One of the best dark comedies made in Indian cinema was Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. At a deep level it showed the futile fight of two unemployed youth against the famous problem of the nexus between business, corrupt politicians and the police force. It was pretty realistic since even now there are flyovers that suddenly fall in India and this was an incident that the movie exploited even 30 years back .
At the surface level, it was just a laugh riot where one situation led to the other. Characters who were supremely enjoyable. At another level it was a nested loop to show the fight of the students of the film institute of India against the deep tentacles of commercial cinema. Made on a shoe string budget , the protagonists were named Sudhir Mishra and Vinod Chopra who were both assistants to the director Kundan Shah in this movie. It contained an absolute treasure trove of actors who were all part of the parallel / art cinema/ realistic cinema wave of the late 70s. Imagine that you were in the Renaissance period in France and you got artists rejected by the clergy to build an art gallery for you. Naseerudin Shah lightened himself for the first time after playing many serious roles, the under rated Ravi Baswani was his muddled self, the versatile Om Puri , the extremely capable Pankaj Kapur and the only man who stuck to comedy after this movie - Satish Shah.
The movie maybe slapstick in many ways , especially when the dead body makes an appearance. But the intelligence of the dialogues permeates in an overall slapstick sequence - for instance in the Mahabharat scene, there is a dialogue where a Pandav says that ' Draupadi is not yours only, we are all shareholders'. The sheer incredulity of the scenes keeps us laughing , but that is almost like a facade for the irony of the situation thus making this movie a landmark in satires.
Look at this scene for why its a superb satire. We keep saying that India has to improve a lot, we cant even provide basic clean drinking water or sanitation for millions of people. Our benchmark is so low and that was set by this dialogue where the mayor has just visited USA and tells the businessman who is about to bribe him to pass his tender ' waha pe kitna tarakki hai , waha peena ka pani alag , gutter ka pani alag.' The dialogue is funny in its own right but its also about our deplorable standards.
Another scene that stands out for its sheer absurdity but played so well by Om Puri as a drunk businessman, where he ends up giving a lift to the coffin of the dead man. In comparison the Mahabharat scene although a splendour in its own right seems very believable.
At the surface level, it was just a laugh riot where one situation led to the other. Characters who were supremely enjoyable. At another level it was a nested loop to show the fight of the students of the film institute of India against the deep tentacles of commercial cinema. Made on a shoe string budget , the protagonists were named Sudhir Mishra and Vinod Chopra who were both assistants to the director Kundan Shah in this movie. It contained an absolute treasure trove of actors who were all part of the parallel / art cinema/ realistic cinema wave of the late 70s. Imagine that you were in the Renaissance period in France and you got artists rejected by the clergy to build an art gallery for you. Naseerudin Shah lightened himself for the first time after playing many serious roles, the under rated Ravi Baswani was his muddled self, the versatile Om Puri , the extremely capable Pankaj Kapur and the only man who stuck to comedy after this movie - Satish Shah.
The movie maybe slapstick in many ways , especially when the dead body makes an appearance. But the intelligence of the dialogues permeates in an overall slapstick sequence - for instance in the Mahabharat scene, there is a dialogue where a Pandav says that ' Draupadi is not yours only, we are all shareholders'. The sheer incredulity of the scenes keeps us laughing , but that is almost like a facade for the irony of the situation thus making this movie a landmark in satires.
Look at this scene for why its a superb satire. We keep saying that India has to improve a lot, we cant even provide basic clean drinking water or sanitation for millions of people. Our benchmark is so low and that was set by this dialogue where the mayor has just visited USA and tells the businessman who is about to bribe him to pass his tender ' waha pe kitna tarakki hai , waha peena ka pani alag , gutter ka pani alag.' The dialogue is funny in its own right but its also about our deplorable standards.
Another scene that stands out for its sheer absurdity but played so well by Om Puri as a drunk businessman, where he ends up giving a lift to the coffin of the dead man. In comparison the Mahabharat scene although a splendour in its own right seems very believable.
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