Dil jo de doongee raajaa nikaal ke
Posted on: April 29, 2025
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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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‘Raaj Tilak’ (1958) was simultaneously shot in Hindi along with ‘Vanjikottai Valiban’ (1958) in Tamil. Both the films were produced and directed by S S Vasan under the banner of Gemini Pictures. While Gemini Ganesan, Vyjayantimala and Padmini were the common actors for both Hindi and Tamil films. Jagirdar, Bipin Gupta, Lalita Pawar, Durga Khote, Pran, Manmohan Krishna, Agha, Shammi, Meenakshi etc worked only in the Hindi version of the film. C Ramchandra composed the songs for both Tamil and Hindi films. The film was inspired from the novel, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ (1844) by Alexandre Dumas. The screenplay of the story was written by Ramanand Sagar.
Just as director, S S Vasan had done some sort of a casting coup by making Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand to act together in ‘Insaaniyat’ (1955), he made a similar type of a casting coup by making Padmini and Vyjayantimala to act together in ‘Raj Tilak’/Vanjikottai Valiban despite their perceived professional rivalry as classical dancers. The film was a costume drama.
The story of the film in detail is as under:
The film opens with a sailboat which is in danger of capsizing in the sea from a storm when Chandar (Gemini Ganesan) facing all odds, climbs on the pole to remove a sail thus saving the passengers life. The Owner (Kumar) of the ship is very happy with Chandar and he gifts him a bag of 10000 Ashrafi (gold coins). He reveals to the passengers that some years back he had rescued Chandar and his sister, Savitri (Vijaykumari) from a boat and since then they have been under his guardianship.
The ship reaches the shore. With the money, Chandar buys a house and stays with Savitri. He has finalised a groom for Savitri. However, Senapati Durjan Singh (Pran) gets her abducted and carries her in his buggy. She jumps out of the running buggy and rolls down on the slop and dies. Chandar takes a vow that he would kill Senapati Durjan Singh. He goes to his palace in the night and attempts to kill him. However, Durjan Singh’s men overpower him. He is arrested and sent to a prison on an island where he is put in cell adjoining that of an woman who turns out to be his lost mother (Durga Khote). She tells him that his father was Sardar Mangal Sen (Jagirdar) who was a minister of King Vikram Singh (Bipin Gupta). Through her revelation, Chander comes to know the background.
Senapati Durjan Singh had killed his brother-in-law, King Vikram Singh and has made his widow the Queen (Meenakshi) who is Durjan Singh’s sister’ With this, Durjan Singh became the de facto King. To save Prince and Princess, Sardar Mangal Sen ran away with them while his wife took with her Chandar and Savitri, While Mangal Sen could escape, his wife was arrested while escaping on another boat leaving Chandar and Savitri on the boat. Chandar decides to meet his father Sardar Mangal Sen to plan a revenge against Durjan Singh.
Sardar Mangal Sen, on the other hand, after escaping with Princess and Prince of the late King Vikram Singh has started living in a deep forest. His only connection with his erstwhile kingdom is Madhav (Manmohan Krishna) who occasionally meets him. Mangal Sen trains princess and prince in use of the weapons and the warfare. Both princess and prince have grown up as Padma (Padmini) and Kumar (Master Romi). One day, Madhav meets Mangal Sen and apprises him of his setting up of a secret base at the outskirt of the kingdom to organise an uprising against Durjan Singh. He with Princess Padma and the Prince visit the outskirt of the kingdom outsmarting a check post through Madhav, Govind (Agha) and his fiancée, (Shammi). All of them meet the public at large where Mangal Sen asked them to be ready to fight Durjan Singh and to restore the kingdom to the Prince Kumar.
In the prison, after his mother’s death, Chandar escapes from the jail and boards a ship which takes him to a shore of another kingdom where Princess Mandakini (Vyjayantimala) takes a special interest in him. She wants Chandar to be her slave and he always acts in defiance of Princess Mandakini. Outwardly, she acts tough with him but she has started liking him. She even saves him from her father when he was caught while escaping and was awaiting his death sentence. Finally, Chandar tells Mandakini that for the present, taking a revenge against Durjan Singh and saving his kingdom is more important than her love. Mandakini understands his emotions. She helps him financially to achieve his objective but she gives him one month’s time to come back to her. Chandar sails in the direction of his kingdom.
Durjan Singh gets information about the location of the base of the uprising against him. He marches with his troops to the revolutionary’s base. Madhav’s wife (Lalita Pawar) relays this information to Mangal Sen who orders his revolutionaries and other families to vacate the base and shift elsewhere with their weapons. Durjan Singh’s troops search for the revolutionaries during which they abduct Princess Padma. Chandar who has just reached the shore, hears Padma’s shout and saves her from the abductors. Chandar in the guise of Lala Nayan Sukh, a jewellery merchant from Rajasthan visits his erstwhile kingdom to present the gifts in varieties of jewellery to the Queen. He also befriends Durjan Singh with his sweet talk. Impressed with his costly gifts, Durgesh Singh makes arrangements for his stay in the royal palace.
One month has passed and Chandar has not returned to Princess Mandakini as promised by him. She leaves her kingdom to find the whereabouts of Chandar in the kingdom of Durjan Singh. Here she finds Chandar having a private talk with Padma. Mandakini misunderstands that Chander has fallen in love with Padma and she has been left high and dry. She meets Chandar in the presence of Padma. But Chandar is unable to explain to her lest his secret plan to oust Durjan Singh would be exposed. He, however, requests Princess Mandakini to join the dance programme by Padma where she has assumed herself as dancer Kamalochan from Kamrup after which he would explain to her his plan.
Padma’s dance performance starts in the presence of Queen, Durjan Singh and Princess Mandakini. However, assuming Padma to be her competitor for having Chander on her side, Mandakini also starts dancing with Padma which turns out to be a dance competition. During Padma’s second dance performance, Durjan Singh, after many drinks, has lost his senses. Taking advantage of it, Chandar goes out in his buggy and frees Mangal Sen, his father from the prison to organise the uprising of people against Durjan Singh.
Princess Mandakini, annoyed with Chandar for his closeness to Padma, exposes the real identity of Lala Nayan Sukh to Durjan Singh on the condition that Chandar will be handed over to her. Because of the revelation, Chandar, Mangal Sen, Princess Padma and Prince Kumar get arrested. But Durjan Singh refuses to hand over Chandar to Princess Mandakini. Instead, they are being transported to a prison on an island to be executed by a canon firing.
After their arrest, there is a large-scale people’s uprising against Durjan Singh without any fear of his troops. They march to the island by hundreds of boats, At that very moment, Princess Mandakini reaches the spot and before the cannon is fired on them, she turns the cannon direction. Chander and others are freed. A long sword fight between Chander and Durjan Singh results in Durjan Singh’s death but at the cost of Mandakini who dies from a sharp knife thrown by Durjan Singh aiming at Chander but hitting Mandakini. The kingdom is restored to the Prince Kumar with Senapati Mangal Sen, Chander and Princess Padma by his side.
Raj Tilak’ (1958) was a blockbuster on the box office. One of the major highlights of the film was the dance competition between Padmini and Vyjayantimala on a longish dance song, hone lagaa hai kyun dil beqaraar. At that time, it was said that in their professional career as dancers, they were powerful competitors. Hence, it made more interesting for the audience to watch the film for their dance competition in a cost-effective manner. The mind-blogging choreography of Hiralal in terms of varieties of classical and semi-classical dance formats with twists, turns and jumps added by the excellent dance performances by respective dancers has made this dance competition unique. Knowing the sensitivity of both the dancers about each other, Director, S S Vasan chose to abruptly end the dance competition without any result by making Sivaji Ganesan to break the light chandelier. Even in the film also, they were competitors in winning the love of Chander (Sivaji Ganesan).
The film has 13 songs written by P L Santoshi which were set to music by C Ramchandra. Five songs have been covered on the Blog. I am presenting the 6th song, ‘dil jo dungee raaja nikaal ke’ rendered by Lata Mangeshkar and Chorus. It is a dance song picturised on Padmini. The dance programme abruptly ends as the troops of Durjan Singh invade the camp. Hence the song on the soundtrack is partial while the audio clip has the full song.
The context of the dance song is that Chander (Sivaji Ganesan) successfully saves Padma (Padmini) from Durjan Singh’s men from kidnapping her from a tribal camp. The tribal chief, in gratitude of Chandar arranges an entertainment programme for him from the inmates of his camp in which he has also given shelter to Padmini and Lalita Pawar.
Audio Clip (Full Song):
Video Clip (Partial):
Song-Dil jo de doongee raajaa nikaal ke (Raj Tilak)(1958) Singer-Lata, Lyrics-P L Santoshi, MD-C Ramchandra
Chorus
Lyrics (Based on Audio Clip):
dil jo de doongee
raajaa nikaal ke ae
dil jo de doongee
raajaa nikaal ke
rakkhoge kyaa tum sambhaal ke
jabse dekhaa tujhe main teree huyee
jabse dekhaa tujhe main teree huyee
haay galtee yahee bas meree huyee
haay galtee yahee bas meree huyee
haay teree huyee
teree huyee
teree huyee
walle walle walle
aaa aa aa
aaa aa aa aa
aaa aa aa aa aaa
aaa aa aa
naa sochaa naa samjhaa naa dekhaa naa bhaalaa
sochaa naa samjhaa naa dekhaa naa bhaalaa
apne hee haathhon se dil ko uchhaalaa
itne mein aa gaye nazar tum kahaan se
itne mein aa gaye nazar tum kahaan se
ke tukde huye haay gayaa naa sambhaalaa
zara daaman badhhaane mein deree huyee
daaman badhhaane mein deree huyee
haay teree huyee
teree huyee
teree huyee
walle walle walle
aaa aa aa
aaa aa aa aa
aaa aa aa aa aaa
aaa aa aa
samjhoge tum bhee ke ham kitne bhole
khud hee jagaaye muhabbat ke shole
samjhoge tum bhee ke ham kitne bhole
khud hee jagaaye muhabbat ke shole
apnee hee nazron se nazren bachaa ke ae
apnee hee nazron se nazren bachaa ke
lagaaye jigar se banaaye phhaphholey
aur apne hee haathhon se bhooley koi
apne hee haathhon se bhooley koi
haay teree huyee
teree huyee
teree huyee
walle walle walle
aaa aa aa
aaa aa aa aa
aaa aa aa aa aaa
aaa aa aa
walle walle walle
6 Responses to "Dil jo de doongee raajaa nikaal ke"
April 29, 2025 at 1:07 pm
Apart from RAJTILAK (1958) which was viewed as a success , AMARDEEP around the same year also had its contribution for the downfall of C Ramachandra. It is further said that Lata Mangeshkar sang only a few songs of AMARDEEP and he had to get the others recorded with Asha Bhosle. Another interesting feature added to this is that after these two films for almost ten years Rafi did not sing for him (with the exception of one song in SARHAD) till ROOTHA NA KARO IN 1970 when he made a comeback to sing for Shashi Kapoor along with Kishore Kumar who was dominating at that time with ARADHANA’s success!
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April 29, 2025 at 4:59 pm
The type of films C. Ramchandra was getting after 1958 when Lata Mangeshkar had virtually stopped singing for him with some exceptions, are also responsible as to why he could not use Rafi in his subsequent films. By the way, he has used Rafi in Paigham (1959). However, for Navrang (1959), he had to use Mahendra Kapoor after he won Metro Murphy singing competition held in 1957. Each of the five judges of the competition which included C. Ramchandra had promised to record a Hindi film song with him as a reward for his win.
In the later part of his career, C. Ramchandra worked mostly in ‘B’ grade/mythological films whose budget would not afford top playback singers. Besides, he himself was a singer in most of these films.
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April 29, 2025 at 7:00 pm
Incidentally, all through the sixties Mahendra Kapoor dominated his music scene with Mannadey to some extent and interestingly he himself did not sing much during the sixties for whatever reasons!
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April 29, 2025 at 8:31 pm
By the 1970s he was a spent force. C. Ramchandra appears to have composed music for only two movies between 1971 and 1980 – Tulsi Vivaah (1971) and Toofani Takkar (1978),
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 29, 2025 at 10:21 am
Film Raj Tilak-1958 was a very bad omen for C.Ramchandra. It is from this film that the successful team of CR and Rajendra Krishna was broken.
Rajendra Krishna was giving lyrics to AVM also, which Vasan did not like and so CR took Santoshi as a Lyricist. This was misunderstood by Rajendra Krishna and he deserted CR.
At the same time, Lata also left CR and stopped singing for him because he was not ready to marry her, leaving his wedded wife.
The downfall of CR started from this film.
-AD
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April 29, 2025 at 10:44 am
Arun ji,
Thanks for the anecdote in the career of C Ramchandra which I missed to include in the article.
I had read this anecdote while writing this article about 3 months back. I felt that C Ramchandra should have taken Rajendra Krishan into confidence as to why he was taking P L Santoshi as lyricist for this film. The reason could be that C Ramchandra was actually trying to help P L Santoshi who was then facing some financial difficulties after the end of his golden period.
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