Do rangee duniya se hum door
Posted on: April 10, 2026
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 social film Sasural-1941.
The film was made by Ranjit Movietone, Bombay and it was directed by Chaturbhuj Doshi. Gyan Dutt, the residential MD of Ranjit had composed 13 songs for the film, written by D.N.Madhok. The cast of the film consisted of Madhuri (real name Beryl Classen), Motilal, Kantilal, Tarabai, Urmila, Noorjehan Sr. (real name Zebunnisa) and many others.
In yesterday’s post on the film Dhandora-1941, I talked about actor E.Billimoria, who came into films due to a mistaken identity and by accident. In today’s film too, the hero Motilal is an actor who came into films by accident. Here is his story….
Born in Shimla on 4 December 1910, Motilal Rajwansh came from a distinguished family. His father was a renowned educationist, who died when Motilal was one year old. He was brought up by his uncle who was a well-known civil surgeon in Uttar Pradesh. At first, Moti was sent to an English school at Shimla and later, in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Thereafter, he shifted to Delhi where he continued with school and college.
After leaving college, Motilal came to Bombay to join the Navy, but he fell ill and could not appear for the test. Fate had other choices charted out for him. One day, he went to see a film shoot at Sagar Studios, where director K. P. Ghosh was shooting. Motilal, even then, was quite the man about the town and he caught Ghosh’s eye. Motilal described this event in his inimitable style,in one of his interviews….” The director Ghosh Babu looked towards me and said,” please come here”. I first thought he was calling someone standing behind me. I looked back and moved to one side. Nobody came forward, but Ghosh Babu came to me and pointed his finger at me and said, ” Yes, I am talking to you. Please come here” I went with him .” In 1934 (aged 24), he was offered the hero’s role in Shaher Ka Jadoo -1934 by the Sagar Film Company. Sabita Devi and Motilal’s first movie as a pair in the famous Sagar Movietone, the movie Lure of the City (aka Shaher ka Jadoo) released on 29 th September 1934 at the Imperial Cinema, Bombay.Mehboob Khan was earlier selected for the lead role and was later replaced by Motilal. This was actor Motilal’s debut film and Motilal – Sabita made the best pair in the Sagar Film Company. They acted together in many other movies under the banner of the Sagar like, Silver King -1935, Dr Madhurika -1935, Lagna Bandhan -1936, Jeevan Lata -1939, Kulvadhu -1937, Kokila -1937, Three hundred days and after -1938 and later at Sudama Films in Ap Ki Marzi -1939 and Minerva’s Prarthana -1944. He worked with Mehboob Khan in Jagirdar -1937 and Hum Tum Aur Woh -1938 under the Sagar Movietone banner, in Taqdeer -1943 for Mehboob Productions, and Kidar Sharma’s Armaan -1942 and Kaliyan -1944. He also acted in S. S. Vasan’s film Paigham -1959 (Gemini Studios), and Raj Kapoor’s Jagte Raho -1956. In 1965, he also acted in the Bhojpuri film Solaho Singar Kare Dulhaniya.
Perhaps the role for which he received the most critical appreciation was that of the gentleman crook in S. S. Vasan’s adaptation of R K Narayan’s book Mr Sampat -1952. He is most remembered for his role as “Chunni Babu” in Bimal Roy’s Devdas -1955, for which he won his first Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. Actor Naseeruddin Shah once described him as one of three all-time best actors of Hindi cinema, others being Balraj Sahni and Yakub.
Motilal was very suave and polished, and moved in high society, though towards the end of his life he was in financial difficulty. Although a thorough gentleman, he enjoyed gambling and races, and died almost penniless on 17th June 1965.
Motilal was an excellent Pilot and owned a small aircraft. He rarely travelled by train and always liked to fly. His family life was happy. His wife was a doctor.
He was in a relationship for several years with the actress Nadira. He was later involved with actress Shobhna Samarth after she separated from her husband, and he played Samarth’s real-life daughter Nutan’s father in Hamari Beti, Shobhana’s launch movie for Nutan. He also played her guardian in Anari, though this time the role had a villainous touch to it.
Motilal and Ashok Kumar were popular stars at the same time. Ashok Kumar was employed by Bombay Talkies and Motilal was employed by Ranjit. It is said that Sardar Chandulal paid Rs. One lakh to Motilal in those days. Motilal was a gambler. Once Chandulal Shah paid his debt of 75000 rupees which Motilal had lost in gambling, just to keep Motilal with Ranjit ! It is surprising that Ashok Kumar never worked with Motilal’s Heroines-Shobhana Samarth or Khursheed and Motilal never worked with Ashok Kumar’s heroines- Devika Rani or Leela Chitnis !
Actor Chandra Mohan treated Motilal as his son. During the last days of Chandra mohan, once Motilal had gone to meet him. Chandra Mohan was drinking from a costly foreign Whisky bottle, but he did not offer it to Motilal. Motilal was feeling bad and then Chandra Mohan said, ” I know you must be feeling bad that I am not offering you this Whisky, but trust me it is not whisky- I am drinking Bewada (country liquor) from this bottle and I don’t want my son to drink this dirty stuff ! ”
Motilal was the winner of Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for Devdas -1955 and Parakh -1960. He is credited with being among Hindi cinema’s first natural actors.
He also directed the film Chhoti Chhoti Baatein -1965, but died before its release. At the 13th National Film Awards, it won the award for Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film and he posthumously won the Certificate of Merit for the Best Story Writer. ( adapted from some information from Vithal Pandya’s book-Asli Nakli Chehere, wiki, Star portraits, nett4you, the book Sagar Movietone, and Shirish Kanekar’s book- Yaadon ki Baaraat, with thanks and my notes.)
Like Motilal and E. Billimoria, I remember offhand 2 more famous actors who joined films unplanned by them and to whom the Hero’s roles were offered on platter. One was Ashok Kumar and the other was actor Ranjan (Ramnarayan Sarma), who was picked up for a film, while he was standing in a bus queue !
The film’s Heroine was Madhuri- an Anglo-Indian girl who started her career from the Silent films. I liked Madhuri very much. Not because she was beautiful , but because of her strong character. As an Anglo-Indian her Hindi was not good at all and so when the Talkie started, she found it difficult to get roles in talkie films. She stopped working in silent films after the film ‘ My Hero’-1932, took a holiday for a year and learnt Hindi language and singing to perfection in just one year. Her first Talkie film ‘ Pardesi preetam’ came at the end of 1933. What an effort !
She worked in 28 Talkie films from 1933 to 1942. In 1941,Madhuri got married and after completing films on hand, retired from Film line, for some time. After her second stint, she simply disappeared for next 50 years without a trace,till the organisers of a programme located her. Bombay’s ” Amrut” and ” Cine Society of Bombay ” held a felicitation programme on 7-2-1999, for “Stars from the Silent Era”. For Madhuri it was a surprise that the organisers found her out after living in oblivion for over 50 years. She was simply overwhelmed with the people’s affection and love.
Place- Shanmukhanand Hall,Mumbai
Date 7-2-1999
Time- 7 p.m.
Programme- Felicitation to ‘ Stars from the Silent Era’
Organisers- ” Amrut” and ” Cine Society of Bombay ”
The entire hall was overcrowded. Not only all the seats were occupied,but people were standing wherever possible. Everybody wanted to see the Two STARS on the stage-Jairaj and Madhuri. Both were in their late 80s,but looked radiant and smiling. For Madhuri it was a surprise that the organisers found her out after living in oblivion for over 50 years. She was simply overwhelmed with the people’s affection and love. For Jairaj,these things were not new. He has been around all the time.
Madhuri and Jairaj were a Popular pair in Silent film era. They worked as a lead pair in 3 films,one each in 1930-Rasili Rani,1931-Warrior from the wild and 1932-My Hero. They came together after almost 70 years,on this stage. She and Jairaj were felicitated on that day.
Like many others,Madhuri too was an Anglo Indian. Her name was Beryl Claessen. She was born on 3-11-1913 at Delhi. Her father was a big officer in the Government. Her initial schooling took place in Nainital. She learnt music too,because she wanted to become a Music Teacher. However, she never became,but on a visit to Bombay she was picked up by producer Indulal Yagnik and she started acting in silent films.
Many Heroines in those days were Anglo-Indians,Europeans or Jew girls. Since silent films did not require speaking Hindi or Urdu ( or any language,for that matter),these girls were preferred,as the Indian audience loved their fair colour (Gori Mem). Additionally,these girls did not hesitate to give intimate scenes like kissing or doing stunts themselves. Most girls knew Horse riding,fencing and fighting.
In 1928, there was a Silent film Madhuri,but actress Sulochana(Ruby Myers) did this role and in 1932 there was a Talkie film Madhuri,in which also Sulochana only did the role. When the Talkie films era began most of the Anglo Indian girls became jobless,since they could not speak Hindi/Urdu nor could they sing a song-the two requirements for actresses in early era Talkie films. However,few intelligent and professional actresses learnt Hindi/Urdu language speaking. Madhuri and Sabita Devi (Irene Gasper) were two such clever girls who achieved proficiency in these matters.
Madhuri was very beautiful. After doing 17 silent films,she made her debut in Talkie films with ‘ Pardesi Preetam’-1933. Jaswantlal Nandlal directed his first film here. Her Hero was Raja Sandow. She did many films for Ranjit under the direction of Jayant Desai. From 1933 to 1945,she acted in 45 films. They were (not in order) Kashmeera, Mitti ka Putla, Noor e watan, Secretary, Lehri lala, Rangeela Raja, Sitamgarh, Prithvi putra, Thokar, Raj Ramni, Diwali, Matlabi Duniya, Toofani Toli, Shama parwana, College Girl, Nadira, Veer Babruvahan, Zamin ka chaand, Ban ki chidia, Toofan Mail, Mehman, Sasural, Shadi, Ikrar, Vakil Saheb, Paapi, Mazaq and Dharm-45, etc.
Films with the same title, Sasural, were made in 1941, 1961 and 1984. This was a romantic comedy film involving a mistaken identity. Now, can you recall how many films have you seen about mistaken identity (with or without knowledge) ?. Mostly, such stories are based on ‘Look alikes’, like films Don, Chandralekha, Angoor, Chacha Chaudhary, Do dooni chaar, Milan(46) etc. Some films were, where the identity of the Hero was mistaken intentionally. Today’s film Sasural-1941 falls under this category. This same theme was repeated in films Panghat-1943 and Chitchor-1976.
The review of the film Sasural-1941 was published in FILM INDIA issue of December-1941.
“The marriage of Vinod (Motilal) and Usha (Madhuri) is fixed, But Usha has not seen her would-be-husband. A mix-up of suitors happens when a fat servant (Kantilal) impersonates Usha’s would-be-husband. The detailed story is not revealed in the review probably to avoid the ‘suspense in the comedy of errors’. It is only towards the end of the film when the impersonation of suitors gets revealed while on a forest trail when Usha falls in the arms of Vinod and the fat servant (Kantilal) gets the maid (Nur Jahan Sr,) as the original suitors.”
Here is today’s rare song from this film. It was provided to me by Shri Abhay Jain ji, USA, and it was uploaded by our Sadanand Kamath ji. Thanks to both. The duet is sung by Noorjehan Sr. (real name Zebunnisa) and Kantilal. A lot has been already written on Noorjehan Sr. on this Blog as well as in my books, so I am not repeating it here. Enjoy this good song….
Song- Do rangee duniya se hum door (Sasuraal)(1941) Singers- Noorjahan Sr.,Kantilal,Lyricist- D.N.Madhok, MD- Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
door door
Do rangee duniya se hum door
door door door
Do rangee duniya se hum door
yahaan na dhanwaanon ka dhan hai
yahaan na nirdhan kee aahen
yahaan na dhanwaanon ka dhan hai
yahaan na nirdhan kee aahen
yahaan na man kee tadpan hai
yahaan na khud kee ?? hai
yahaan na man kee tadpan hai
yahaan na khud kee ?? hai
apnee mastee mein hain sab choor
apnee mastee mein hain sab choor
Do rangee duniya se hum door
door door door
Do rangee duniya se hum door
door door door
Do rangee duniya se hum door
bas jaayen hum kisee thhikaane
bhool jaaye sab ?? kee baaten
bas jaayen hum kisee thhikaane
bhool jaaye sab ?? kee baaten
palkon ke khulne mundne mein
din aaye jaayen raaten
palkon ke khulne mundne mein
din aaye jaayen raaten
paaye
aaye is ??
aaye is ??
do rangee duniya se hum door
door door door
do rangee duniya se hum door
door door door
Do rangee duniya se hum door
door door door
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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