Albela (1951)

Albela was one of those rags to riches story that is at once sweet and endearing. Comedian Bhagwan, besides acting in the movie in the title role, wrote the story, screenplay, and directed the movie. Music was by C. Ramchandra. Bhagwan was the first one to recognize the musical talent of C. Ramchandra and offered him to provide music for his film "Sukhi Jeevan (1942)." C. Ramchandra at this point in his life was heavily influenced by the Western Jazz music. His favorite Jazz musician was Benny Goodman. Some songs in "Albela," such as "Deewaana Parwaana" and "Shola Jo Bhadke" had a mixture of many western musical instruments such as trumpets, clarinets, saxophones, drums (bong), and others. These songs, and most of the songs of "Albela" overflow with gaiety and exuberance. It is like an unending one continuous celebration. Even after 60 years, they sound fresh, proving that beautiful music stays young forever. Songs were penned by Ramchandra's favorite, Rajinder Krishan.

This movie became a huge hit and the actor Bhagwan became a very rich man. But alas. He followed this with series of movies most of which were complete misses. After squandering away his wealth, he found himself penniless. His was the story of rags to riches to rags again.

I will upload these songs from this album in three back-to-back posts. The first two posts contain songs from an original soundtrack album. The third post contains several extended version songs.

Here are the songs in the first post...

Here is a description of the songs in the first post and the songs themselves ...

Continuing Songs from "Albela (1951)"...

Here are the rest of the songs from this swingingly engaging album...

Concluding Songs from "Albela (1951)"...

Here are several extended version songs from this fine album...

Thank you! This album is just amazing... it stands apart from everything else that came around at that time in its sheer uniqueness.

Thank YOU very much SWARAPRIYA Ji


Specially for the quality of the long version of BHOLI SURAT and SHOLA JO BHADKE

You're welcome. Cheers. -S

You're very welcome, Devje. Cheers. -S