Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro

Infobox Film
name = Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro


image_size =
caption = Film poster
director = Kundan Shah
producer = National Film Development Corporation
writer = story and screenplay
Sudhir Mishra, Kundan Shah
Dialogues
Ranjit Kapoor, Satish Kaushik
narrator =
starring = Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Bhakti Barve, Satish Shah, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Kaushik, Neena Gupta
music = Vanraj Bhatia
cinematography = Binod Pradhan
editing = Renu Saluja
distributor =
released = 12 August 1983
runtime = 132 min.
country =
language = Hindi
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0085743

"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: Who Pays The Piper) is a 1983 Indian 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, Pankaj Kapur, Bhakti Barve and Om Puri.

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'. [ [http://movies.indiatimes.com/Special_Features/25_Must_See_Bollywood_Movies/articleshow/msid-1250837,curpg-7.cms 25 Must See Bollywood Movies] ] The film was part of the NFDC Retrospective at India International Film Festival in 2006 [ [http://www.iffigoa.org/iffi2006/retro-films-det_aid_179_cid_10.php Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (Who Pays the Piper)] India International Film Festival Official website.]

ynopsis

Professional photographers Sudhir Mishra (Ravi Baswani) and Vinod Chopra (Naseeruddin Shah) 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 Kapur), 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.

Cast

* Naseeruddin Shah as Vinod Chopra
* Ravi Baswani as Sudhir Mishra
* Bhakti Barve as Shobha Sen (Editor)
* Satish Shah as D'Mello (Municipal Commissioner)
* Om Puri as Ahuja
* Pankaj Kapoor as Tarneja
* Satish Kaushik as Ashok
* Neena Gupta as Priya
* Deepak Qazir as Srivastav (Assistant Municipal Commissioner)
* Rajesh Puri as Kamdar (Assistant Editor)
* Zafar Sanjari
* Vidhu Vinod Chopra as Dushasana

Production Information

The film had a budget of seven lakh rupees (Rs 700,000). [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085743/trivia Trivia at Imdb] ] .

Reception

The film was not immediately successful when released, but was eventually regarded as a cult classic.

Trivia

* The scene which two photographers inadvertently capture the murder of a city mayor on their cameras and later discover this when the images are enlarged is a tribute to the late Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blowup. The park in which the murder occurs is aptly named "Antonioni Park".
* The climax of the movie, involving use of the dead commissioner's body as a prop to get back at the commissioner's killers, influenced the main plot of the 1989 Hollywood movie "Weekend at Bernie's"
* Naseeruddin Shah's and Ravi Baswani's characters are references to the names of the production controller, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and assistant director, Sudhir Mishra, both of whom went on to become well-known Hindi movie directors.
* Bhakti Barve's character, a self-serving editor of a salacious magazine, is named Shobha Sen, a reference to journalist and author Shobhaa De.
* In the beginning of the film, Naseer talks about having borrowed a sum of Rs. 2,500 rupees from Kundan Shah, a reference to the director.
* The code "Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Ata Hai (What makes Albert Pinto angry)" which Naseeruddin Shah's character gives to Satish Kaushik's character is actually the name of a film of which Kundan Shah, among other things, was the assistant director and in which Naseeruddin Shah played the lead character, Albert Pinto.

Awards

* 1984 Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director: Kundan Shah [ [http://www.nfdcindia.com/view_film.php?film_id=27&categories_id=3 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro' on NFDC website] ]
* 1984: Filmfare Best Comedian Award: Ravi Baswani

References

ee also

* Assassinations in fiction

External links

* [http://in.rediff.com/movies/2004/jan/22film.htm What makes a perfect comedy?]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2891807845277518139&q=&hl=en "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro" Excerpts]