Professional photographers Vinod Chopra and Sudhir Mishra open a photo studio in the prestigious Haji Ali area in Bombay, 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, on a story exposing the dealings between an unscrupulous builder, Tarneja, and corrupt Municipal Commissioner D'Mello. During their investigation, they find out that another builder Ahuja who is Tarneja's business rival is also involved in this dealing to get a contract for building 4 flyovers from D'Mello. While working on their story, Sudhir and Vinod decide to enter a photography contest that carries 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 and realize that the killer is none other than Tarneja. They immediately return to the scene and find the body lying behind the bushes. Before the duo gets to the body, it disappears, but they manage to retrieve one of a pair of gold cufflinks. 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. There they discover the other cuff link. They return at night and dig up the area and unearth a coffin containing the dead body of D'Mello. They take several photographs of the corpse, and wheel it with them with the hopes of exposing Tarneja. However, the body disappears and they lie to Shobha saying that the body is hidden safely with them. Shobha, in turn, starts blackmailing Tarneja. He invites her, Vinod and Sudhir for dinner and plants a time bomb to kill them. Unfortunately, the bomb explodes prematurely and the trio escapes. Vinod and Sudhir find out that the body is with Tarneja's rival, Ahuja who had, in an inebriated condition, carried the coffin to his farmhouse. They steal the corpse but not before Tarneja, Ahuja, the new Municipal Commissioner Srivastav, Shobha and others also get involved resulting in a series of comic mix-ups. 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 iconic sequence also includes a scene from the ill-fated romance of Salim and Anarkali with the corpse playing Anarkali. In the end, the police arrive and Vinod and Sudhir present their evidence to the police officer. Srivastava, being the Assistant Municipal Commissioner, tells the officer to wait a few minutes before arresting Tarneja. Tarneja tells Ahuja and Shobha that if he goes to jail, he would make sure that their malpractices are also exposed. In a twist ending, they all come to an agreement and Srivastava manages to pin the murder of Commissioner D'Mello and the collapse of the bridge on Vinod and Sudhir. In the final scene, Vinod and Sudhir are shown several months/years later released from prison, still in their prison clothes. They turn to the camera and make a symbolic cut-throat gesture, signifying the death of justice and truth.
Cast
Naseeruddin Shah as Vinod Chopra
Ravi Baswani as Sudhir Mishra
Om Puri as Ahuja, a corrupt contractor
Pankaj Kapur as Tarneja, a corrupt contractor who murders the Municipal Commissioner
Satish Shah as D'Mello, Municipal Commissioner murdered by Tarneja
Bhakti Barve as Shobha Sen, editor of the "Khabardar" magazine
Satish Kaushik as Ashok Namboodirippad, Tarneja's assistant
Neena Gupta as Priya
Deepak Qazir as Srivastav, Assistant Municipal Commissioner
Rajesh Puri as Kamdar, assistant editor of the magazine "Khabardar"
The film was not immediately successful at the box office when released, but was eventually regarded as a cult classic, which is reflected in a recent comment by Indian Express that film's high recall value even after 27 years, is due to "it superb satirical depiction of the essential, timeless, human condition: supreme self-interest versus some moral/ethical anchor. What made the depiction particularly powerful was its setting: India of the early '80s".
Re-release
A digitally restored print of the film was released on 2 November 2012 at selected theaters. The film opened to an enthusiastic welcome from the media and discerning filmgoers.
Blow-Up, a 1966 English-language film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni in which a photographer believes he may have witnessed a murder and unwittingly takes photographs of the killing, was an inspiration for Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. The filmmakers paid homage by naming the park in which the murder occurs as "Antonioni Park".
The names of the lead characters – Vinod Chopra and Sudhir Mishra – came from film directors Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sudhir Mishra, who were assisting Kundan Shah in the movie. Sudhir Mishra co-wrote the script and assisted in directing the movie, while Vidhu Vinod Chopra was the production controller of the film.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra played Dushasana in the Mahabharata play in the climax of the movie. He also played a photographer in the first half of the film, where a group of journalists interviews Tarneja, played by Pankaj Kapoor.
