characters have been perfectly cast. That’s not all the film has quite a few jibes about society. While there are many hilarious scenes there are some emotional ones too like the one where Vinod bursts out after being harassed by a cop.

What worked for the film is probably smart writing. The dialogues of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro will leave you in splits even today. The Mahabharat scene and the dialogues in the scene will evoke laughter no matter how many times you watch it. From the cheer-haran episode of Mahabharat, the scene eventually turns into a romantic saga of Salim and Anarkali but the best part is it never loses the plot even for a second.

Another good thing about the film is that even though they were no big stars in the film, it had some of the most talented names in the industry; from Naseeruddin Shah to Neena Gupta, Ravi Baswani, Satish Shah, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur and Satish Kaushik. These brilliant actors were not established actors at that time but they were extremely talented.

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is one of those films which will stay relevant probably for generations to come.

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