Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

A major point of disruption that has happened in the world of Hindi cinema is the portrayal of brother-sister relationship. It used to be an integral part of the world of Hindi cinema but with the cinema acquiring new contours, attaining urbanity, and becoming urbanesque, this relationship has been given a soft burial. In its place has emerged a sister-sister relationship that continues to find representations on a periodic basis.

Among the current crop of actors, it would be difficult to find a role of a brother that may have been enacted by the current crop of the super stars. The possible exception in this regard could be DUS where Diya Mirza gets an opportunity to play sister to Sanjay Dutt and Abhishek Bachchan, and she was the actor in the recent memory that dawned the mantle of a sister. The difference however was in the fact that the film did not have those sisterly moments that were hallmark of the earlier Hindi films, but only had a song where the love for the sister was expressed. Now contrast it with the relationship that a brother or a sister had say in ADALAT starring Amitabh Bachchan, or for that matter between Farida Jalal and Amitabh Bachchan in FARRAR.

But just a decade ago, Hindi cinema used to focus on this relationship in a very prominent manner. Therefore a Madhuri Dixit who had played a lady love interest to Jackie Shroff in other films did not have a gumption to play his sister in TRIDEV. Hindi cinema has had strong portrayals of sisters standing in tandem with the brothers to fight for a cause just or unjust. In this context two ends of spectrums can be found, at the one end does Aruna Irani along with Shakti Kapoor in QURBANI enact the role, while Hema Malini along with RajniKanth in ANDHA KANOON represented the other end of the spectrum.

The possible reason why the sisters went out of vogue could be owing to the fact that the current crop of female actors are not inclined to play the role of sisters as their contemporaries from the previous generation used to do, so the characters are not being written in such a manner where a sister could have a prominent role in the film. It could also be fallout of the fact that the female stars who could not get lead roles gravitated to sisterly roles, as there were no career options open. But in the present times with the proliferation of television channels and the multitude of film oriented programmes being beamed into the drawing rooms of the viewers none of the present day female actors is inclined to step into the sisterly roles. As a result a vital cog of the Indian ethos that got salutary representation through the Hindi films has lost its way, and sisters do not find that prominent a representation as they used to have earlier.