“Yeh dosti hum nahin torenge, torenge dum magar, tera saath na chorenge,” crooned Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan in the iconic film Sholay (1975).
“Diye jalate hain, loag milte hain, bari mushkil se magar, duniya main dost milte hain,” sang Rajesh Khanna in Namak Haram (1973).
“Bane chahe dushman zamana hamara, salamat rahe dostana hamara,” sang Bachchan Sr and Shatrughan Sinha in Dostana (1980).
“Tere jaisa yaar kahaan, kaha aisa yarana, yaad karegi duniya tera mera afsana,” sang Amitabh Bachchan once again in the film Yarana (1981).
“Jaane nahin denge tujhe …” hummed Sonu Nigam’s voice in the background of Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots (2009).
“Koi jab rah na paye, mere sang aaye … meri dosti mera pyar,” Mohammad Rafi’s voice still echoes from the film Dosti (1964).
There are many songs in the century-old Hindi film industry which extol the virtues of friendship and togetherness between two male friends. More interestingly, a majority of such films have been super successful.
Right from the days of Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand to Dharmendra, Jeetendra and Amitabh Bachchan, to Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Ranveer Singh and now Varun Dhawan, there have been countless super-duper hit films on the subject of male bonding.
Some that immediately spring to mind are Andaaz, Barsaat, Sangam, Chupke Chupke, Dharam Veer, Chashme Buddoor, Karan Arjun, Andaz Apna Apna, Dostana, Rock On, Dil Chahta Hai, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Kai Po Che and Gunday. And the latest, Dishoom.
In recent times, there is a new term that has been coined for this relation: bromance – described as ‘a close but non-sexual friendly relationship between two straight men’. You are unlikely to find the word in the doorstopper-thick dictionaries as it has been enshrined in Wikipedia. Earlier, what we knew as friendship or what we used to call camaraderie, the same relationship in the digital age has new names attached to it: male-bonding, boy-bonding and buddy-connect among them.
In fact, from the looks of it, romantic films which have been the main staple of the Indian film industry are becoming passé. The concept of boy meets girl, they tumble around the park or the Alps singing a duet, flee home and marry his/her beloved a la Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge is gradually phasing out. Of course we still see a majority of movies coming out on love-based themes but it’s mostly in the backdrop and not necessarily pivotal to the plot. Besides different themes, bromance now mostly seems to be replacing romance.