Ye kaisa hai dharm tumhaara
Posted by: Atul on: October 31, 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 a very obscure film- Aage Kadam-1943.
The film made by Acharya Art productions, Bombay was so obscure that despite having leading and popular stars of those times, the film not only flopped, but no traces of it are available now.We do not know about its story, though from its sings it looks like a Love story with twists But then this is only our guess.
The film was directed by N.R.Acharya. Songs were written by Kailash Matwala- a name not known to many people because he wrote songs for films which were not popular, like Uljhan-1942, Aadab Arz-1943, Aage Kadam-1943, Vijay laxmi-1943, Mujrim-1944 etc. He was the elder brother of the famous actor On Shivpuri. he was from Jodhpur. He had acted and sung in some equally obscure films. At a very young age, he was afflicted with mental illness at 22 years. He died on 2-11-1994.
The music was by two Music Directors. Why, we do not know. One was the old stalwart in his waning career – Madholal master and the other one (Dr.) Ramchandra Pal, who was once with Bombay Talkies. Music Director Ramchandra Pal, born in 1909 was actually a medical Doctor, who entered this profession in various capacities. As an actor he did 3 films – ‘Manmohan’ (1936), ‘Deccan Queen’ (1936) and ‘Aazad’ (1940). He produced and directed a film ‘Raj Nandini’ (1962), made under his own banner – Pal Films. However, this film was never released.
He started his music career with Tamil films, ‘Bilwamangal’ (1932) and ‘Sarangdhara’ (1935). He shifted to Calcutta and gave music to Bangla films, ‘Rajani’ (1936) and ‘Indira’ (1936). His first Hindi film was ‘Prem Sagar’ (1939), a film made in the south by a Bombay film company. This he confirmed in the interview given to Harmandir ji (LB-69).
He was connected as MD with Bombay Talkies films ‘Kangan’ (1939), ‘Punarmilan’ (1940), ‘Bandhan’ (1940), ‘Aazad’ (1940) and ‘Naya Sansar’ (1941). His last film as MD was ‘Raj Nandini’ of 1962. In all he gave music to 20 films. He also sang 15 songs in 7 films. After 1942 he left singing and after 62 he left the film industry and started his private medical clinic in Shivaji Park, Dadar, Bombay. He practiced till his death on 21-1-1993.
The other MD was Madholal Master. The name Madholal Master must be unknown to the newer crop of Music lovers, because he retired from film music in 1952- much before most readers were even born. The story of Madhulal Master is as strange as his death. On the morning of 19th June 1990, The Times of India, Bombay flashed a news…” The old time Music Director and a Director of Indian Institute of Puppetry, Shri Madholal Damodar Master is found murdered in his Shivaji Park home.”
Born on 21-6-1903, Madholal joined the film industry to become a Comedian, but he was first made a sound recordist assistant, then an assistant MD for two films and finally independent MD for Krishna Tone Film Company for their film, ‘ Navchetan’-32. In the next 21 years he gave music to 34 Hindi films, few Gujarati films and some documentaries, composing 267 Hindi songs. Unable to cope up with the changed pattern of Music and public taste, he retired from this profession after his last film- Jungle ka Jawahir-52. After this he pursued his hobby of Puppet making and soon developed a flourishing business. Internationally well known, he was the only Indian member honoured by the International Puppetiers’ Organization. Very few people know that it was his JOKER PUPPET which was used by Raj Kapoor in his ambitious film MERA NAAM JOKER-1970.
He was invited as a special guest for the release ceremony for the HFGK-Vol I, on 8-10-1988, after Harmandir ji meticulously made special efforts to locate him in Bombay. He was overwhelmed with this gesture. Madholal ji showed a Catalogue to Harmandir ji, in which Madholal ji had recorded information about all songs composed by him with details of every film that he did in his career. Harmandir ji was struck with his systematic records. In the ceremony, senior artistes like Naushad, Sitara Devi, Rajkumari ji etc all touched his feet with respect. He regaled the audience with his humorous talk for an hour. He had spent 38 years before this in anonymity. It is very sad that his life ended in such a tragic way. ( His daughter from the USA, informed us recently that the murderer was apprehended, after a year.)
From the songs of this film, one can conclude that the Love story was set in a patriotic atmosphere. Of course, being British times, such films had to be careful, lest their raw material quota of Raw Film would get into trouble, during wartime controls. Further, the tablet of patriotism has to be sugar coated, so as not to get into legal tangles like perhaps “Kismet” of Bombay Talkies !
Among the wartime films, from 1939 to 1945, I feel that the year 1943 was quite significant as many musical, noteworthy and successful films came up during this year. Taking a look at the films of 1943, we find that a total of 105 Hindi films were made in this year. For the 7 year period of 39 to 45, this was the highest number – the lowest being 1945 with just 74 films.
Films like Aabroo, Bhakta Raj, Hamaari baat, Hospital, Hunterwali ki beti, Ishara, Kanoon, Kashinath, Kismet, Mahatma Vidur, Manchali, Mazaq, Nadaan, Nagad Narayan (a remake of Marathi film-‘ पैसा बोलतो आहे ), Nai Kahani (one of the best songs of Hindi film history-” neend hamari, khwaab tumhare ” was from this film), Najma (first film of Mehboob productions), Namaste, Pagli, Panghat (film Chitchor-76 had the same story), Paapi, Paraya Dhan (The only song by Deena Sanghvi Pathak), Poonji, Prithvi Vallabh (debut in a Bombay film by Meena Shorey), Ram Rajya (super duper Hit film), Sanjog (Suraiya’s playback to Mehtab), Shahenshah Akbar, Shakuntala (First film of Rajkamal Kalamandir of V Shantaram), Tansen (last film of Nagendra Majumdar-father of Ninu Majumdar,MD), Vishwas, Wapas, and Zamin (debut of Khurshid Jr.), made 1943 an year full of content, Music, Acting and entertainment.
Amongst these films, a movie like Aagey kadam-43 was nowhere to be noticed or remembered. The film was made by Acharya Art Production, owned by its director, N R Acharya.
This is what the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema says about Acharya….N R Acharya,Hindi director (1909-1993) born in Karachi. Was a government contractor when he joined East India film Company in Calcutta (1934). Later worked as production manager at Bombay Talkies, where he directed the first examples of S. Mukherjee’s new regime, e.g. Bandhan and the Abbas script Naya Sansar. Became producer with KISHORE SAHU’s Kunwara Baap (1942). Continued producing under the Acharya Arts Prod. banner until 1950. Also made Gujarati films, e.g. Lagna Mandap.FILMOGRAPHY-1940: Bandhan; Azad; 1941: Naya Sansar; 1942: Uljhan; 1943: Aage Kadam; 1949: Parivartan; Shohrat (with K. Amarnath); 1950: Lagna Mandap; 1956: Dhola Maru.
The cast of the film included Motilal, Anjali devi, Mubarak, Rajkumari Shukla, leela pawar, Narmada Shankar and others. The heroine was Anjali Devi. The name Anjali Devi, which appears in the cast in the films of the 40’s, is not of the famous south actress Anjali Devi ( 8-12-1927 to 13-1-2014 ), who acted in films like Ek tha Raja-51( dubbed film), Shuk Rambha-53,Ladki-53, Devta-56, Suvarn Sundari-57 etc etc. This Anjali Devi of the 40s was different. As usual, I find that the filmography of south Anjalidevi includes films done by Anjali Devi of the 40s. This is what I call Same Name Confusion.
Miss Anjali Devi’s real name was Durgesh Kumari. She was born at Benaras in 1926 in a respectable Brahmin family. Her education was not much but she was fluent in Hindi, Urdu, English and Sanskrit. At the age of 14 years, she came to Bombay, to fulfil her desire of becoming an actress.
She joined Ranjit Films and worked in film Pardesi in the year 1940. The film was released in 1941. She was credited as Durgesh in this film. She was called to Bombay Talkies to work in the film ‘ unarmilan’-40, directed by Najam Naqvi. When a section of artistes, led by S.Mukherjee, left Bombay Talkies to start Filmistan in 42, one of the BT directors N.C.Acharya also left and started his own company Acharya Art Productions. Anjali Devi also left to join Acharya.
She acted in 3 films of Acharya, Kunwara Baap-42, Uljhan-42 and Aage Kadam-43. She later on acted in Paristan-44, and Parivartan-49. She then got married to N.C.Acharya and settled as a Housewife.
Here is a song from this film, sung by Anjali devi. Enjoy….
Song- Yeh kaisa hai dharm tumhaara (Aage Kadam)(1943) Singer- Anjali Devi, Lyricist- Kailash Matwala, MD- Madholal Damodar Master
Lyrics
Yeh kaisa hai ae ae dharm tumhaaara
Yeh kaisa abhimaan
Yeh kaisa abhimaan
Yeh kaisa hai dharm tumhaara
yeh kaisa imaan
yeh kaisa imaan
Yeh kaisa hai dharm tumhaara
yeh kaisa imaan
yeh kaisa imaan
khoon gareebon ka le kar
holee
khoon gareebon ka le kar
holee khele Bhagwan
Yeh kaisa hai dharm tumhaara
ye kaisa imaan
ye kaisa imaan
isee gareebon kee dhartee par
bade huye dhanwan
isee gareebon kee dhartee par
bade huye dhanwan
khade kiye ye mandir masjid
girje aaleeshaan
girje aaleeshaan
khade kiye ye mandir masjid
Girje aalishaan
Girje aalishaan
khilaa khilaa kar khoon kee holee
khilaa khilaa kar khoon kee holee
inhen kiye balwaan
aaj usee par jata rahe hain
apnee khud kee shaan
apnee khud kee shaan
aaj usee par jata rahe hain
apnee khud kee shaan
apnee khud kee shaan
Yeh kaisa hai dharm tumhaara
ye kaisa imaan
ye kaisa imaan
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