The phenomenal craze of Raj Kapoor (Awara) and Mithun Chakraborty (Disco Dancer) in the Soviet Union in the past decades is well known to many. But what’s surely going to be a pleasant surprise for all die-hard fans of Hindi Films and its music, is the amazing cult status of film ‘Aa Gale Lag Ja’ and one famous song from the film has in Algeria since the eighties.
The film directed by Manmohan Desai had Shashi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore, Shatrughan Sinha and Om Prakash in lead roles and RD Burman's music and Sahir's lyrics. Post its release in the year 1973, it somehow reached Algerian TV and was repeatedly shown there during the period of intense political and social scenario of the 80s. The film became an overnight sensation unexpectedly due to its instant emotional connect and later passing through several generations formed an integral part of their fond memories of the past proving the universal power of cinema and music.
Interestingly, the film that was repeatedly aired in those times without any subtitles was not even known to the people by its name but only the key song “Tera Mujhse Hai Pehle Ka Naata Koi", that became immensely popular with the phrase ‘Jaane Tu (Ya Jaane Na)", and they even began calling it by the title of “Janitou".
The song sung in their own adapted version with a duff can easily be found on Youtube and even the younger generation who probably never watched the film, knows it very well by the same name of “Janitou".
In fact such was the craze of this film or track in Algeria that Amine Hattou, an independent Algerian filmmaker has recently made a documentary on this worth researching connection between the two diverse cultures in reference to the film titled “Searching for Janitou/Janitou".
No doubt a clear indication of the fact that the seven musical notes and its visual medium of expression simply doesn’t believe in any man made boundaries.
Here is Algerian version, sung by some locals.
Here is the original song.
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