FIRST INDIAN TALKIE..'ALAM ARA'..90!

Zubeida & Master Vithal on Ardeshir Irani's 'Alam Ara's (1931) poster.

Ardeshir Irani checking print of 'Alam Ara'

Our first Indian talkie film made by 'Imperial Movietone's Ardeshir Irani.. 'ALAM ARA' released on 14th March, 1931 at 'Majestic Cinema' Mumbai..and now completed 90 years!

Khan Bahadur Ardeshir Irani was one of the most important pioneers of our Indian Cinema! 

Earlier he directed 8 silent films..mostly mythological ('Veer Abhimanyu'/1922) & historical ('Shahjehan/1924). 

In 1931 he made our India's first talkie film.. 'Alam Ara'! For this he handled the sound recording by using the Tanar Sound system. It was shot with the Tanar single-system camera which recorded sound directly on to film!

Prithviraj Kapoor & Sushila in 'Alam Ara'

'Alam Ara' was a love story between a prince and a gypsy girl, which based on a Parsi play..written by Joseph David and Munshi Zaheer in Urdu! 

It was cinematographed by Wilford Deming & Adi M. Irani and edited by Ezra Mir! The lead artists in our first talkie were Master Vithal, Zubeida, Jillo, Sushila, L. V. Prasad & Prithviraj Kapoor!

It had music by Ferozshah M. Mistri & B. Irani. Total 7 songs were there, from these "De de khuda ke naam.." was the first song !of Indian cinema which was sung by Wazir Mohammed Khan who played fakir in it! Artists Zubeida & Jillo also sung!

Wazir Khan singing in 'Alam Ara'.

This our first talkie was successful and its music was hit! But the film has long been lost and not available. However I watched the documentary made on 'Alam Ara' in the programme 'Celebrating 75 years of our Indian Talkie' held at Mumbai!

And glad to mention that..the inaugural special issue of my film magazine 'Chitrasrushti' was on '75 Years of World Talkie' published in 2002.

Salute to master of Indian Talkie..Iranisahab!

And tribute to 'Alam Ara'!! 

- Manoj Kulkarni