करम कर मेरे दाता ग़म की बदली दिल पे छाई

“Karam Kar Mere Daata Gham Ki Badali Dil Pe Chhai” is one of the seven songs of Hind Kesari (1935), an action-adventure produced and distributed by Wadia Movietone and directed by Homi Wadia. The film — a remake of the 1932 Hind Kesari (Jayant Pictures, dir. Homi Master) — follows Prince Randhir, who becomes a masked outlaw to defeat the usurping minister Zalim Singh, aided by Princess Hansa (Husn Banu). The music is by Master Mohammed, a composer-actor favoured by the Wadia brothers, and the lyrics are by Joseph David. The title is a supplication to the divine for mercy in a time of grief.

Master Mohammed composed the music for Hind Kesari (1935), one of several Wadia Movietone productions in which he worked as both music director and cast member. “Karam Kar Mere Daata” is shaped as a prayerful, devotional plea, a register Master Mohammed used effectively in the early sound era.

The lyrics were written by Joseph David, a leading writer of the early Wadia Movietone era. The verse addresses the divine as “daata” (giver/provider), asking for grace while a “cloud of sorrow” (gham ki badali) hangs over the heart — devotional imagery characteristic of the prayer songs of 1930s Hindi cinema.

Within Hind Kesari's stunt-driven plot of usurpation and a masked avenger, a devotional plea like this offers an emotional, reflective beat amid the action — an interlude in keeping with Wadia Movietone's mid-1930s adventure films.

Hind Kesari was a box-office success that strengthened Wadia Movietone's reputation in action and stunt cinema. As with most films of this period, the original recordings survive only in fragmentary form and the playback singers were never separately credited; the song remains a documented part of the studio's early sound-era catalogue.