Raam jisey taarey to kaun usey maarey
Posted by: Atul on: November 10, 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.
|
Blog Day : |
6324 | Post No. : | 19584 |
Today’s song is from a Religious film- Sant Tukaram-1965.
The period 1961 to 1980 is called the “Golden period” of Indian Cinema, because the way films were made was very close to people’s sentiments, aspirations and lifestyles. Such Closeness never came again. The Indian film industry gave a tough fight to Hollywood in techniques and made meaningful films which the world appreciated. By this time, the Indians migrating to foreign countries increased manifolds and they helped spread the popularity of Indian Cinema.
This was the period when colour film making increased manifolds, but the spread was very slow. In 1960 only 3 colour films were made and in 1961 only 7 films. The number crossed the 10’s mark only in 1965.
Indians knew only one foreign language – English, so films made in Hollywood and Britain only provided inspiration to make films. However the “New Wave” or “Parallel Cinema” was born in Italy and rapidly spread all over the world. India was not an exception. Italian, French and Japanese films were leaders in this type of film. Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak had started this type of films in the 1950’s itself, but Hindi films followed them after the Italian influence only.
The Government established the Film Finance Corporation in 1960. While the interest rates prevailing then were 30-40 % annually, FFC provided finance at only 6-8 % ony. Of Course initially, only the well established filmmakers got this loan.
Old artistes were on the brink of being eclipsed so new actors, comedians, Heroines, Villains and dancers came up. In the 1960’s, only 5 old ones – V.Shantaram, Mehboob, Bimal Roay, Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor kept up their relevance. Artistes from the South like Vyjayanti mala, Shri devi, Waheeda, Rekha, Jayaprada, from Bengal Sharmila Tagore, Jaya Bhaduri, Maushumi Chaterjee etc and Heroes from Punjab gave the industry a true Indian identity.
Story writing became important. The number of songs was reduced. Less Urdu and more Hindi was now used in songs and dialogues. In 1965, Audio tapes became the ‘in’ thing, pushing back the records and the gramophone.
The Magazine ‘Chitra’ started in 1963, Suchitra changed its name to ‘Madhuri’. In 1989 Madhuri merged with the Hindi Filmfare- which stopped publication in 1993. The English version continued. Star Dust, Star and Style etc started.
In 1965 film ‘Asman mahal’ was notable. Fully shot in Hyderabad, it showed the conflict of old and new generation thinking pattern. Same theme came in film ‘Oonche Log ‘, based on Tamil drama Major Chandrakant. Film Shaheed had good songs. ‘ Chhoti Chhoti Baatein ‘ of actor MKotilal in his last days was appreciated after his death.
Some other good and successful films were – Guide, Waqt, Aarzoo, Jab Jab Phool Khile, Himalay ki god mein, Khandaan, Kaajal, Jaanwar, Gumnaam etc. Ne Delhi arranged the III International Film Festival, with 39 films from 30 countries.
Geeta Bali’s tragic death and Motilal’s lonely death touched everyon’s hearts. There was no one at Motilal’s funeral. His friend Nadira arranged his funeral pyre with her hands and gave ‘Agni’.
In this scenario, Religious films were on the wane. Only 9 such films were released in 1965.
Shri Tukaram peacefully proceeded to board Garuda. The huge celestial bird flew to the spiritual sky, leaving behind a scene of hundreds of weeping and grieving devotees. He left this material world in his own body, singing the holy names of the Lord, just as Dhruva Maharaj had done in a previous age. (Thanks to exploremaharashtra.com)
Sant Tukaram’s story has always attracted film producers. There were films on Tukaram in 1931,1936,1948 and 1965. Out of these the film made in 1936,by Prabhat was remade in Hindi,Tamil and Telugu also. This film was sent to the International Film Festival at Venice,in 1937 where it won a Gold medal and was declared as one of the 4 best films of the world. This film ran 75 weeks (Marathi version) in Calcutta. This film is routinely shown in almost every film festival and is included in the curriculum of FTII for its courses.
The film Sant Tukaram-36 was directed by Damle and Fatehlal,and the music was by keshavrao Bhole. The role of Tukaram was done by Debutant Vishnupant Pagnis,who not only won accolades for his work,but also acted in 7 religious films after this.
SANT TUKARAM-1965 was made by Ashok Films,Bombay, directed by Rajesh Nanda and the MD was Vedpal,for lyrics by Bharat Vyas and Madhukar Rajasthani. There were 8 songs in the film and one song by Manna dey-Pehle beej akela- is already discussed on this Blog. The cast was Shahu Modak, Anita Guha, B M Vyas, Badriprasad Helen etc.
The story was-
About three centuries ago, Tukaram was born in Dehu Gaon. He was a sudra and had poor village folk take goods from his shop and asked them to pay when they could afford. Mumbaji, the Pujari of the Ganesh Temple held a permanent grudge against him. He instigated another grocer of the village to set fire to Tukaram’s shop. As if all these calamities were not enough, one more was added to his lot in the form of famine. Tukarams old mother, his first wife and son died of starvation.
Thukaram became detached from the world and spent his whole time in worship. He developed extraordinary powers. He even gave life to a dead child. But all this didn’t offer bread to his family. His surviving wife, Jeeja Bai implored him to seek some profession. The landlord offered him the job as the watch-man in his fields. Mumbaji drove cattle in the fields in order to destroy the crop. By the grace of Lord Krishna, the yield was doubled and the landlord gave Tukaram a place for worship of the Lord.
Now Mumbaji asked Rambha, a Nautch girl to spoil his reputation by enticing Tukaram with her fake love. Rambha failed. As a last resort he invited Rameshwar Bhatt, the religious head to Dehu Gaon. Rameshwar Bhatt ordered Tukaram to stop writing abhang since he was born a shudra and ordered him to throw his `Gatha (Collection of Abhangs) in the Indrayani river. He did so but took a vow that he will fast unto death till his Gatha was restored to him by the Deity of the river. This miracle happened after two weeks of ordeal.
Shivaji Maharaj came to meet him. He offered money and gold to Tukaram but he humbly declined to accept it. Shivaji that evening joined his keertan. Mumbaji informed the Moghuls to capture Shivaji. The Mughal Army found a thousand Shivajis and they returned flabbergasted. After this incident he peacefully wrote more abhangs. Mumbaji turned a leper and the village children pelted stones on him. Rameshwar Bhatt’s body felt burning sensation and even long submerging of the body in water could not heal him. At last Tukaram received the message of the Lord to go to Heaven. The village folk thronged the streets for his Darshan. Even Mumbaji and Rameshwar Bhatt came to ask his forgiveness. They were cured of their maladies. The celestial Viman descended from the sky before the entire gathering of the village and he went to heaven bodily.
The name of Ved Pal, the Music Director of this film may not be familiar to many readers. Here is some information about him….
NIRMA,NIRMA
Washing powder Nirma
Doodh ki safedi,Nirma se aayi
Rangeen kapde bhi khil khil jaaye,
Sabki pasand NIRMA
washing powder NIRMA
Those who were old enough to see TV and listen to Radio in the late 80s and 90s can not forget this catchy jingle, played repeatedly and which was sung by every child in the homes, along with jingle on the TV !
This and 300 other similarly popular jingles ( Vicco, Paan parag, Frooti, Rasna etc) were made by Vedpal Varma, the Music Director of film Sant Tukaram-1965. But that was when he had stopped getting films or rather when the industry had forgotten this talented composer, who could never cross the B grade movie barrier. He made jingles, gave music to documentaries and stage dramas and even wrote lyrics in B grade films, like Maa Behan aur Biwi, Aayi phir se bahaar, Sunehri nagin, Bacchhe mere saathi, Hum junglee hain and Wafaadaar only to survive somehow.
Vedpal Varma was born in an Arya Samaj family in Sirsa (Haryana). After getting regular training in music, he joined AIR (before that he worked as a mechanic also). Lyricist Madhukar Rajasthani brought him to Bombay to become a singer. After an unsuccessful struggle to become a singer, Lyricist Ramesh Shastry recommended him to producer Radheshyam Jhunjhunwala and he became a joint Music Director (with Sailesh Mukherjee) for film Parichay-54. He gave music in a dubbed(from Tamil) film, ‘Aayi phir se bahar’ but the film got stranded and got released in the 70s. His other film “Saarang” was not released at all. He gave music in a Bangla film ‘Sorry Madam’ and a Punjabi film ‘Chhoriyan di toli’.
His other films were, Bholanath-63, Sant Tukaram-65, Gunehgaar-67, Maya Sundari-67, Bhima mera Haathi-73, Hum Junglee hain-73, Kore Badan-74, Vafaadar-76, O Bewafaa-80, Zakhmi Dil-84, Sautan ki Beti-88, Mera pati meri zindagi-93 and Piya ka ghar-97. His film Maalik-1954 remained unreleased.
During his career, even Ravindra Jain acted as his assistant in his early stages. Most of the existing and new singers were used by Vedpal. He also made some NFS records with HMV. But all in all, Vedpal Varma remained an unsuccessful composer. He used to live alone in an one room tenement on the third floor of Prasad Shopping Centre, Goregaon west, Bombay, where he breathed his last on 19-12-1996 and one more name quietly disappeared from the music field !
Here is a song by Manna Dey and chorus. Enjoy….
Song- Ram jise taarey to kaun usey maarey (Sant Tukaram)(1965) Singer- Manna Dey, Lyricist-Bharat Vyas, MD-Ved Pal Verma
Chorus
Lyrics
bairee baney chaahey jagwaale saare
Raam jisey taarey ko kaun usey maarey
bairee bane chaahe jagwaale saare
Raam jise taarey ko kaun usey maarey
ho Raam jise taarey ko kaun usey maarey
Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang
Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang
na koi chhota yahaan
na koi bada yahaan
na koi chhota yahaan
na koi bada yahaan
na koi ooncha yahaan
na koi neecha yahaan
ho na koi neecha yahaan
haan bhed na koi jaane
sab ko baraabar maane
bhed na koi jaane
sab ko baraabar maane
wo to hai sabka pitaa
maane koi ya na maane
ho maane koi ya na maane
pandit ho ya koi moorakh ho pyaare
Raam jise taare to kaun usey maarey
ho Raam jise taare to kaun usey maarey
Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang
Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang
chaahe ghir aaye ghata
chaahe toofaan ho utthaa
chaahe ghir aaye ghata
chaahe toofaan ho utthaa
usey jab yaad kiyaa
dukh sab deta mitaa
ho dukh sab deta mitaa
haan chaahe mushqil ho badee
laakh vipda ho khadee
chaahe mushqil ho badee
laakh vipda ho khadee
pal mein door karey
us kee jo nazar padee
o us kee jo nazar padee
bhar dee hai jholee
jo bhee gaya dwaare
Raam jise taare to kaun usey maarey
ho Raam jise taare to kaun usey maarey
Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang
Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang Pandurang
Share this:
- Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
- Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
- Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
- Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
- Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
Leave a comment