He wrote over 800 songs in his career spanning four decades and was regarded as one of the top lyricist in the 1940s earning himself the soubriquet "Mahakavi Madhok".
He directed almost 17 films like Baghdad Ka Chor (1934), Mirza Sahiban (1939), Biwamangal (1954) and the Madhubala-starrer Naata (1955).
Dina Nath Madhok was born on 22 October 1902 in Gujranwala, British India (present day Pakistan) in a middle-class family.
He wrote lyrics for popular songs in the 1940s and 1950s for films such as Nadi Kinare (1939), Musafir (1940), Pagal (1940), Ummeed (1941), Bansari (1943), Nurse (1943), Bela (1947), Bhakt Surdas (1942), and Tansen (1943).
[1] He appointed Naushad as an assistant music director in his directorial venture, a Punjabi film Mirza Sahiban (1939).
Some other notable soundtracks, that he contributed to as a lyricist are Lagan (1938), Pyaas (1941), Zameendaar (1942), Zabaan (1943), Daasi (1944), Preet, Dhamaki (1945), Anjuman, Kaajal (1948), Sunhere Din (1949), Khiladi, Anmol Ratan (1950), Rasiya (1950), Goonj (1952), Dard-e-Dil (1953), Majboori (1954), Oot Patang (1955), Makkhichoos (1956), Maharani Padmini (1964), Tasveer (1966) Samay Bada Balwan (1969).
[5] He worked with almost every prominent music director of the forties and fifties such as Gyan Dutt, N. R. Bhattacharya, Khemchand Prakash, S. N. Tripathi, Bulo C Rani, Naushad, Khurshid Anwar, Pandit Amarnath, Sardul Kwatra, Anil Biswas, R. C. Boral, Robin Chatterjee, Sunder Das, Rasheed Attre, C. Ramchandra, Sajjad Hussain, Ghulam Haider, Vinod, Gobind Ram, Husnlal Bhagatram, A. R. Qureshi, Roshan, Sardar Malik, Ghulam Mohammad, and Hansraj Behl.