Mohabbat aisee hotee hai
Posted on: November 9, 2026
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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‘Shola Aur Shabnam’ (1961) was produced and directed by Ramesh Saigal who also wrote the story and screenplay. The cast included Dhamendra, Tarla Mehta, Abhi Bhattacharya, M Rajan, Mubarak, Dhumal, Sulochana (Sr), Leela Mishra, Johny Whisky, Baby Chandrakala, Master Aakashdeep etc. Vijayalaxmi made the guest appearance in the film. This was Dharmendra’s first signed film though his film, ‘Dil Bhi Tere Ham Bhi Tere’ (1960) got released first. It was the first film for Tarla Mehta in a lead role though she debuted in ‘Ek Ke Baad Ek’ (1960).
Sometime in early 1950s, Ramesh Saigal wrote and directed ‘Shikwa’ (1950s) with Dilip Kumar and Nutan in lead roles. However, after completing five reels of shooting, the film was shelved. It was stated that the producer of the film Rajendra Jain ran out of money when his film ‘Maan’ (1954) flopped at the box office. It is said that Ramesh Saigal changed the intense tragic story of ‘Shikwa’ into a soft tragic but with happy ending in ‘Shola Aur Shabnam’. In ‘Shikwa’, Nutan marries the investigating officer sacrificing her love for Dilip Kumar to save him from death sentence. In Shola Aur Shabnam’ (1961) Dharmendra decides to sacrifice his childhood sweetheart, Tarla Mehta for M Rajan who is his best friend and the benefactor. But at the end, Dharmendra and Tarla Mehta unite. Ramesh Saigal remade the film with some changes as ‘Ishq Par Jor Nahi’ (1970).
The gist of the story of ‘Shola aur Shabnam’ (1961) is as under:
Ravi (Master Akashdeep) and Sandhya (Baby Chandrakala) are childhood sweetheart who are staying in the railway quarters as their fathers are working in the railways. While Sandhya’s father is a station master, Ravi’s father is a guard of goods train. Chandni’s family shifts elsewhere when her father is transferred. Ravi and Sandhya vow not to forget each other.
After some years, Ravi (Dharmendra) completes his graduation and is looking for a job which is hard to come. Ravi visits Prakash (M Rajan), his close college friend who now runs a timber factory in a forested area. He is very happy to see him after a long time. He employs him as a supervisor. Prakash introduces him to his elder brother, Aakash (Abhi Bhattacharya) who appears to Ravi as eccentric. Aakash is a broken-hearted man and has become alcoholic after his father rejected the marriage with his sweetheart, Tripti (Vijayalaxmi) due to class difference after which Tripti commits suicide.
Ravi and Prakash get on very well. Prakash’s father has fixed his alliance with the daughter of his close friend. The prospective bride is visiting his forest estate to stay for few days to get to know each other. The prospective bride is none other than Sandhya and Prakash is smitten by her. He plans for the engagement ceremony. Ravi and Sandhya do not recognise each other since they have been separated since their childhood.
Prakash hosts a get together in his estate to welcome Sandhya. He requests Ravi to sing a song to enliven the party atmosphere. Ravi sings ‘jeet hi lenge baazi ham tum’ which he used to sing with Sandhya in their childhood. Sandhya unwittingly joins Ravi in singing her part of the song signifying that both have recognised each other as the childhood sweetheart. However, Ravi decides to behave as a stranger to her to keep their childhood relationship secret. Prakash has been his close friend and he is grateful to him for giving him a job when for months he had remained unemployed. So, Ravi does not express his true feelings when Sandhya meets him considering the fact that the job is important for him to take care of his widowed mother (Leela Mishra).
Sandhya has no such compulsion to sacrifice her love for Ravi in favour of the marriage with Prakash. One day, Sandhya firmly tells Ravi that she will not marry Prakash, She is intending to reveal the truth to Prakash and to break the engagement with him. Sandhya tells Prakash that she is not interested in marrying him. Ravi is now in deep trouble. He meets Prakash and reveals him that he and Sandhya have known each other since childhood. He will convince her not to break the engagement with him. But Ravi is unable to convince Sandhya. He decides to resign from the job and returns to his village to salvage the marriage of Prakash with Sandhya.
Aakash, on the other hand, has been observing the reactions of Ravi whenever he has occasion to meet Sandhya which gives him the suspicion that Ravi and Sandhya have some attachment. He has developed a sixth sense after getting separated from his beloved Tripti due to his father’s opposition to the marriage with her. As a result, Tripti has committed suicide giving Aakash a heartbreak. He does not want a repeat of happenings in the case of Sandhya who is deeply in love with Ravi.
Having been caught in a bind, Ravi tries to escape from the estate to his village to force Sandhya to get married to Prakash. Aakash prevents Ravi from escaping and decides to step in to ensure that childhood love between Ravi and Sandhya does not get sacrificed at the altar of friendship. The stage drama, ‘Radha-Krishna’ being played by the employees of the estate comes handy for Aakash to force Ravi to stay in the estate for few more days.
As the village programme continues with folk dances, unwittingly, Sandhya and Ravi replicate the same dance somewhat away from the audience which Prakash sees them. He rushes toward Ravi and beats him. He also charges Ravi as a backstabber to his own friend who has given him the job. Sandhya tries to separate them but she is pushed away. Aakash reaches on the spot when he sees Prakash dragging Ravi on the cliff with the intention of pushing him down from the cliff. Aakash tries very hard to separate them but in doing so, Aakash falls down from the cliff to death repeating what his beloved Tripti had done few years back.
The sudden death of his elder son shatters the father as well as his younger brother, Prakash whose intense anger turns into a grief. There is a complete change, both in father and Prakash, from anger to cooling off. The father and Prakash give up their rigid stand and bless the union of Ravi and Sandhya amidst poignant moment.
The film had ten songs written by Prem Dhawan (3), Kaifi Azmi (2), Raja Mehdi Ali Khan (2), Pandit Ramamurti (1), Jan Nissar Akhtar (1) and uncredited (1) which were set to music by Khayyam. Seven songs have been covered on the Blog. Two songs written by Kaifi Azmi and rendered by Mohammed Rafi in the film capture the core of the film’s story from optimism to a suppressed love story.
I present the 8th song, ‘mohabbat aisee hotee hai’ which is written by Jan Nisar Akhtar. The song is rendered by Manna Dey, Geeta Dutt, and Mohammed Rafi. My guess is that the female playback singer voice sounds more like that of Jagjit Kaur than Geeta Dutt. The chorus part of the song is picturised on Dhumal. Johny Whisky and an actress I am not able to recognise her.
It appears that only eight out of ten songs were released on gramophone records and the song under discussion was not the part of the release on the gramophone record. Another song, ‘kaun aataa hai idhar’ was not in the VCD of the film and it is not released on the gramophone records. So effectively, only nine songs of the film are available.
The context of the song is that Prakash (M Rajan) has arranged a picnic after his prospective bride, Sandhya (Tarla Mehta) has come to stay in his estate for few days. But Sandhya’s childhood sweet heart, Ravi (Dharmendra) is not willing to join the picnic because Prakash has assigned Ravi to find out about Sandhya’s childhood friend to whom Sandhya is attached. Prakash perceives him as a threat to his marriage without knowing that her childhood friend is Ravi. But Prakash convinces Ravi to join the picnic. One can observe Ravi (Dharmendra) limping while he walks because just before that he has saved Sandhya (Tarla Mehta) from a wild elephant in the estate.
This is the qawwali type of song where the estate employees, Dhumal and Johny Whisky sing a playful song as a general observations on the volatility of love. But Jan Nissar Akhtar has beautifully woven each she’r (couplets) in double entendre as explained below with English translation of couplets:
agar dil dil se takraaye to afsaana banaa daalekabhee khud se kabhee duniyaa se begaanaa banaa daale
If hearts collide, they create story. Sometimes one becomes stranger to himself and sometimes he becomes stranger to the world.
Double Entendre: In reality there is a clash of hearts between Ravi and Prakash which only Sandhya and Ravi knows. And Ravi is pretending to be a stranger to Sandhya before Prakash.
ab unse kyaa kahe wo kab hamaaraa gham samjhte hainjo ham par ishq mein gujree hai usko ham samjhte hain
Now what do we say to her when she has not understood his agony.
What I am going through in love only I understand.
Double Entendre: Prakash is planning his engagement with Sandhya and he is unaware of the fact that Sandhya and Ravi are childhood sweet heart. Prakash has one-sided love with Sandhya and he thinks that she does not understand the agony she is causing him. The same is true for Sandhya and Ravi for whom Prakash is not aware of agony he is causing for them.
kisee ke dil kee baat bekahe ham jaan lete hainwo hamse kyaa chupenge ham nazar pahchaan lete hain
I can read the unspoken thoughts of a heart.
What can he hide from me when I can recognize everything just by his glance.
Double Entendre: Ravi and Sandhya act like strangers in front of Prakash. But they have no control over their glances to each other as the true love cannot remain secret. Prakash thinks that Sandhya is hinting at him about her reading his unspoken glances but her hint is for Ravi.
sahee hai hamne dil par sakhtiyaan zamaane keehamen har chot par aadat rahee hai muskuraane kee
It is alright we have endured the cruelties of the world on our hearts. We are now habituated to smile through every single wound.
Double Entendre: This she’r is the direct hint to Ravi going through the emotional turmoil. It is happening in his presence that his childhood sweet heart is shortly getting engaged to Prakash, his best friend. In the picnic, Ravi has to show his face smiling not out of picnic mood but he has made his face smiling as a habit to suppress his grief.
haseenon ko mazaa aataa hai kuchh thukaraane meinkabhee nazaren milaane mein kabhee nazaren badlne mein
Beauties gets a pleasure in rejecting some things – sometimes with romantic glances and sometimes changing their glances.
Double Entendre: This she’r is indirectly addressed to Sandhya who is in the verge of getting engaged to Prakash which she wants to break. She is gazing toward Ravi for his support but she has to quickly change her glance elsewhere to avoid suspicion on the minds of other picnickers including Prakash.
ye maanaa chaah kaa muskil se ham ikraar karte hainmagar phir jaan bhee jaaye usi se pyaar karte hain
It is agreed that it is difficult to openly confess the love. But when the true love comes in the open the lover will rather face the death than sacrificing the true love.
Double Entendre: This she’r is indirectly addressed to Ravi whom Sandhya loves but she cannot openly confess as Prakash is Ravi’s best friend and the benefactor. But there comes a breaking point when the love is to be openly confessed even it meant for her sacrificing one’s life. Sandhya has been hinting to Ravi that she would break the engagement with Prakash to be with Ravi. But Ravi has been persuading her to get married to Prakash otherwise he will lose his job. So, this is a hint to Ravi that a true lover would not mind sacrificing one’s life for the sake of love.
Video Clip:
Song-Mohabbat aisee hotee hai (Shola aur Shabnam)(1961) Singers-Manna Dey, Jagjeet Kaur,Mohammed Rafi, Lyricist-Jaan Nisaar Akhtar, MD-KhayyamMale Chorus
Male Chorus +Female chorus
Lyrics:
agar dil dil se takraayeagar dil dil se takraaye
to afsaana banaa daale
kabhee khud se
kabhee khud se
kabhee duniyaa se begaanaa banaa daale
ye zaalim jisko chaahe
usko deewaanaa
naa
naa
banaa…aa daale
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
aisee hotee hai mohabbat
aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
ab unse kyaa kahen
ab unse kyaa kahen
wo kab hamaaraa gham samjhte hain
jo ham par ishq mein gujree hai
usko ham samjhte hain
kisee ke dil kee baaten
bekahe ham jaan lete hain
wo hamse kyaa chhupenge
ham nazar pehchaan lete hain
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
sahee hain hamne dil par
sakhtiyaan saare zamaane kee
hamen har chot par
aadat rahee hai muskuraane kee
haseenon ko mazaa aataa hai
aa ha ha ha
kuchh thhukraa ke chalne mein
kabhee nazren milaane mein
kabhee nazren badalne mein
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
ye maanaa chaah kaa
mushqil se ham ikraar karte hain
magar phir jaan bhee jaaye
usee se pyaar karte hain
aa aa aa aa
aa aa
mohabbat karne waalon par hansee
ha ha ha ha
mohabbat karne waalon par hansee
hamko to aatee hai
yahee sunte hain ismein
dil se pahle
jaan jaatee hai ae ae
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
aisee hotee hai mohabbat
aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
mohabbat aisee hotee hai
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