PK to Rampyari: Bollywood's unusual friendships

Bollywood is all about relationships. Our films place extreme emphasis on the dynamics of human interactions. So much so, that even a sci-fi film will focus extensively on the love angle, throwing in a song or two to help prep up things. Hence, it comes as no surprise that friendship, as a relationship, has been much explored in Bollywood. Let's take a look at some of the unusual friendships we have seen in our films.

PK: While it would be considered dangerous to bring a stranger home, Bollywood throws caution to the wind. So when you see a sprightly, pixie-like Jagat Janani aka Jaggu befriend the elvin-looking alien, PK, you hardly bat an eyelid. They become the best of friends, solving the mysteries of Earth and beyond. The two even exchange notes on what the other's gola looks like! Such dosti sure can exist only in Bollywood. PK records Jaggu's voice and flies off to his planet with it. Stalker level: Extreme. But, hey it's Bollywood. We love our stalkers and make heroes out of them. Go PK!

Disclaimer: The feature is an humorous take on films and intends no harm.

Koi...Mil Gaya: 'Love thy neighbours as you love thyself' seems to be Bollywood's mantra. When it comes to aliens, we love them. While they seem to be biased towards Hollywood, appearing in their movies more than ours, we are working on getting them to our side. What else would explain mentally-impaired Rohit making merry with the blue-faced alien, Jadoo? They even dedicated one whole song to him. In Bollywood, a song is a huge deal. Buzz is that Jadoo was so impressed with Rohit's friendship that he helped Rajkumar Hirani strike a deal with PK. And why wouldn't he? It was Rohit who helped him go back to his planet along with few other jadoos. Little did the blue guy know that the Roshans would turn their little film into a big, money-minting franchise.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara: When it comes to friendships, we don't differentiate between the living and non-living objects. We are quite accepting that way. It is a well-known secret that our favourite figure-of-speech is 'personification.' So, while we are trying to tackle the population explosion, we still have to befriend the inanimate. Which explains why Farhan's character in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara has to strike up a conversation with a bag, even while he is on a road trip with his besties. Imraan and Bagwati are the best of friends and why wouldn't they be? While Imraan blabbers along, Bagwati lends him a patient ear. That's all a man wants right? The freedom to talk nonsense without being interrupted. Indians have never believed in two-way communication, anyway!

Sholay: Sholay was a tale of epic proportions. But poor Dhanno has taken an offence to the fact that Veeru-Jai's friendship hogged all the limelight. It is reported that she was insistent on featuring in the 'Yeh dosti' song with her BFF, Basanti, but the director had ruled it out. Dhanno, the mare, who plied passengers on the tonga, loved the verbose Basanti to bits. She wouldn't have ever imagined that their friendship would be reduced to a mere joke all these years later. The poor mare had always thought of 'Chal Dhanno...' as a motivational speech by her friend. While Bollywood has always been very open about friendship with the beasts, Dhanno feels that hers and Basanti's story needed to be given more mileage than what it had been.

Akayla: Going back to the inanimate zone, Amitabh Bachchan's character befriends his car in the film, Akayla. Well, we should give the poor chap a break. The film's title is indication enough of the character's loneliness. To tackle it, Vijay Verma, who is a cop by profession, paints the car to resemble the face of a girl. He also names this girl as Rampyari and sings her a song, 'Chal chal ri chal meri Rampyari.' By this time, the car had already friendzoned him and so the relationship could go no further. However, their unwavering loyalty for each other set the benchmark for all Bollywood friendships. Vijay, eventually falls in love with a woman, but Rampyari continues to be the eternal love of his life.