“Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron”? No way! One just cannot let this movie go unnoticed. It is one of the classic comedies made in India. We Indians do have the concept of comedy in our theatre but comedy, as a genre is still underdeveloped. This film along with some of other classics like Padosan, Golmaal, Hera Pheri shows that there is a lot of potential that can be used to make people laugh.
Jaane Bhi… is a movie that deals with a social evil that propagates all other evils and that is “corruption”. Being a student of journalism, the theme of the film although realistic, is discouraging but the treatment made it a lot lighter and easier to digest it. Corruption is rampant horizontally and vertically in the society and a powerless can do very little to curb it. It is a toy of powerful section and it could not have been picturised in a more subtle way.
This film gives you the glimpses of many genius actors in making like Pankaj Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Satish Shah, Satish Kaushik, Om Puri and Neena Gupta. Not to forget Ravi Vaswani, who though is not so popular, has done a great job. Kundan Shah has made a masterpiece and it cannot be repeated.
This film has great screenplay and dialogues, which turn out to be its heart and soul. In the climax of this film, comedy reaches its pinnacle where on the stage all the characters assemble as different epic characters to possess commissioner Demello (Satish Shah). This is one of the funniest scenes of Indian Comedies. What really makes this film justifiable is its end. Had it have a happy ending with the culprits going to jail, it would have lost its impact and would not have become timeless.
Great script, great direction, great performances but this film is not free of flaws. Technically this film is not very sound. The lighting is very poor. It is evident in the scene where Rajesh Puri as Kaamdar comes to their studio. In that scene the background is burning whereas the foreground where the actors are conversing is dark. There are other evidences as well. Also there is abundance of wide shots but perhaps the magnitude needed for the scenes, required them. But when we consider the fact that all the actors, director and other technicians were amateurs and still managed to amuse us, we overlook these flaws and say….Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron!!!.