The Good, The Bad And The Anti-Hero: Bollywood’s Tryst With Brotherhood and Kinship

One of the eternal themes persisting in the Bollywood canon is the theme of brotherhood. Who can ever forget that cult exchange of dialogues between Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor in Deewaar as the latter says “Mere Pass Ma Hain.” An iconic movie, an iconic dialogue and of course, two brothers on the opposite sides of law and their conflict as they pursue their own dreams and desire, as they crave respectability and acceptance in a society that has always tried to suppress them. Talking of this particular theme, Bollywood has really excelled well, creating several masterpieces in the process as we see Karan Malhotra who shot to fame with his version of the cult classic Agneepath, is back with Brothers, an official remake of Warrior, starring Akshay Kumar, Siddharth Malhotra and Jackie Shroff. The teaser poster was recently released and going by it this is going to be one mean movie.

So, this brings us to that juncture where let us see how these themes of brotherhood and kinship have evolved over the years and who are some of our favourite on-screen brothers

Early Days of Brotherhood

Early Bollywood focused a lot on movies that had this universal theme because we have to remember that India had just won independence and the way to democracy was still shaky with different internal problems. Hence Bollywood tried to work out on movies that showed unity as the best possible way to stability, peace and prosperity. Most movies had an upright, honest elder brother and a younger brother, who becomes dishonest, greedy and desperate to sell his nation. Some of the most relevant movies during this era can be Mera Bhai Mera Dushman, Ram Aur Shyam. Mother India, Upkaar as well as Gunga-Jamuna with Gunga-Jamuna having a plot that can be considered very similar to Deewar, featuring two brothers on the opposite sides of law.

70s: The Golden Period

The era that created the angry young man persona also gave us his cool and calm counter-part, a brother who could be the perfect match to the anti-hero sibling. The most iconic movie to come out of this era had to be Deewar, a story about two brothers, one played by Amitabh Bachchan and other by Shashi Kapoor, is now designated as a cult movie that took on the theme of brotherhood and portrayed the story with an amazing agility. 70s had other movies that made important contribution to this theme with movies like Suhaag, Parvarish, Naseeb, Amar Akbar Anthony, Trishul that can be considered some of the greats featuring in this category. Also, this genre was dominated by Amitabh Bachchan and his on-screen brother Shashi Kapoor but we should mention the Vinod Khanna and Danny Dengzongpa starrer Lahoo Ke Do Rang known for its peppy songs and a brilliant story.

80s: The Era Of Hits And Misses

Compared to 70s, 80s lost a bit of steam when it came to movies belonging to this category but still there were several movies that we can talk about. One movie that we have to speak here is, Naam, starring Sanjay Dutt and Kumar Gaurav, with many dubbing it as Sanjay Dutt’s best performance. The story is generic, often hackneyed but the sincerity in the performances drives the movie forward, making it a critical as well as commercial hit. Other notable movies of this era can be Ram Balram, the second only pairing of Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra with another Bachchan movie making the cut i.e. Khuddar, where Amitabh Bachchan plays an honest taxi driver bringing up his younger brother Vinod Mehra as they are estranged from their elder brother Sanjeev Kumar. Angoor is another notable movie, having taken inspirations from Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors as well as Joh Jeeta Wohi Sikandar where you can easily see that how apart from being a sports movie it also explores the relationship between two brothers, one a champion and the other a loser. But the dark horse in this segment is JP Dutta’s Hathyar, which apart from a gangster saga is also about two estranged brothers played with much integrity by Dharmendra and Rishi Kapoor. Another movie that has to be mentioned here is Subhas Ghai’s magnum opus Ram Lakhan.

90s: Return Of The Masalahood

90s was a comeback for this particular genre that had flourished in Bollywood with several contenders vying for the top slot in this segment and it has to be Karan-Arjun that had two superstars Shahrukh Khan and Salman playing the re-incarnated siblings with Rakhee as their mother as they come back again to take revenge. Another form of brotherhood was to be noticed and it was created by the Barjatyas in their classics such as Hum Apke Hain Kaun as well as Hum Saath Saath Hein modeling the movies on religious texts like Ramayan. Another notable mentions will include Hum Dono, Sapoot, Daava as well as Kishen Kanaiya which cemented the apt masalafication of this genre.

New Millennium And An Attempt At Recovery

To be honest, this transitory phase hardly had the finesse of 70s or the masaleness of 90s when it comes to movies on brotherhood and kinship. It lacked the charm as well as the want to create stuffs of legend, that we witnessed before. Some of the movies that are worthy mentioning are  Lakeer, Main Hoon Na,  Chal Mere Bhai as well as Bardaasht, which was a rather well made movie having Bobby Deol take revenge on his brother’s killers. But movies in the new millennium belonging to this category has really utilized this trope but then there is a hope that Brothers starring Akshay Kumar and Siddharth Malhotra will break the stalemate and re-kindle this genre again and bring it back to its former glory.

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