Mohabbatein () is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic drama film written and directed by Aditya Chopra, and produced by Yash Chopra under the banner of Yash Raj Films. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai, alongside Uday Chopra, Shamita Shetty, Jugal Hansraj, Kim Sharma, Jimmy Sheirgill, and Preeti Jhangiani. It narrates the story of Narayan Shankar, the authoritarian principal of Gurukul, a prestigious all-boys institution, who strictly forbids romantic relationships. His former student, Raj, returns to the institute as a music teacher, and aids three young students to rebel against Narayan's intolerance of love.
Aditya Chopra had written the script of Mohabbatein before the release of his directorial debut Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). Principal photography took place primarily in the United Kingdom between October 1999 and July 2000. The music of the film was composed by Jatin–Lalit, with lyrics written by Anand Bakshi.
Mohabbatein was released on 27 October 2000 and received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics who praised the performances, music, and production design, although its length and pacing were criticised. The film was a commercial success, grossing worldwide to become the highest grossing film of the year. At the 46th Filmfare Awards, it won four awards including Best Supporting Actor (Bachchan) and Critics Best Actor (Khan).
Plot
Narayan Shankar has been the principal of Gurukul, a prestigious all-boys school, for 25 years. He firmly believes in tradition, honour and discipline and is particularly opposed to any kind of romance, threatening to expel any student who falls in love. Raj Aryan soon joins Gurukul as a Music teacher. Raj's belief on spreading romance angers Narayan to the point that he eventually decides to fire Raj. At this point, Raj reveals he is actually Raj Malhotra, a former student of Gurukul who was expelled many years ago for falling in love with Narayan's only daughter, Megha, who killed herself after Narayan expelled Raj. Raj promises to honour Megha's memory by spreading love throughout Gurukul to override Narayan's tradition, honour and discipline, a challenge which Narayan accepts.
At the backdrop of this battle are three students, Sameer, Vicky and Karan, all of whom are in love. Sameer is in love with his childhood sweetheart, Sanjana, who is already in a relationship with Deepak. Raj manages to get Sameer a job as a waiter in a cafe outside of Gurukul so he can be closer to Sanjana. However, when Deepak mistreats Sanjana, she realizes that Sameer is her true soulmate and the two get together. Vicky is in love with Ishika, a student from the neighbouring girls' school. Although Vicky harasses Ishika and blackmails her into a hug and then a date, when the two are paired for a dance competition, they fall in love though Vicky lies to her about his family’s class status to impress her. He eventually tells Ishika the truth and she accepts him. Karan falls in love with a widowed woman named Kiran; with Raj's help, he manages to get a job as a piano teacher for Kiran's nephew and slowly wins over Kiran's love, despite her initially being distant.
Narayan realises that Sameer, Vicky and Karan are forcing students to break the rules. In retaliation, he decides to tighten the rules. However, Raj continues to encourage the boys to fall in love. Eventually, the three boys face expulsion as Narayan views their actions as the reason for the other boys rebelling. Raj speaks out on their behalf, persuading Narayan that what they did was Raj's fault, begging Narayan to not expel them. Narayan agrees, but on the condition that Raj leaves after telling the student body he had misguided them in an attempt to persuade Raj that he has won. However, Raj reminds Narayan of how his daughter left him and how Raj himself, who considered Narayan an elder, is now also leaving him. Reflecting on Raj's words, Narayan now realises that his anti-romance policies have been misguided and also caused the death of his own daughter. The following morning, Narayan openly apologises to his students and steps down as principal, asking Raj to take over and spread his beliefs of love to all the students.
Cast
- Amitabh Bachchan as Narayan Shankar
- Shah Rukh Khan as Raj Aryan Malhotra
- Aishwarya Rai as Megha Shankar
- Jimmy Sheirgill as Karan Choudhary
- Jugal Hansraj as Sameer Sharma
- Uday Chopra as Vikram "Vicky" Kapoor
- Shamita Shetty as Ishika “Isha” Dhanrajgir
- Kim Sharma as Sanjana “Sanju” Paul
- Preeti Jhangiani as Kiran Khanna
- Amrish Puri as Major General Khanna (special appearance)
- Shefali Shah as Nandini Khanna
- Anupam Kher as Kakke
- Archana Puran Singh as Preeto
- Helen as Miss Monica (special appearance)
- Parzaan Dastur as Ayush Khanna
- Saurabh Shukla as Tom Paul
- Ram Mohan as Khan Baba
- Meghna Patel as Aanchal
- Sindhu Tolani as Malini
- Raman Lamba as Deepak Singhania
- Rushad Rana as Rushad
Production
Development
Prior to the production of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Aditya Chopra had begun writing Mohabbatein as his intended directorial debut. However, he considered the subject matter of Mohabbatein too mature for a first film and instead made Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge his debut, postponing Mohabbatein to be his second directorial project. Chopra briefly considered making a thriller for his sophomore film, but ultimately returned to Mohabbatein, explaining: "I realised that there is something in that story that keeps drawing me to it, so one day I just shut my thriller file and casually picked up my [...] Mohabbatein file—that one simple action decided my second film for me."
Writing resumed following the release of Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), with Chopra aiming to explore themes beyond conventional romance. Chopra presented the story to his father, producer Yash Chopra, who was impressed and agreed to produce the film under the Yash Raj Films banner. In an interview with Screen, Yash Chopra described the project as “a modern film, a film about today,” adding that it upheld Indian values while appealing to a broad audience.