I've enjoyed most films, like 'Do Aur Do Paanch', 'Suhaag' and 'Namak Halaal', with the Amitabh Bachchan-Shashi Kapoor duo. Although I did not like 'Deewar' or 'Kala Patthar', the duos strong essence is felt. 'Do Aur Do Paanch' starts off as a comedy with a lot of slapstick, cussing, situations and wit. Bachchan and Kapoor are back providing us with several laugh out loud moments. The director does a good job in presenting the story with its comedic twists. However, towards the ending it becomes a little melodramatic with less comedy. The dialogues are good and the performances are competent. Amitabh Bachchan is hilarious. His knack for comedy is clearly evident. Shashi Kapoor too leaves his mark even though Amitabh has the better lines. Hema Malini as the strong-minded but gullible teacher is fun to watch and Parveen Babi is quite glamorous and shares a great chemistry with Bachchan. I don't think Amitabh has had a better chemistry with any of his other leading ladies and that includes Rekha and Jaya Bhadhuri. Kader Khan is good as the evil Uncle. Child actor Bittoo hams it up. Rajesh Roshan's music is a mostly okay. The title songs (sung by the legendary Kishore Kumar) are laugh inducing as they got me chuckling all the time and Asha Bhosle's soothing 'Kya Kehti Hai' is very romantic. But, the rest of the songs are forgettable. Agnihotri and Bhowmick deserve credit for their writing which eventually gave us this fun film. I remember having seen 'Do Aur Do Paanch' decades ago and I watched it again last night. For me, it stood the test of time as the humour does not feel outdated. Even the action sequences which are of the dishum dishum sort have a touch of comedy. Perhaps it would have been more fun if there was just a little more comedy towards the end which gets a tad too dramatic. Nonetheless this is one film which dares to teach us that 2 + 2 does not equal 5.
