[Back to] Albela (1951)

I have just watched the entire movie Albela and I have to say, EVERY song in this movie is a delight!  C. Ramchandra was truly amazing (and that’s not a phrase I overuse – I don’t think…).  I also love most of the lyrics, by Rajendra Krishan.

And by the way, I consider myself particularly lucky to find subtitles for all these lyrics, since Tom Daniel aka Tommydan1 made previously un-subtitled songs available with special translations by Ava.  (I understand that Ava translated as many as eight songs from the 12 in this film.  Which ones?  Don’t tell me, let me guess – I’m sure I’ll get it right.)  Tom and Ava – what a great team we have in our midst now!  Though I also understand that Ava might not be the only person translating songs for Tom…  Well, this Hindi-challenged person is going to be ever-grateful!

But getting back to the movie itself…  I’m not going to bother talking about the plot, because it really is nothing.  You’ve seen this stuff in many Hindi movies already, and the plot development certainly is nothing special to speak of, especially when the villain enters the picture – which leads to a few stretches that got me pushing the fast-forward button.  But in the end, it doesn’t matter, because not only is the music great, not only are the lyrics great, so are the performances.

Bhagwan is one funny guy here!  I don’t always “get” the comedy in old Hindi movies; sometimes it seems to lose something in the translation.  But this guy had me in hysterics a few times.  Plus, he is a very interesting dancer, with some unique steps to his credit (steps that I understand have been oft imitated by none other than Amitabh Bachchan).

And did I say before that I wasn’t a Geeta Bali fan?  Never mind, I’ve changed my mind now – now I get it.  She is very charming in this film, and she obviously was a very good actress.  (Maybe I didn’t realize this fully before because I hadn’t seen many films in which she had a major role.  And it had been a while since I saw Baazi…)

There are also some interesting minor performances here – most notably, the Barsaat “red dupatta” girl, Bimla Kumari, playing a character named Bimla…  And I think all the characters in this film were played fairly well, if only the plot weren’t…well, never mind the plot – just listen to that music!

Earlier, I may have implied that my favorite song in this movie was  either Haseenon Se Mohabbat or Shola Jo Bhadke.  But it could actually be this song (dig that Latin beat!):

Or, it could be this one (so sweet and playful):

Or I might just decide that it’s one of the other eight songs in this movie as I continue to listen to the soundtrack – which I expect I will be doing for a long, long time to come.

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P.S.  [6/1]   Tom has uploaded this special edition of Albela (with all songs subtitled) at MediaFire:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=41fcab9e2fcd01dd570086e6449a7a0f4c9c507a2888265d

(Start with the “instructions” pdf found on the second page of this site, which will take you through the steps involved in putting it all together, etc.)