|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Films celebrating friendship —
right from Rajshri Production’s Dosti, made in 1964, to
Suneel Darshan’s Dosti — have been box-office hits.
Filmmakers are convinced that this is one theme that rarely fails to
click, writes M. L. Dhawan
In an interview Hrishikesh Mukherjee once confessed that his blockbuster Anand was almost biographical — a mirror image of Raj Kapoor. It was the story of his friendship with Raj Kapoor who had flitted into his life during the making of his film Anari. It was no coincidence that Anand’s doctor friend was a Bengali. Babumoshai was not just Anand’s endearing nickname for Dr Bhaskar (Amitabh Bachchan) but also Raj Kapoor’s for Hrishida. The film was to have been made under the R. K. banner with Raj Kapoor playing the title role. But a superstitious Hrishida was afraid that the tragic ending would be ominous to their friendship and he decided not to cast Raj Kapoor even though Raj was perfect for the role. Eventually, Rajesh Khanna was roped in. Suffering from lymphocircuma of intestines, Anand comes to Dr Bhaskar for treatment. While Dr Bhaskar found it hard to come to terms with death, Anand challenged it with a smile and sought the sunny warmth of his friend’s smile when it was time to say goodbye.
The on-screen friendship between Anand and Dr Bhaskar is entrenched in the hearts of the cinegoers. Dr Bhaskar’s medical science may not have saved the life of his friend Anand, but in Rajshri’s Dosti, two friends, one blind, and the other lame, weathered all storms with each other’s help and ceased to feel impaired. The theme of friendship in Hindi cinema is as old as the history of cinema. Over the years, film-makers have touched upon this theme umpteen times in various shades and textures. Cinema indeed thrives on it, for friendship is the muse around which many stories have been woven. In G. P. Sippy’s Sholay, Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra) are two friends engaged by Thakur Baldev Singh to capture dacoit Gabbar Singh. Whenever they have to decide an important issue, Jai flips a coin. In the climax scene, one of them has to stay back to keep the dacoits engaged in firing. The coin is flipped and Veeru leaves and lives. As Jai lies dead in his arms, Veeru discovers that the coin, by which Jai won every bet with him taking on every trouble upon himself, was a double-headed one.
Where there is proximity there can be differences also. Not surprisingly, some of the most dramatic cinematic conflicts arise between friends and somewhere there is love underlying it all. In Sangam, Sundar (Raj Kapoor) and his friend Gopal (Rajender Kumar) love the same girl Radha (Vyjanthimala). Sundar wears his heart on his sleeves while Gopal is an introvert. Gopal confesses his love for Radha only when Sundar — an air force officer — is feared killed in a crash. Surprisingly Sundar returns and marries Radha. Life is bliss till Sundar stumbles upon a love letter Gopal had written and Radha had kept it for sentimental reasons. Now two friends vie with each other to sacrifice their life on the altar of friendship. The sanctity of marriage is upheld. Friendship triumphs and so did the film at the box office. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Namak Haram delineated a conflict of conscience between two friends — Somu (Rajesh Khanna), who belongs to the working class, and Vikram (Amitabh Bachchan), a capitalist. A crisis in Vikram’s life forces them to enact new roles that lead to a conflict in their ideologies. In the given situation, Somu prefers death to disloyalty and betrayal.
In Subhash Ghai’s Saudagar, Bir Singh (Dilip Kumar) was to marry the sister of his friend Rajeshwar Singh (Raaj Kumar), but circumstances forced Bir Singh to marry another woman. Friends turn foes and create history littered with blood, gore, and corpses. Ultimately, their grandchildren fall in love with each other and force the estranged friends to bury the hatchet. Friendship triumphed and the cinematic camaraderie show by two thespians made the film a landmark film in the career of Ghai. Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai proclaims that the language of love is universal. It is quite easy to empathise with the predicaments of Aakash, Sidharth and Sameer.
In Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, when Rani Mukherjee finds out the truth, she resolves to unite two friends Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in marriage, getting her daughter to play the matchmaker. In Rakeysh Mehra’s Rang de Basanti, four friends, Aamir Khan, Siddharth, Soha Ali Khan and Kunal, exhort the audiences to shed their indifference towards the ills prevailing in society. A forthcoming film on the theme of friendship is Rokda. It is directed by Ram Gopal Verma’s assistant Ramesh Katkar. The thundering success of the films celebrating friendship convinced the filmmakers that friendship is the ‘ship’ that never sinks at the box office. |
||||||
|
|
||||||
