Overly dramatic and melodramatic portrayals of siblings in Hum Saath Sath Hain was far from reality. The unrealistic brothers and sisters onscreen not only feed into the relationship stereotypes society consumes but also creates a dark area for something which doesn’t fit the norm. All siblings aren’t always loving, caring, and concerned about each other. They can fight, argue, hate each other, and somewhere in life find reconciliation (or not).
So here’s our list of realistic onscreen siblings who made us go “bilkul sahi!”:
1. Amit and Aditi in ‘Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na’
Image credit: Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na
Prateik Babbar and Genelia D’Souza played the most believable set of siblings the 2000’s had seen. Amit and Aditi are a bickering pair that was constantly at each other’s throats. The love-hate relationship between siblings in this movie is portrayed through their nonsensical fights over Aditi’s friend Jai, whom Amit dislikes, to Amit’s endearing brotherly love and concern for his sister who is going to get hitched to the “wrong guy”. We wish this sibling duo had more screen time.
2. Ayesha and Kabir in ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’
Image credit: Dil Dhadakne Do
Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra played the roles of siblings, Kabir and Ayesha, who look out for each other but mostly themselves first. No relationship is perfect and neither is a family. The film keeps the unrealistic melodrama of Suraj Barjatya films out of this equation and shows the true discord between self-consumed families. While love and concern have their own place, Kabir and Ayesha are not aiming to be the flag-bearers of unrealistic bhai–behen prem.
3. Fiza and Amaan in ‘Fiza’
Image credit: Fiza
Delivering one of their finest performances, Hrithik Roshan and Karisma Kapoor won over the hearts of audiences with their performances in the film Fiza. A courageous and determined sister, Fiza will do anything to find her brother who went missing years ago and Amaan’s choices between family and purpose, keep the audiences hooked. Hrithik’s rare onscreen maturity mixed with Karisma’s plausible acting deliver a sibling pair that we will never forget.
4. Max and Shirley in ‘Josh’
Image credit: Josh
Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan effortlessly played the tapori twin siblings Max and Shirley in Josh. Their concern for each other, their fights, them overstepping boundaries, and being possessive about each other is a true sibling package right out of our own lives.
5. Nikhil and Anamika in ‘My Brother… Nikhil’
Image credit: My Brother… Nikhil
The thing about great sibling relationships is that they are your support system for life. They will stand up to your parents for you even if they wouldn’t for themselves; they will stand up for you and try to protect you from harm’s way. Juhi Chawla and Sanjay Suri are just that as Anamika and Nikhil in the wonderful, yet heartbreaking story of My Brother… Nikhil. Based closely on the real-life story of AIDS activist Dominic D’Souza, the film sensitively portrays the gay community by telling D’Souza’s story from 1987 to 1994, when awareness about AIDS was low and ways of dealing with the disease wasn’t documented. The film goes over Nikhil’s relationship with his elder sister, Anamika, and their struggle against their community, public, and even their own parents.
Lead Image credit: Dil Dhadakne Do/Zoya Akhtar
