The astonishing response to the father-son camaraderie in Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar, not to speak of their chemistry in Bunty Aur Babli which preceded it, seems to have triggered a chain reaction of relative values in our cinema. After watching Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan as father and son, audiences got to see the Shetty sisters ? Shilpa and Shamita ? fighting over Manoj Bajpai (of all people) in Deepak Tijori’s Fareb!

Last week, it was again brotherhood time with Sohail Khan playing the fool with big brother Salman in Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya with Arbaaz also joining the laugh party with a mini-cameo to complete the family ? remember, he paired and sparred gloriously with Salman in Hello Brother?

Three brothers coming together in an unforgettable comedy decades ago are, of course, the Ganguly Brothers ? Ashok Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Anoop Kumar ? in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi. And kya chali gaadi! Three brothers again, but shifted into serious mode, were Chetan Anand, Dev Anand and Vijay Anand in Kala Bazar, and Dev-Vijay had also shuffled for space in the same frame in Chhupa Rustam. The famous Sisters Three of dance fame ? Lalita, Padmini and Ragini ? appeared together in Qaidi.

It’s a unique blood-is-thicker-than-water premise being extended to the screen this month. But Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi or Sarkar are rare occasions really where the blood group matched with the BO graph.

In the recent past, we had Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol playing brothers in Sunny’s directorial debut, Dillagi, the ‘historic’ coming-together didn’t create a remote ripple at the box-office, though. And when Shahid Kapur’s mom, Neelima Azim, appeared in her real-life role in Ishq Vishk there were mild titters among the audience.

Take Sanju Baba. Dad Sunil Dutt played his father in Sanju’s first film, Rocky, and Sunil’s last film, Munna Bhai MBBS. Feroz Khan, too, appeared with son Fardeen in the son’s launch film, Prem Aggan, and recently again in Janasheen. In the industry of father launchers of sons, Vinod Khanna was there to support his son Akshaye’s first venture, Himalayaputra. Though Akshaye and Fardeen both made their mark in the industry after many flops, Kunal Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor’s son, couldn’t encash his father’s popularity. This father-son jodi kind of crash-landed in that Air Force film, Vijeta.

Dharmendra’s son Sunny Deol was a hit in his debut film, Betaab, but when the Punjab de puttars tried to jell together in Sunny, Sultanat and Insaniyat Ke Dushman, it was no go each time. But, then, you had flop actor Rakesh Roshan producing and directing Koi...Mil Gaya for beta Hrithik, and appeared in it as his onscreen father, though he wasn’t the first choice, but that went on to become an all-time classic hit.

Despite these examples, however, from the time cinema came into its own, parents have desisted from sharing screen space with their children, and siblings have stayed away from unflattering comparisons with their kid-siblings. And not without reason. Dev Anand played his own son Suniel’s dad in Anand Aur Anand and look what happened to the double anand!

Abhishek and Amitabh in Sarkar and (below) Salman and Sohail with Katrina in Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya

Sanjay Leela Bhansali had first offered the mother-daughter roles in Khamoshi: The Musical to Dimple Kapadia and her daughter Twinkle. “Take Twinkle and sign someone else for the mother’s role,” Dimple suggested. Sanjay preferred Seema Biswas and Manisha Koirala.

The legendary Nutan must have flinched when she agreed to play her son Mohnish Behl’s mother in a horrific ‘social’ drama called Yeh Kaisa Farz. And Sharmila Tagore was Saif Ali Khan’s mother in his debut film, Aashiq Awaara. Both are experiences that the mothers would surely like to forgive as the wages of their sins, er, sons.

Illustrious parents have largely stayed away from sharing the same frame with their children apart from trying to launch them. The most glaring exception was Randhir Kapoor’s Kal Aaj Aur Kal in 1969 where Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor and Randhir Kapoor appeared as grandfather, father and son, with Babita (then ‘seeing’ her Daboo) pitched in as the junior-most Kapoor’s love interest. The film was a miserable flop.

Earlier, when the spirited Shobhana Samarth wanted to launch her two daughters, Nutan and Tanuja, she did so by making two different films (Hamari Beti and Chhabili) for her two girls.

Mehmood, in his inimitable style however, boldly brought back his father, Mumtaz Ali, and his polio-affected son in Kunwara Baap, with the former leading the eunuch bunch singing Chunar gote mein; with his brother Anwar Ali in Bombay to Goa; and with his kids, Ginny Aur Johnny, and his firang wife too thrown in!

The bottomline despite exceptions is that filial spells flops. Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya, where Arbaaz Khan was cast as Salman’s brother-in-law, may have clicked. But Hello Brother, where the two did a personality-transference ghost trick, bombed like, brother. So did Dharmesh Darshan’s Mela where Aamir Khan deigned to duet with his real-life sibling Faizal. The sagaa saga sagged swifter than the stock market.

Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya, a week after the Shilpa-Shamita sisterly act in Fareb, is a unique and interesting placement of filial pride and marketing acumen which could backfire. Siblings in synchronicity is still an unusual concept for our audiences. Sure, Dilip Kumar and his elder brother Nasir Khan worked as warring siblings in Nitin Bose’s Gunga Jamna. But no one knew the thespian’s brother, and it was a whispered wonder which caused awe later, though it couldn’t restrain the audience from glorifying Dilip even more by odious comparison.

Now with the print and electronic media keeping audiences abreast of the star’s entire family tree and their pet dogs, you can’t fool audiences into believing Shilpa and Shamita could be rivals in love?or can you?

No wonder Hema Malini is in two minds about that long-pending project where she gets to play her own daughter Esha’s mother.

Subhash K. Jha and etc Desk