" Albela," directed by Deepak Sareen, is a case of body beautiful, minus soul! The heroine lands up in a small town, since her mother hailed from this town, and as soon as she comes out of the airport, the first person she bumps into is a cabbie. Tony (Govinda) is a happy-go-lucky tourist guide who enjoys his job in the picturesque town of Malaga, in Goa. One day, a soothsayer tells him that a light-eyed princess from across the seas will enter his life and change it forever. And sure enough, while waiting at the airport for prospective customers, he bumps into Sonia (Aishwarya Rai). She is gorgeous, has just arrived from Austria and has light eyes! Tony decides that she is his princess and appoints himself as her tourist guide. But Sonia has not come to Malaga for a vacation; she has come in search of her mother's grave.
Tony is only too happy to take his beautiful 'Memsaab' around town, helping her in her quest. By now he is totally smitten by her, much to the dismay of his childhood friend, Nina (Namrata Shirodkar), who has always loved him. Sonia, who enjoys Tony's amusing and charming company, is blissfully unaware of Tony's true feelings for her. Just when she is about to say goodbye to Tony, she spots Prem (Jackie Shroff). Sonia is stunned. All that the heroine does throughout the first half of the film is to look pretty, wear designer outfits, run around trees, learn to ride a motorcycle, do sight-seeing… conveniently forgetting the reason for coming there.
What actually goes against the film is the romance between Jackie Shroff and Aishwarya Rai in the second half. The affair is hardly appealing and the scenario very conservative. Even otherwise, the tender moments between Jackie and Ash are far from exciting. Most of the songs are dream sequences and have been incorporated in the plot because our films are incomplete without them.
Deepak Sareen's choice of script leaves a lot to be desired and his story telling is devoid of stimulating moments. The dramatic scenes are frail and the poignant ones disappoint and fail to strike a chord. In the climax, Govinda suddenly realises Namrata's love for him, when he hears her voice in a toy (!!!). He makes a complete about-turn and goes back to Namrata, leaving Ash abandoned. Thanks to a weak script, none of the performances rise beyond the average mark. Manmohan Singh's cinematography is breathtaking. The locales of Austria and Mauritius are a visual treat.
