Toree oonchee atariya pe aaoon kaise
Posted on: August 11, 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 film Samaj ko badal dalo-1947. The film, made by Prakash Pictures, Bombay was directed by one one of its owners Vijay Bhatt. Music was by Khemchand Prakash. The cast of the film included Arun Ahuja, Mridula, Yakub, Umakant, Vikram Kapoor, Leela Pawar and many others.
Contrary to the usual Mythological films made by Prakash Pictures, this social tragedy film was a surprise to their audience. However, due to political instability, India’s proposed Partition and fear of communal riots, Prakash must have tried a safe way out. Additionally, unlike Mythological films, the social films did not need more time to finish the shootings.
In olden days, there were 3 major film centres-Bombay, Lahore and Calcutta. After 1947, all the Hindi film activity at Lahore shifted to Bombay. By mid 50’s even Calcutta almost stopped making Hindi films. Many Hindi speaking artistes in various disciplines of film making shifted to Bombay and finally Bombay became the only and the main Hindi film making Centre.
The year 1947 is a reminder not only for the Independence of India, but also for the upheaval that took place in the film industry that time. More than in any other industry in India, Muslims were plentiful, working in different sections and departments of the Hindi film industry. Majority of them migrated to the newly formed Muslim Nation of Pakistan. This did create a lot of disturbance in the film industry. Right from the beginning of 1947, there were signs that soon the British would leave India – after dividing it into two Nations, India and Pakistan. When the month and date became known for the Partition, there was a great hurry among the filmmakers to complete their projects on hand and in process, compromising many factors like quality of the film, number of songs and such other things.
This resulted in the record number of films made in 1947 alone – 181 Hindi films and about 100 films in other languages in India. This was a record which remained unbroken till 1985, when 187 Hindi films were made. Thus from 1931 to 1985, this record remained unbroken for more than 50 years ! Obviously, this resulted in a big compromise on quality to achieve quantity with many films produced half heartedly. Most or rather many films made in 1947 remained obscure, unheard of and many flopped due to poor quality. Actually only few films were released in 1947, because many films were released in 1948 and 1949, with some films being released in Pakistan too.
Did you ever hear about films Amar Asha, Angoorbala, Attention, Barrister, But Tarash, Chalte Chalte, Chandrahas, Dagabaz Dost, Dehati,Ek kadam,Gaurav,Giribala, Heera, Intezar ke baad, Jhalak,Jurmana, Khaufnak aankhen, Lalaat, Mangalsutra, Moti, Sewa gram, Stage girl, Tohfa or Utho jago ? Of course not all films were below standards. Some of the landmark films were also made in 1947, like Shehnai, Mirza Sahiban, Jugnu, Saajan, Naatak, Meera, Elan,Aap ki sewa mein, Dard, Do Bhai, Neel Kamal or Parwana etc. However by and large the picture was like this only.
The heroine of this film, Mridula started her career with the prestigious Bombay Talkies. Her first film as a Heroine was opposite Dilip Kumar- Jwar Bhata-44. She was under contract with Bombay Talkies for 5 years.
Right from 1931 onward the studio system was very common and Actors, Directors and Composers were hired under contract, on monthly pay rolls by the studios. There was a competition among major studios as to who has got more famous stars on their rolls. Studios also had regional inclinations. For example,Prabhat studios had maximum Marathi artistes, Prakash,Sagar and Imperial had mostly Gujaratis, whereas new Theatres in Calcutta and Bombay Talkies in Bombay promoted Bangla artistes. Studios like Pancholi in Lahore or Minerva or Ranjit in Bombay had a cosmopolitan mix. Ranjit had the biggest fleet of more than 300 people on their payrolls at one time ! They even advertised ” There are more stars in Ranjit than there are in the sky” !!!
In general contracts with artistes went off smoothly, but at times, due to the stubbornness of the owners, the careers of some artistes were almost destroyed or were stuck for a long time plunging them into bleak prospects for their future. Notable cases of such sufferers were that of Meena Shorey of Minerva movietone, Shanta Apte, Manju and Chandramohan with Prabhat films/V.Shantaram, Uma Devi with Kardar studios, Sitara Kanpuri with Shalimar films etc.
Among these, the worst case was that of Meena Shorey.
Khursheed Jehan (later Meena Shorey) was a discovery of Sohrab Modi. She was illiterate. He signed a contract with her, telling her that it was for one year and that she can not work anywhere else in this period. Uneducated Meena signed blindly. She worked in 2 films and then the films stopped. She lost many outside offers, like Mehboob Khan for the film Humayun-45 etc, because of her contract. After one year, when she was called to Lahore by Pancholi and was offered 2 films there, she received a legal notice from Sohrab Modi for breach of contract. She went to Bombay to inquire. To her dismay, she found that taking advantage of her illiteracy, Modi had made the contract for 3 years and NOT one year. When she pleaded, he asked for 60000 rupees. Finally she was released when Modi’s wife Mehtab intervened and settled the matter for 30000 rupees.
Chandramohan became a drunkard when V Shantaram did not release him and kept him without work. He died penniless in 1949. Sitara Kanpuri was also cheated by W Z Ahmed of Shalimar films. Kardar destroyed the singing career of Uma Devi because she went to Madras to sing for Chandralekha-48 while under contract but without work for one year.
Similarly Mridula was also a victim of her contract with Bombay Talkies. It destroyed her career as a Heroine forever. Devika Rani was her Mentor in Bombay Talkies. However, after Himanshu Rai’s death, no one was listening to her in the company due to groupism. Disgusted, Devika rani left Bombay Talkies,having sold all the shares. Mridula got stuck in the company without work, due to her 5 year contract. It was Vijay Bhatt of Prakash Pictures who somehow convinced Bombay Talkies to loan her to him and she got roles in 2 of their films. In the film ‘Bhakta Dhruva”-47, she played mother to 16 year old Shashi kapoor (sr) when she herself was about 23 year old only ! But she had no choice. The film and her role became famous, but she lost her chances of becoming Heroine in any film hereafter for ever.
Mridula ( real name Chandrakanta) was born on 2-11-1924 at Almora, but was educated in Delhi. When she was in college doing her graduation, Amiya Chakravarty of Bombay Talkies came to Delhi on a Talent Hunt. He contacted her and gave her an offer. She signed a 5 year contract with Bombay Talkies and Devika Rani became her Mentor, teaching her everything. She was paid 2500 rupees salary with a furnished house. Her first film was “Jwar Bhata”-44, opposite another Debutant Dilip Kumar (Yousuf Khan). After Himanshu Rai’s death, Bombay Talkies was already in disarray. Many people had left the company due to differences with Devika Rai. A group of them formed Filmistan.
She got married to her lover Mr. G C Andley. However the marriage was unsuccessful and she went back to Delhi. She spent a miserable life selling whatever she had to survive. She got divorce and came back to Bombay to work in films, in 1954. She worked in 53 films in all. Her last released film was Saboot-80, though she had married again and retired some time before that.
Till 30-9-2016, she was living in worli, Mumbai all alone. Her only daughter stayed nearby and looked after her.
Film Samaj ko badal dalo-47 was a sort of social reform film, highlighting the ills of mismatched marriages. The story of the film,in short, is like this..
Kishore (Arun) and Manorama (Mridula) are in love with each other but unable to get married. Mridula’s father is a clerk, who can’t afford to pay the dowry demanded by Arun’s family. Jayant (Yakub) is a widower, and Mridula is married off to him. His cruel behaviour becomes apparent when he starts torturing Mridula soon after their marriage.
Arun’s parents get him married to the rich Champa (Leela Pawar) who is in love with someone else. Arun helps her get married to Naresh, the man she loves, by giving her a divorce. Arun watches the torture inflicted on Mridula and the story then continues through tense scenes where eventually Arun kills Jayant and unwittingly Mridula too, following which he’s sent to a mental asylum having been declared insane.
The film, as expected, was a flop film. The only point which made this film to be remembered was that, in his initial career, Mohd. Rafi had appeared on screen in some films, while singing his own lines of a song. In this film also, Rafi sang a few lines of a song ( ae ji mat poochho….) on screen. Some other films where Rafi was on screen were Shahjehan-1946 and Jugnu-1947.
Here is a 78 year old song from this film for you….
Song- Toree oonchee atariya pe aaoon kaise (Samaj Ko Badal Daalo)(1947) Singer- Not known, Lyricist- Not known, MD- Khemchand Prakash
Lyrics
toree oonchee atariya pe aaoon kaise
toree oonchee atariya pe aaoon kaise
dupatta uda jaaye
haaye
haaye
dupatta uda jaaye
jawaanee thhokar khhaaye
main sambhaaloon kaise
toree oonchee atariya pe aaoon kaise
toree oonchee atariya pe aaoon kaise
dupatta uda jaaye
haaye
haaye
dupatta uda jaaye
jawaanee thhokar khhaaye
main sambhaaaloon kaise
haule haule na mose chala jaaye re
haule haule na mose chala jaaye re
?? chaloon kamar bal khaaye re
?? chaloon kamar bal khaaye re
nanadee jaise ??
haaye
haaye
nanadee jaise ??
jawaanee thhokar khhaaye
main sambhaaaloon kaise
toree oonchee atariya pe aaoon kaise
toree oonchee atariya pe aaoon kaise
dupatta uda jaaye
haaye
haaye
dupatta uda jaaye
jawaanee thhokar khhaaye
main sambhaaaloon kaise
diya jalaaoon to dekhe dewariya
diya jalaaoon to dekhe dewariya
kaise andhere mein aaoon sanwariya
kaise andhere mein aaoon sanwariya
mora rah rah jiya ghabraaye re
mora rah rah jiya ghabraaye re
??
haaye
haaye
haaye
??
jawaanee thhokar khhaaye
main sambhaaaloon kaise
toree oonchee atariya pe aaoon kaise
toree oonchee atariya pe aaoon kaise
dupatta uda jaaye
haaye
haaye
dupatta uda jaaye
jawaanee thhokar khhaaye
main sambhaaaloon kaise
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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