Dil machalne lagaa jaag uthheen dhadkanen
Posted on: January 17, 2025
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, 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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Today’s song is from the social film Stage – 1951.
The year 1951 gave us a trailer of what was in store in the decade of 1951 to 1960 and why this period was called ” The Golden Era” of Hindi Film Music. In the first year of the decade , there were many musicals like Awara, Albela, Baazi, Deedar, Bahar, Naujawan, Jaadu, Naheena, Daaman, Dholak, Madhosh, Malhar, Naadaan, Sagai, Sanam, shabistan and many more. This period was a fruitful mixture of old artists and the new era artists. Most actors, M.D.s and Directors who came from the Silent era and the 30’s and the 40’s, ended their career in the 50’s. Some M.D.s, not getting any film as a composer, chose to work as a musician in some emerging M.D’s orchestra, to sustain life. Actors retired and the new blood energized the film industry.
Those who had started after 1945, bloomed like a flower and reached peaks of their career. Actors like Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor along with veterans like Ashok Kumar and Dilip kumar made films more interesting. Now there was a wide choice for the film audience to see films of all types of genres and a variety of artists.
Film Stage-1951 was produced by J.D.Chandana and it was directed by a novice – Vijay Mhatre, who was actually a Cinematographer. After this one film, he perhaps accepted his misplacement as a Director and wisely returned to his expertise as a Cinematographer. In this film, there were two M.D.s, for reasons not known. One was the experienced old hand like Husnalal-Bhagatram and the other was comparatively a new one Sardar Malik. He had started just 3 years back with the film ‘Renuka’-1947.
The cast of the film Stage-1951 was Ramola, Dev Anand, Kuldeep Kaur, Mubarak, Gulab, Raj Mehra, Sundar, Cuckoo and others. All the 12 songs of the film were written by Sarshar Sailani, whose real name was Bhim Sen. The story of this film was….
Prof.Rajan(Raj Mehra) is sad because his family life is spoiled due to the sharp and acidic tongue of his wife(Kuldeep Kaur).His daughter Sudha(Ramola) is with him on this issue.One day he discovers that his college love Kamini(Gulab) is in town as Neelam the stage dancer.He goes to meet her.Both share their grief but Rajan can not help her.In due course, Rajan’s wife learns about Neelam,there is a fight and Rajan is injured by accident.He goes to meet Neelam-who is murdered and police arrest Rajan with blood stained clothes.
Sudha, who is enjoying her boyfriend Anand’s(Dev Anand) Birthday party, learns about it. She is determined to find out the real culprit. With help from Anand, his friend Chunnu(Sunder) and some clues, they reach Poona. Sudha joins as Dancer in the previous stage company of Neelam. They get the proof that the Owner of the theatre(Mubarak)is the culprit.After some chase, suspense and a mock fight(it is funny to see Dev Anand fighting 7-8 gundas at a time),the murderer is caught by the police, Rajan released,Sudha-Anand married and Rajan’s wife reformed.
Ramola was the heroine. Have you noticed that in the cast of the film, her name superseded Dev Anand’s name. This was because Dev Anand had not yet become so famous, but Ramola was already a famous and popular actress. Actually, Stage -1951 was her last Hindi film, after which she retired from films. She had also done few Bangla movies, being from Calcutta.
Actress Ramola (real name- Rachel Cohen) was born in a Jew family on 5-7-1917, at Bombay. Her father Hayam Cohem was a school Teacher. Her initial education was done in Bombay. Later they shifted to Calcutta where she completed her matriculation and joined films. Her first film was ‘ Graher fer’-38,a Bangla film. She did a few small roles and then came ‘Khazanchi’-41 from Pancholi of Lahore. This changed her career and she became a popular actress. She did films like Masoom,Khamoshi manchali.etc etc.
Initially, Ramola was a small actress. First she acted on stage along with her two sisters. Then she got a Bangla film. It was Jagdish Sethi who introduced her to director/lyricist/dialogue writer Kidar Sharma. According to Kidar Sharma,
“She was smart and a charming young lady. Her only drawback was her height. She was not tall, just about 5 feet, but she had lofty ambitions. One day she came to see me and I promised I would personally take her to the director of her choice. She said, “I would like to be introduced to Mr. Nitin Bose, and no one else.” I took her to Mr. Bose, and was sure that her charm and talent would impress him.
Mr. Bose scanned her, from top to toe, while I praised her talent and her choice of a director, like Nitin Bose. After a long silence, Mr. Bose addressed me and said, “When you brought her to me, why did you forget to bring some bricks for her to stand on?” Poor Romola was hurt and heart-broken by this great director’s caustic remark. She quietly said, “Goodbye” and walked away from his office.
I followed her and found that she was in tears. ‘I was moved by the plight of a struggling youngster having high hopes, being ridiculed for something which nature was responsible for. I knew what it felt like to be ridiculed. I had experienced it often enough. I escorted her to the tram junction and there she bid me goodbye. To encourage her, I said, “Please, Romola, don’t be heart-broken. One day, when I become a director, you will be my first heroine, and we will prove to Mr. Bose and the world, what a great star you are.” Romola laughed and said,- “Poor Mr. Kidarnath, the dialogue-writer will never be a director and I will never be a heroine.” So saying, she jumped into the tram.”
However, Kidar Sharma kept his promise and cast her in his first film as director Aulad / Dil Hi To Hai (1939). Aulad/Dil Hi To hai was a down-to-earth story of a middle-class father, who had sacrificed all his life to educate his son and his darling daughter, hoping that they would be worthy children to the society and to the family. Little did the old man know that the generation gap would present a different, horrifying reality, which would destroy him completely. The modern college Miss, who destroys the dreams of her old father, the aged struggling middle class man, was played by Ramola.
After the success of the film, Ramola got romantically involved with R.C. Talwar, Kidar Sharma’s assistant who later became a director in his own right. According to Kidar Sharma, “R.C. Talwar was a classmate and friend so I ignored his relationship with Ramola.”
Later Ramola appeared in many films including Qaidi, Khazanchi, Khamoshi, Sawan Aya Re, Rim Jhim etc. When she acted in Pancholi’s famous film Khazanchi-41, she became famous all over India and film offers started pouring on her. She looked so cute in her Punjabi dress- Salwar and Kurta- in that film, that this dress became famous and popular as Khazanchi dress amongst the women in India.
Ramola’s elder sister Rooplekha was also in films. Her first film was Nishani-42. After this she worked in 4 films, all with Ramola. The films were, Shukriya-44, Albeli-45 , Jhoothi kasmen-48 and Jawani ki aag-51 Later she got married and left films.
Ramola acted in 23 films in Hindi and 5 films in Bangla. She even sang 14 songs in 4 Hindi films. She also worked in a Punjabi film “Pardesi Dhola”, for which R C Talwar was the director. After the arrival of new heroines including Madhubala, Nargis, Meena Kumari etc, Ramola’s career got eclipsed and she bid farewell to her film career. Her last 3 films Actor, Jawani Ki Aag and Stage were released in 1951. However her actual last film was the Bangla film, Anurag-51
Ramola was married twice. Her second husband, Leslie Rondeau, was a Captain in the British Air Force, who helped to train Indian pilots in the IAF post Indian Independence. Her son, Sam, from her first husband, migrated to Israel in the 1950s. She had two daughters, Dena and Linda, from her second marriage. Dena, based in London today, even acted in a film, GP Sippy’s Ahsaas (1979), and works in the fashion industry while Linda, a resident of Bombay, was an air-hostess with Air India. With her generous and large hearted spirit, Ramola also ‘adopted’ and looked after another 14 families, helping them move ahead in life.
Ramola passed away in Bombay on 10-12-1988.
Let us now enjoy the 74 year old song sung by Asha Bhosle….
Song-Dil machalne lagaa jaag uthheen dhadkanen (Stage)(1951) Singer- Asha Bhosle, Lyricist- Sarshar Sailani, MD-Sardar Malik
Lyrics
dil machalne laga aa
jag uthheen dhadkanen
teree aankhon mein kya
aaj kee ee raat hai
dil machalne laga
jaag uthheen dhadkanen
teree aankhon mein kya aaj kee raat hai
dil machalne laga
jaag uthheen dhadkanen
teree aankhon mein kya aaj kee raat hai
dil machalne laga
dil machalne laga
dil machalne laga
jaag uthheen dhadkanen
teree aankhon mein kya aaj kee raat hai
mere daaman mein kaliyaan simat aayee hain
aaj ujdee bahaaren palat aayee hain
tu mere saath hai to jahaan saathh hai
tu mere saath hai to jahaan saathh hai
har taraf ik nasha aaj kee raat hai
dil machalne laga
dil machalne laga
dil machalne laga
jaag uthheen dhadkanen
teree aankhon mein kya aaj kee raat hai
sharm o shokhee mein
sharm o shokhee mein takraar hotee rahee
jeet hotee rahee
haar hotee rahee
jab nigaahen mileen
faisla ho gaya
jab nigaahen mileen
faisla ho gaya
dillagee ka maza aaj kee raat hai
dil machalne laga
dil machalne laga
dil machalne laga
jaag uthheen dhadkanen
teree aankhon mein kya aaj kee raat hai
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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