A Sytemetic Review of the ‘Bromantic’ Jour-ney of Bollywood from Sholay to Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety

Abstract
This paper will try to explore Bollywood’s reception and treatment of homosocial relation-ship. Exploiting the concept of ‘Bromance’ which has a close association with male homo-sociality, and projecting an asexual but emotional bonding, some Bollywood productions venture on showing a strong tie of friendship between boys. Unfortunately, the stories gen-erally show that the entry or subsequent mediation of any woman tell upon that bonding and the ‘boys’ try hard to resist that entry into their homosocial space. This construction of an ‘all male world’ is problematised when these productions are analysed through the lens of the Bollywood ideology that promotes a normative cultural discourse to the pan-Indian au-dience and dares not to embrace any deviating or alternative cultural standpoint. The bottom line is the establishment of the supremacy of heteronormativity. This paper will discuss this in the light of Sholay (1975) and Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety (2018).

Key Words: Bromance, Heteronormativity, Bollywood, Homosocial Relationship, All Male Worlds.

https://doi.org/10.37948/ensemble-2021-0302-a003