Pyaar Deewana Hota Hai, Hindi film oldie superhit romantic song on dangers of falling in love

Last updated on 31st Dec. 2017

Pyaar Deewana Hota Hai, Hindi film oldie superhit romantic song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lslZptXok8o, around 4 min. 30 secs. It is from the 1971 movie Kati Patang (Severed Kite), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kati_Patang. It has the superstar of those days, the Late Rajesh Khanna, whose birthday fell on 29th Dec. yesterday, as the hero, and Asha Parekh as the heroine, both of whom are the main actors in this song video. The singer is the great (Late) Kishore Kumar and the lyricist (song writer) is Anand Bakshi.

Many oldie Hindi film romantic songs have a theme of the dangers of falling in love. A favourite metaphor they use for the dangers of romantic love is that of the moths who are attracted to the burning flame of the candle and going towards it, get burned and destroyed by the burning flame.

Here are a few lines of this song which use the same metaphor

Shama kahe parvane se pare chala jaa [The burning candle tells the moth to go away]
Meri tarah jal jayega yahaan nahi aa [You will burn like me; don't come here]

Woh nahi sunta usko jal jana hota hai [He/she who does not listen has to get burned]
Har khushi se har gam se begana hota hai [(He/she) becomes alienated/detached from all joys and sorrows]

Pyaar deewana hota hai mastana hota hai [(Romantic) love is madness/craziness; (it) is intoxicating]
Har khushi se har gam se begana hota hai [(He/she) becomes alienated/detached from all joys and sorrows]
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I should also add that even though many oldie Hindi film songs (and the whole movies themselves in some cases) had the theme of dangers of romantic love, they celebrated romantic love typically between the hero and heroine of the film, even if, in some cases though not in all cases, that love resulted in tragedy for the hero & heroine in the movie/film story.

I think the above lines of the song reflect the social problems associated with "love marriage" as against arranged marriage which was the norm, in the 1970s in India. [Arranged marriage is still the norm in many parts of India but there is more acceptance of love marriage nowadays as compared to earlier.] The song's melody is typical of Hindi film songs of those days and many oldies like me are very fond of such songs. It is quite different from the Bollywood music of the 2000s or even the 1990s.

BTW it is not that arranged marriage does not have love between husband and wife. It is simply that that conjugal love comes into play after the marriage, and not before as is the case in love marriage.

During my young adult days in the 1980s and 1990s in India, the viability and success rate of love marriage versus arranged marriage was a hotly discussed and debated topic! Family and social support were vital for easing and integrating a newly married couple into society in India of those days, and I guess that would continue even today but to a lesser extent as families have become more nuclear and more independent of social bonds and social norms than in the 1980s.

Love marriages that did not get the sanction of the parents of the couple did run into rather severe problems in those days with the offended parents, especially the father, cutting off relations with the son or daughter! Time would tend to heal the severed relations and bring it back but it was quite an emotionally painful process. Note that marriages in those days as well as now are big family events in India with successful marriages of their children being a very big duty and accomplishment of parents. So marriage being done against parents' wishes was a severe blow to the parents from their family standing point of view, which was and continues to be a very important thing for Indian families.