Friendship is one of the main condiments which spices up our lives. It helps us to face the harsh slings and arrows of life. Whether formed during our student days, or while pursuing our career goals and even during the sunset years of our lives, we develop relationships based on matching personality traits, common interests, mutual trust and quite a few other factors. Often, the bonds which get forged turn out to be strong and resilient. Bonds which are like underground cable connections – dormant, but in place, ready to be reactivated as and when necessary.
Friendship is a theme which is regularly harvested by our dream merchants to enrich their offerings and evoke emotions amongst their audience. If scenes of goofing around with pals make us happy, misunderstandings act like villains, making us sad.
In the post here, I have attempted to mention some movies which, I believe, have friendship as one of the main planks of their theme. Love and revenge are almost always around, but often occupy a back seat in the overall scheme of things.
However, I have avoided movies where the relationship between friends ends up becoming a love triangle of sorts. So, you may find such movies as Sangam (1964), Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), Saajan (1991), Mujhse Dosti Karoge (2002), Kal Ho Na Ho (2003), and many others missing from the list below. Likewise, I have given a miss to the ones wherein friendships fall in the LGBTQ category, of which there is no dearth these days. Thus, series like Anokhi Daastaans (Episode: Geeli Pucchi: 2021), Modern Love, Mumbai (Episode: Baai: 2022) and movies like Maja Ma (2022) have been given a skip.
Seema (1955)
Director: Amiya Chakrabarty
The chemistry between Nutan and Shubha Khote in the surroundings of an orphanage stood out. Some of you may remember the long cycle ride undertaken by the latter towards the climax of the movie.
Dosti (1964)
Director: Satyen Bose
Circumstances and love for music brings together a blind person and a handicapped one. Trust Rajshri Productions to keep regaling us with family-oriented themes which tug at our heart strings.
Anand (1971)
Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee
An unusual bond develops between an idealistic doctor and a terminal cancer patient who comes to stay with him during the last few months of his life. The frustration of a doctor at not being able to alleviate the suffering of his new-found friend was etched out so very poignantly.
Victoria No. 203 (1972)
Director: Brij
Two old golden-hearted crooks get released from jail and wish to spend the rest of their lives as good, respected men. The plan is short lived when they willy-nilly find themselves on the trail of some stolen diamonds.
Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee
An industrialist who does not care much about maintaining harmonious relations with his labour force ends up being confronted by a close friend who empathizes with the travails of the workers and evolves into a trade union leader of sorts.
Sholay (1975)
Director: Ramesh Sippy
Even though the main theme was all about revenge with romantic sub-plots thrown in, the friendship between Jai and Veeru went on to become the stuff of cinematic legends.
Hera Pheri (1976)
Director: Prakash Mehra
Two small-time crooks loot other rich ‘respected’ but criminal-minded people for a living. Misunderstandings arise between them, but eventually get cleared up and the friendship between them gets reestablished.
Chashme Baddoor (1981)
Director: Sai Paranjape
Three friends who live together run into a young lady from the neighbourhood. The studious one ends up winning her heart. Out of jealousy, the other two try to complicate the relationship between the couple. A grandmother ends up clearing the mists, reuniting the couple.
Yaarana (1981)
Director: Raakesh Kumar
If one friend goes out of his way to promote the singing career of a childhood friend, the other, upon becoming famous and rich, reciprocates the gesture by donating the proceeds of his earnings and consequent record deals in order to rid his friend of his many mortgages and to reunite his family. When one gets admitted into a lunatic asylum, the other one manages to sneak in and restore his sanity.
Andaaz Apna Apna (1994)
Director: Rajkumar Santoshi
Two daydreamers come up with a get-rich-quick scheme by pursuing a millionaire’s daughter. Once they meet each other, they form a competitive bond and land up at the daughter’s place under some false pretexts. Diamonds, mafia dons and jealous uncles play a role. Eventually, they play saviours to the daughter, her secretary, and the family, thereby achieving their goals.
Dil Chahta Hai (2001)
Director: Farhan Akhtar
Three close friends pursue a different career path after passing out of college. Love blossoms for each one, though differently. They go on a road trip together. Misunderstandings between them get cleared in the end.
Filhaal (2002)
Director: Meghna Gulzar
One of the rare movies which portrayed a strong bond of friendship between two inseparable friends. During a fencing session, a freak accident leaves one of the friends injured, rendering her unable to conceive later in life. The other one offers to be a surrogate mother for the couple. Complications arise in the relationship, though the story eventually ends up on a positive note.
Rang de Basanti (2006)
Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
When a British student decides to make a film on pre-independence freedom fighters from India, contemporary reality meets history, forcing the viewers to introspect as to where we are headed as a country. The bond between the friends stood out for its empathic and realistic portrayal.
3 Idiots (2009)
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
The friendship between three classmates withstands the test of time. Ten years down the road, their common antagonist also joins in when they decide to search for one of the missing friends. The central message of the movie was to decide one’s career moves based not on parental or popular expectations but on one’s inner passion.
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Three friends undertake a joint trip so as to experience different facets of life. Their plan is that during the road trip each of them will pick a surprise adventure sport in which they all have to participate together. They complete the event successfully, bonding better with each other and gaining a renewed sense of purpose in life.
Kai Po Che (2013)
Director: Abhishek Kapoor
Three friends spot a talented boy who is good at cricket and decide to groom him. A love affair leads to misunderstandings arising between them. The 2001 earthquake in Gujarat and the riots of 2002 also pose many challenges to their bond of friendship.
Dedh Ishquia (2014)
Director: Abhishek Chaubey
Two partners in crime run into a pair of scheming ladies who have ideas of their own. The latter end up cocking a snook at the former by selling a necklace stolen by them, buying a property from the proceeds, and settling down there to start a dance school for young girls – a scheme the two friends had hatched between themselves.
Parched (2015)
Director: Leena Yadav
Four women in a desert village of Gujarat, India, forge a strong bond of friendship between themselves while facing social evils, age-old traditions and practices of patriarchy, child marriage, dowry, marital rapes, and physical and mental abuse.
Double XL (2022)
Director: Satramm Ramani
A common challenge of being overweight results into a bond of friendship developing between two young ladies. They decide to work together and demonstrate the perks of obesity to the world, ridiculing the current craze for Size Zero and unrealistic norms of beauty peddled by fashionistas and the media.
Hush Hush (2022, Series)
Director: Tanuja Chandra
A taut thriller where one of the four close friends dies in mysteriously circumstances. The other three ladies eventually uncover the real reason for the death of their friend, while battling the challenges in their own lives.
Uunchai (2022)
Director: Sooraj Barjatya
When a close friend suddenly dies, three friends decide to honour his last wish – that of visiting the Himalayas. Despite health challenges, they undertake a hiking trip to the Everest base camp. They manage to scatter the ashes of their departed friend there. The perilous journey makes them realize that each one of them has heights within which are waiting to be scaled, bringing home the key message of striving to realize our fullest potential in life.
Why Are Women Short-changed?
There may be many more friendship-based movies which I would have missed out here. However, one thing that strikes is that of a serious shortage of movies on friendships between women. Is it that those hailing from the tribe of the delicately nurtured do not have friends?
The underlying cause could perhaps be that a major chunk of our society thrives on a patriarchal mindset; while males enjoy their friendships for a very long time, females often get a raw deal on this front because family commitments reign supreme, often to the exclusion of all else. With hardly any personal space and a minimal availability of ‘Me Time’, the bonds of female friendship, if any, do not enjoy the kind of continuity that male friendship does.
We need to encourage and empower the women in our lives to keep their own embers of friendship aglow, alive and kicking!
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