Movie – Patthar Ke Sanam (1967)
The song, Meheboob mere, appeared in the A G Films’ romrama Patthar Ke Sanam (1967), directed by Raja Nawathe and produced by A A Nadiadwala. The movie starred Waheeda Rahman, Manoj Kumar, Mumtaz, etc.
The movie begins with Rajesh (Manoj Kumar) getting into a ladies’ first-class compartment, in a hurry to catch the train before it leaves the platform. Modern and educated Meena (Mumtaz) is in the compartment and Rajesh has a great time teasing her, though she is a stranger to him. When they reach her village, she goes straight to her bungalow and orders the cook to prepare the food liked by her friend. Then, she leaves to meet her friend, village girl Taruna (Waheeda Rahman).
Meena takes Taruna to the former’s home to have lunch. After lunch, they discern Rajesh coming to Meena’s home. Soon, they get to know that he is the new manager of Meena’s father Thakur’s (Ramayan Tiwari) estate. Meena plays a prank with the help of her friend Taruna on Rajesh. When Meena’s father returns and questions them, Meena says that they were just testing Rajesh.
Rajesh joins the job and immediately gets suspicious about Meena’s father’s employee Mehta’s relationship with the contractor Bhagatram (Pran). Meena decides to play another prank on Rajesh. She convinces Taruna that both of them pretend to fall in love with Rajesh. One day, he overhears them discussing the practical joke and he decides to play another prank of his own on both of them. As a result, both the girls really fall in love with him. However, when Meena gets to know about Taruna’s love for Rajesh, she insists that her friend remove any rudiments of love she might have begun to entertain for him. According to Meena, in any case, Taruna had been betrothed to Bhagatram since childhood.
In the process of playing the prank, like both Taruna and Meena fell in love with Rajesh, he falls in love with Taruna and confesses it to the village girl. In the next shot, Rajesh and Taruna sing this song.
Song – Meheboob mere
The song, Meheboob mere, was penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri and set to tune by Lakshmi-Pyare.
The song goes, “O Beloved, if you are with me, the world is beautiful. Without you, nothing interests me.”
Video – Meheboob mere
The cinematography is by Sudhin Majumdar. Dance choreography is by Kiran Kumar.
The video opens with Manoj Kumar sitting in a very beautiful garden with a gazebo. He discerns someone approaching him and appears to become happy. The person approaching him is Waheeda Rahman.
Manoj Kumar begins to sing this song. Waheeda Rahman also begins to sing the song with him. They play hide-and-seek inside and out of the gazebo. Then, they go into the fields and Waheeda Rahman sways gracefully.
Manoj Kumar and Waheeda Rahman get wet under a fountain and then return to the gazebo. The song peters out and the video ends as they get intimate and smoke covers them inside the gazebo.
Artists
Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar have sung this song for Manoj Kumar and Waheeda Rahman.
Cultural Influence
There appears to be no influence of any culture on this song. There are plants inside the gazebo where most of the shooting has been done. From here they appear to be real to me. I feel like singing to these plants, Meheboob mere Meheboob mere. Tu hai toh duniya kitni haseen hai. Jo tu nahin toh kuch bhi nahin hai… Isn’t that so true? No plants, no life on the earth! The song and the artists are good. The video is watchable for the same.
. The song has been analyzed on the basis of its context and visualization.){kind=link}