 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Three isn't a crowd in Bollywood!
Since the eternally fortunate Saif Ali Khan spends this Friday's release, Cocktail, flanked by a pair of striking brunettes -- Deepika Padukone and newcomer Diana Penty -- we decided it might be fun to see just how the buddy-movie has evolved in Bollywood over the last few years.
Here's a look at some fun, very different films featuring fun, madcap trios just hanging out.
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
On the surface of it, Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar and Hrithik Roshan were incredibly disparate characters -- effete, dry and pompous respectively -- but cooped up on a Spanish roadtrip all their childhood bonding came to the fore as they giggled immaturely about old in-jokes and accents.
Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin tagged along, sure, but this was all about the boys.
Delhi Belly
Imran Khan, Vir Das and Kunal Roy Kapoor play the three media-types scavenging to share a shady Delhi flat between the three of them, and when Kapoor tries out some dodgy chicken, their misadventures reach a whole new level.
Romances are broken and found, jobs are lost, burkhas are donned and there is -- quite justifiably, given the circumstances -- much swearing.
Pyaar Ka Punchnama
In this oddly misogynistic comedy about three men who discover all women are evil, the male-bonding on show is tremendously real.
Fresh-faced actors Kartik Tiwari, Rayo Bakhirta and Divyendu Sharma each shows shades of cool before completely prostrating themselves at the feet of cruel womankind, but the true chemistry is the one the trio shares at home.
Shaitan
Shiv Pandit, Gulshan Devaiya, Neil Bhoopalam were three very different but believably close friends, alongside alliteratively-named actresses Kalki Koechlin and Kirti Kulhari.
Forever on the hunt for more excessive hedonism, the group gets into a fatal accident which, in turn, rips apart the synthetic ecosystem they'd formed with each other.
3 Idiots
In the most successful Hindi film of all time, Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi and R Madhavan play three boys who become friends in engineering college and spend their lives making sure they're there for each other.
One of them vanishes for a bit, but if he hadn't, there really wouldn't have been a story. And everything ended out okay, so hurrah.
Golmaal
The first film in Rohit Shetty's trilogy features Ajay Devgn with Sharman Joshi and a mute Tusshar Kapoor, and while they are undeniably an unlikely combination, they do get the laughs going and manage to bring the house down more often than not.
Well, in the first film, anyway.
By Part 3 it's all just mute-jokes by Tusshar.
Dostana
Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham are without a doubt the two pals in this film, but considering they both lie to Priyanka Chopra about their sexual orientation, the trio find themselves doing harmlessly asexual buddy-buddy things, much as the boys crave otherwise.
No Entry
Anil Kapoor is a hapless married man, with an even more clueless assistant, played by Fardeen Khan.
Both men are sent inexpertly down the path to infidelity by their player friend Salman Khan, leading to many a box office conquering shenanigan.
Throw in some cavorting women pulling men to safety using their pants, and the film's hit status surprises nobody.
Kal Ho Naa Ho
Melodramatic romances can follow the buddy-movie tread too, as evidenced in this warm but excessive film with Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan and Shah Rukh Khan.
We're made to like all three New Yorkers a lot, after which follows not just the who-gets-the-girl question but much syrupy drama about love and death and passing the flame.
Ah well, at least it looks good.
Dil Chahta Hai
Without a doubt the most seminal buddy film of this generation, this one gave us highly relatable characters in Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna and Aamir Khan, with an even more believable dynamic between the three.
A tale of love and ego and a regrettable choice of words, this remains the blueprint for most male-bonding films even after a decade of its making.