ABSTRACT

Jameel, played by actor Waheed Murad and one of the male protagonists of the 1975 hit Mohabbat Zindagee Hai [Love Is Life], sings of his leaving Eastern ways and adopting Western ones as he sings mashraqi rang ko chor kai, maghrabi rang apna liya. 1 He is concerned with his fiancée’s turn to a maghrabi or “Western” 2 lifestyle and this song is a part of his larger mission to cure her of her alleged wayward ways so that she may embody desirable “Eastern” virtues once again.