Ek Ticket, Ek Black Coffee | Sholay, Dil Chahta Hai, ZNMD, RRR: The failsafe recipe for creating a bromance on screen

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid is an ancient tale, Han Solo and Chewbacca are old too, but the entire nation is happily tapping their feet to RRR's Nacho Nacho (and now with pride because, Golden Globes!). And no one cares to remember who the girl they were hoping to impress was.

Whatever happened to friends singing songs to make a girl laugh? No comical singing of ‘Sa-re-ga-ma Ma-sa-re-ga’ whilst climbing up and down the stairs by the super duo Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra to make Sharmila Tagore laugh hysterically. It’s the lads who need to confess ‘Dil mein baji ghantiyaan’ while the girl just preens and peacocks her way into their hearts to betray them.

Pran, yes, the man whose screen presence made people gasp and whose gaze would terrify not just the people in the stories but the audience as well (there are real-life incidents where people actually crossed the street if they saw him because he was so villainous in the movies). That Pran too melted when it came to friendship with Amitabh Bachchan in the film Deewar. The fierce Badshah Khan in the movie dies for his friend because ‘Yari hai imaan, mera yaar meri zindagi!’

It’s not that girls in the movies don’t have a Kai Po Che type bromance, just that it’s mostly attached to the word ‘sacrifice’. Rani Mukerji’s Tina has to die before Anjali gets Rahul (in KKHH), Kareena Kapoor’s Tina too has to realize that Rani Mukerji’s Pooja is the one who deserves Hrithik Roshan’s Raj Khanna because he loves her (Mujhse Dosti Karoge). Tina of the funniest, coolest pants sacrifices her own feelings in (how I groaned at that transformation!) and is suddenly shown wearing gorgeous powder blue salwar kameez before a mandir. Kill me, someone! Hollywood too gives us Mean Girls and expects us to believe that women can be friends only when they are Golden Girls… Pfft!

Why are bromances so much cooler then? As they say in fancy restaurants, let’s deconstruct this dish, and see why girls get 'jealousy' and 'sacrifice' while boys get lifelong friendships on screen.

First, they get a song that is so good that after 47 years we’re still humming, ‘Ye dosti hum nahi chhodenge!’ and you’ll find listicle after listicle about ‘pakki dosti’ songs. Heck, they even made movies about boys who want to make it big in a band that gets separated by ambition and then come back to Rock On!

Second, comes drunkenness. Boys who drink together bond for life or some such thing. Even when they’re vying for the love of one woman, their drunk songs rule! Remember how Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi got drunk and sang Ibn-e-Batuta in Ishqiya? 

Devdas meets Chunni Babu and they bond over alcohol even though Madhuri Dixit is the one who can really dance, we cannot take our eyes off the drunken duo dancing to Sheeshe se sheesha takraye!

Third, comes the Bromobile. Sholay gave us the motorbike, Dil Chahta Hai made us fall in love with cars that have roll-down tops. The bros don’t fight over who is going to drive, who sits shotgun, and who gets into the back. They slide into their places without a fuss. If it were women in the car, they’d be shown back seat driving, texting while driving, and checking makeup in the rearview mirror. Thanks but no thanks Bollywood. How I would love to see a gang of girlfriends on motorbikes singing a Dil Chahta Hai style road song rather than girls on bicycles singing ‘Main chali main chali dekho pyar ki gali…' Desi Boyz have lost their jobs, but they have motorbikes to make the cool entrance and seduce the gals.

And years later, a new generation of young men Kabir, Imran, and Arjun go on a road trip in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. And as the title suggests, the movie gives us it all: Swagger of the youth, gorgeous young men and women, setting to die for, and yes, the trials of life that even my cynical heart missed several beats for.

Fourth, no bromance is complete without a shared secret. Take any bro combo, they keep a secret even though they have been separated for years and have lost touch with their high school or college pals. That list is endless, but suffice it to say that Prachi Desai takes over an hour in the movie to find out her husband’s secret about a failed boy band.

Fifth, dosti beyond wallets. In Anand, it’s a doctor-patient bond that cannot be described in words. Namak Halaal has a rich Shashi Kapoor and a poor Amitabh Bachchan who form a bond. Even Main Khiladi Tu Anari makes for an odd friendship between a movie star and a cop. I don’t remember Pooh’s friends in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, but the friendship between Munnabhai and Circuit is so famous, I had to google the name of the actor who plays Circuit. Thank you Arshad Warsi for making that role real!

If I were dancing with a dude, I’d want him to have the same ecstatic expression that Ram Charan has when he does the ‘Nacho Nacho’ dance with Jr. NTR in RRR. Ram Charan is trying to get his bestie a gal, but do you remember the gal?

Forget a girl, you cannot squeeze in air between chaps singing lines like ‘Tera gham mera gham, teri jaan meri jaan’ on that motorbike in Sholay?

That brings me to the ultimate Bro-ke-liye-kuch-bhi-karega movie: Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweetie. It is Sonu’s mission in life to break every single relationship his ‘bro’ Titu gets into until Sweetie gets Titu to put an engagement ring on her pretty claws. And even then Bros win…

While heroines struggle to get the hero’s attention through the film or vice versa, the chemistry between ‘bros’ is always in your face. In fact, it’s like the very first bromance film in Bollywood called Dosti. The lads are bound by their disabilities and depend on one another for life. Bromance is so potent, even Satyajit Ray made Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen with two male leads.

Bromances are so powerful and so real, I wouldn’t be wrong if I said that the heroines only imagine the romance with the hero. Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Main yahan hoon yahaan hoon’ plays in Zara’s head; Mr. India had to be invisible before making Sridevi dance as she did in the rain. But Tiger Shroff just has to come face to face with Hrithik stepping out of a helicopter all bronzed and glittery (WAR) and voila, bromance has sprouted!

That said, what would happen to a Bollywood romance if a ‘bro’ trope was inserted into the narrative?

The booming voice of emperor Akbar, ‘Saleem!’ would be very different, no? Kartik Aryan’s Sonu would be assuring Jodhabai and Akbar that he would help Shehzaada Saleem to get over Anarkali by taking him on a war trip far, far away from Dilli and we would see Sonu and Saleem riding away towards the Deccan sunset on elephants leaving Anarkali in chains…

Take DDLJ, the ultimate Bollywood romance that has been playing in Mumbai’s Maratha Mandir ever since it was released in 1995. If it were a bromance, then Shah Rukh’s attempts at wooing Kajol would be sabotaged by a bhai just as Jai does by rattling off Veeru’s not-so-stellar qualities to Mausiji. Can you imagine Amrish Puri’s anger then?

Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam would have been different if Ajay Devgn had a bro. Imagine an Iago like Saif Ali Khan filling Ajay Devgn’s ears with stuff about Aishwarya Rai and the cow emoji she keeps drawing for Salman Khan…

Wait, what? Karan Arjun is available on an OTT platform? Sigh. Buh-bye for now! Bhai for bhai, movies about men friends rule Bollywood. I wish more filmmakers, screenwriters would make movies about women friends too!

About the author:
Manisha Lakhe writes on films and TV shows, is a poet, teacher, traveller and mom (and not necessarily in that order). Could sell her soul for Pinot and a good cheesecake.

(Disclaimer: Views expressed in the above article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of OTTplay. The writer is solely responsible for any claims arising out of the contents of this article.)