SEXTANT: masculinities, sexualities & decolonialities

ABSTRACT

Bollywood’s silver screen has always been an excellent home for stories about male friendship. In the 20th century, male friendships were an aspect of the plot, used to propel the main story forward. However, this changed in the 21st century when Bollywood movies such as Dil Chahta Hai and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara used male friendship as the central plot point. This essay analyses the portrayal of male friendships in these two movies to understand the ways in which male homosociality is intrinsically linked to the ways in which men construct and perform their masculinity at an individual as well as collective level, including their heterosexual relationships with women.

KEY WOrDS

Masculinity; Homosociality; Bollywood cinema; Heterosexuality; Male friendship

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.