The image of yesteryear Hindi actor and filmmaker Bhagwan Abhaji Palav, popularly known as Bhagwan Dada, mainly owing to his love for wrestling, is inseparable from the movie Albela (1951). So, when it came to making a biopic in Marathi on his struggles and early day achievements, choosing the title was the easiest part for the film’s producer, Dr. Monish Babre.
Ekk Albela releases this week and the film’s trailer begins with Bhagwan (Mangesh Desai) throwing away his hunchback costume, from his first action movie Bewafa Aashiq , and announcing his full name to his audience. It’s almost like he is introducing himself to the audience of 2016. The film’s songs, especially the recreated versions of original Albela songs like ‘ Bholi Soorat Dil Ke Khote ’ and the foot-tapping ‘ Shola Jo Bhadke ’, have generated keen interest in the weeks leading to the release. The film features Marathi actor Mangesh Desai in the lead role and Vidya Balan, who makes her Marathi debut in a special appearance as Geeta Bali, the star of Albela .
How did Balan, come into the picture? Babre says, “We had finished shooting the first part of the movie and were looking for a star. Vidyadhar Bhatte [famous make-up artist] introduced us to Vidya Balan. We found that she herself was a fan of Bhagwan and Geeta Bali.”
Babre, who is a radiologist by profession, decided to back the project owing to his personal attachment to Bhagwan Dada. “The place where I stay in Parel is very close to Lallubhai Mansion in Dadar, where Bhagwan Dada spent the latter part of his life. We have observed him, and his mannerisms, very closely right from our childhood. In those days, it used to be a protocol for Ganapati processions to stop near his chawl and play ‘ Bholi Soorat Dil Ke Khote ’. Bhagwan used to come out and perform his signature slow dance. Only then the Ganapati would move ahead. We used to witness all this with awe and wonder,” Babre says. “I was intrigued by the fact that even Amitabh Bachchan got inspired by Bhagwan’s style of dancing. There must have been some spark in him, something unique about this style. I wanted to explore more.”
But why make a film in 2016 on someone who made films a good 80 years ago?
Ekk Albela ’s director Shekhar Sartandel says Bhagwan was an unsung pioneer whose story deserved to be told. “He made India’s first horror movie, Bhedi Bangla . He introduced a new way of dancing which I call a ‘layman’s style’, which any ordinary individual, even one without any training, could follow. The dances many of us do at weddings, have their genesis in Bhagwan’s style. Hence, his influence extends to our own mundane lives.”
There were two aspects of Bhagwan Dada that defined the actor: his action and dancing. On Bhagwan Dada’s innovations on the action front, Babre says, “He introduced hand-to-hand fistfights in Indian films. In fact, he was known as the Douglas Fairbanks of India.” Desai says, Fairbanks, once known as The King of Hollywood, and India’s silent-era actor Master Vithal, the lead in Alam Ara , were the ones who inspired Bhagwan Dada.
Since most of his earlier films were unavailable, Desai watched Albela over 20 times to interpret Bhagwan’s style. Finding authentic material on Bhagwan was difficult as many of his earlier films, those from the 1930s and 1940s, were either burnt or lost. However, some help surfaced in the form of Marathi journalist Isak Mujawar’s biography of the actor, Albela Bhagwan .
From poverty to stardom
The biopic traces Bhagwan’s life from a daily wage labourer to becoming one of the highest-paid actors of the time. Sartandel says Bhagwan made at least 15 action films before Albela . Bewafa Aashiq (1931), whose reinterpretation is shown at the beginning of the biopic’s trailer, was Bhagwan’s take on Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame . The trailer goes on to give a quick peek into his early films, through a montage of posters of movies such as Jigar , Bakshish , Shoukin and Pyara Dushman .
Ekk Albela ends with the success of Albela , Bhagwan’s first ‘social’, as the mainstream movies were called then. How did Bhagwan make the transition from formulaic action films to a mainstream entertainer? Sartandel says Raj Kapoor was impressed with Bhagwan’s filmmaking and asked him to make ‘socials’. This motivated him to make Albela , a movie that became the third-biggest hit of 1951, after Raj Kapoor’s own tour de force,Awara, and Guru Dutt’s Baazi . The film was also one of the biggest Indian hits in East Africa, says film scholar Rachel Dwyer. “Raman Savani, based in Mombasa, from the Savani distribution family, told me this.”
Unfortunately, Bhagwan’s career nosedived after Albela as he became a victim of repetition. His similarly named films, Labela and Jhamela , were disasters. What could have been the reason? Sartandel says Bhagwan was not a typical hero. “There were stars like Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar better suited to ‘socials’. Perhaps Bhagwan did not fit into the scheme.”
I was intrigued that even Amitabh Bachchan got inspired from Bhagwan’s style of dancing. There must have been
some spark in him, something unique about
this style. I wanted to explore more
Dr. Monish Babre,producer, Ekk Albela
