Man To Man

While the term bromance is spreading faster in Hollywood than STDs, it's been in vogue in Bollywood right from Sholay to 3 Idiots

I am intrigued by American culture's ability to throw up quirky catchphrases. One phrase du jour is 'bromance', which has become quite the buzzword in Hollywood thanks to the recent spate of film and TV (think Friends) plotlines about close but non-sexual relationships between two or more males. Bromance does not go into Brokeback Mountain territory but implies a friendship of intensity.

I recently saw I Love You, Man (2009), the very epitome of bromance. In the film, Peter (Paul Rudd) scores big with women but is completely at sea with male friends. He is desperately looking for someone to be the best man at his wedding to his fiancu00c3u00a9e Zooey. After a couple of disastrous man dates, Peter stumble across Sydney (Jason Segel). The whacky Sydney jazzes up Peter's life... but Peter's happiness is short-lived as the relationship threatens his cosy relationship with Zooey.u00a0

In a significant sign of the times, an exchange of dialogue between Sydney and Peter goes:

Peter: I love you, man.

Sydney: I love you, too, bud.

Peter: I love you, dude.

Ironically, Hollywood may have become Bollywood's source of inspiration for many a film trend today, but as far as bromances goes, we have been there, done that.

Friendships To Die For

Some of Hindi cinema's biggest crowd-pleasers have been about intense male bonding. Whether it is the definitive Bollywood blockbuster Sholay (1975) or the recent record-buster, 3 Idiots (2009), certain male friendships are to die for. In Sholay's climax, jaan-pe-bhi-khelenge buddies Dharmendra and Amitabh (Bachchan) squabble over who should be allowed to stage a suicidal ambush on Gabbar while the other goes for more ammunition u00e2u0080u00a6 till Amitabh flips his coin to decide; and calls 'Heads'. Only Amitabh knows that the coin has 'heads' on both sides!

This willingness to sacrifice your own life for a buddy was evidenced in the Raju Hirani-directed 3 Idiots too. Piqued principal Boman Irani eggs his student Sharman Joshi to either face expulsion or be a rat and squeal on his friends, Aamir (Khan) and Madhavan's misdeeds. In the time-honoured tradition of Billy Bunter-Enid Blyton boarding school stories, Sharman refuses to be a rat. But here he goes one step further and attempts suicide by flinging himself out of the windowu00e2u0080u00a6 he would rather break his bones than his friends' trust.
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Gehri Dosti Ya 3D?

Over the last decade of the new millennium, buddy flicks have continued to proliferateu00e2u0080u00a6 albeit with a difference. We are losing our innocence and discovering innuendo even when none exists. This is perhaps why today male bonding films are not generally treated as high emotional dramas; but on a bro!-buddy!-dude! humorous level. Yet, even with the patina of laughter, the emotions run deep.

Dil Chahta Hai (2001) was all about the coming of age, and to terms, of three male friends. The central conflict was among the friends. And so were the laughs. When Sonali Kulkarni enters Saif's (Ali Khan) room for the first time and sees the photograph of the three musketeers (Aamir, Akshaye Khanna and Saif), she quips, "Badi gehri dosti lagti hai". Saif cheekily quips, "Ya toh yeh dosti gehri hai ya yeh photo 3D hai!"

The lengths that gehre dosts go today are geared to make the audience laugh even while they are crying. One of the most effective moments in Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006) was when a forlorn Munna (Sanjay Dutt) comes to apologise to his friend Circuit (Arshad Warsi) for slapping him in a moment of anger. They meet at a wharf and Munna, experiencing waves of regret, begins tentatively with, "Apun ko tere ko sorry bolne ka haiu00e2u0080u00a6 Yaad hai, jab apun ko bullet laga tha pet meinu00e2u0080u00a6 Apun tere ko bola ki maa ka yaad aata hai, tune saala apun ka sar le kar godd mein daala aur lori sunaya apun ko. Aur saala apun ne hi haath utthaya tere pe!" At this juncture, Circuit, who has been crying silently, sobs audibly. Munna too dissolves into tears. Till Munna remembers the time he wanted Chinese food and Circuit kidnapped a five-star-hotel chef; and they start guffawing.
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Women On The Sacrificial Block

My earliest memory of an onscreen bromance is Raj Kapoor's classic triangle, Sangam (1964). The highly dramatic Sangam has two childhood buddies, Sundar (Raj Kapoor) and Gopal (Rajendra Kumar).u00a0 Both are in love with Radha (Vyjayanthimala). Radha loves Gopal but he sacrifices his love at the altar of bromance, much to Radha's chagrin. While Sundar and Radha embark on a lovey-dovey honeymoon, Gopal retreats into the shadows; but his prem patra from the past soon raises its ugly head. Dost dost na raha laments Sundar till Gopal unravels the knotty tangle by cutting his own life strings. He lives upto Sundar's proclamation: Roye toh yaar ke kandhe par, jaaye toh yaar ke kandhe par.

The idea of a woman being tossed between eager-to-sacrifice friends is protested loudest by Vyjayanthimala in Sangam; but to her men, friendship seems above all else. It's a staple from the days of Guru Dutt and Rehman (Chaudhvi Ka Chand) to the times of Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan (Saajan).

If it's not the love of a good woman which challenges close friendships, it's conflicting ideologies. Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Namak Haram (1973) worked essentially because it explored the latter even while concentrating on the ever-morphing human relationship between its two pivotsu00a0 Somu (Rajesh Khanna) and Vicky (Amitabh). Somu's sympathies are with the labour class. But Vicky, subconsciously influenced by his capitalist father's views that the middle class is ambitious and unreliable, begins to see Somu as a namak haram. In the climax, Vicky's father gets Somu mowed down by a truck. Revolted by his father's ruthlessness, Vicky claims he masterminded the killing and hands himself over to the police.

The intensity of Somu and Vicky's friendship is best illustrated when Vicky's father (Om Shivpuri) trains his guns on Somu. An enraged Vicky thunders at his dad, "Jo kuch bhi hua, woh mere aur uske beech mein hai, koi teesra beech main aaya toh... (Whatever happened is between him and me. If a third comes between us u00e2u0080u00a6)."

The 1970s Buddy Boom

Two years before Amitabh Bachchan won the Best Supporting Actor Award for his portrayal of the man who hurts for his friend in Namak Haram, he won an award for playing an introverted doctor-cum-friend who moves heaven and hell to save the terminally ill but happy-go-lucky Anand (Rajesh Khanna).

The 1970s were the days of the buddy boom in cinema as several male stars were crammed into each multi-starrer. And the Big B was the badshah of buddy films. He had a range of onscreen friends for whom he pledged undying loveu00e2u0080u00a6 Pran in Zanjeer, Vinod Khanna in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Shatrughan Sinha in Dostana and Amjad Khan in Yaarana. Incidentally, Amjad was also one of his best offscreen buddies.

Dharmendra too had some of his best screen moments expressing affection for his friends. Watch him breeze through Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge perched on Amitabh's shoulders while the latter manoeuvres a motorbike. Or extolling his friendship with Veer (Jeetendra) in Dharamveer with the popular, Saat ajoobe iss duniye mein aathvi apni jodi, tode se bhi toote na yeh, Dharam Veer ki jodi.
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Paeans to Pals

The odes that have been penned to friendship between men on the Hindi screen range from the sublime to the ridiculous. I leave it to your discretion to make the distinction. In Yaari hai imaan mera from Zanjeer, when a morose Amitabh breaks into a smile while watching his pathan friend dance with kerchiefs, the teary-eyed Pran thanks him with, Tera mamanoon hoon, tune nibhaya yaarana, teri hansi hai aaj sabse bada nazrana.

In Dostana, Big B poses a poignant question to his friend turned foe, Shatrughan Sinha who is nursing a drink and a bruised ego. Amitabh sings, Mere dost qissa yeh kya ho gaya? Sunaa hai ki tuu bewafaa ho gaya.
Rajesh Khanna presumably gave a break to his sis-in-law Simple Kapadia in Shakti Samanta's Anurodh. But Rajesh Khanna's friendship with Vinod Mehra dominated the film. When Vinod is on the operation table, a tearful Rajesh sings, his voice rising with every note: Aapke saamne main na phir aaunga, geet hi jab na honge toh kya gaaunga? And of course, Chahunga main tujhe saanjh savere from Dosti.

Teri Dosti Mera Pyar

In films, heroes sacrifice their gals, their gall bladders and their glory for their friends. But possibly the apogee was reached with the Rajshri hit, Dosti (1964) in which a blind singer, Mohan, goes to unbelievable lengths to make the life of his physically handicapped friend, Ramu, better and helps him realise his dream to educate himself. When an eye doctor declares that Mohan's eyesight can be restored with an operation at a prohibitive cost and on foreign shores, the impoverished Ramu is crestfallen. But Mohan reasons, Teri dosti hi toh meri aankhen hai.

Dosti is about a rather unequal friendship the blind boy is far more giving than the handicapped personu00a0 but in this extreme glorification of friendship, Mohan doesn't measure the give and take. Lines like "Bhagwan ne humein bichhadne ke liye thode hi milaya hai" may sound corny today but in more innocent times, the two unknown male protagonists and their sacrifices made the audience weep so much, the producers (Rajshri Productions) laughed all the way to the bank.u00a0

This genre has survived, with mutations, till today. A thought just struck me, however except for the stray Mere Mehboob, wonder why have there been such few films on best female friendships?