March 14: On This Day in World History … briefly
Both the movie and its music were widely successful, including the hit song 'De de khuda ke naam per', which was also the first song of the Indian cinema. It was sung by actor Wazir Mohammed Khan who played a fakir in the film.
1931: India releases the country’s first talking film
Alam Ara (translation – The Ornament of the World) was a 1931 Indian film directed by Ardeshir Irani. It was the first Indian sound film. Irani recognised the importance that sound would have on the cinema and raced to complete Alam Ara before several contemporary sound films. Alam Ara debuted at the Majestic Cinema in Mumbai (then Bombay) on March 14, 1931. The first Indian talkie was so popular that ‘police aid had to be summoned to control the crowds.’ The film was a full-house for the next eight weeks after its release and was advertised with the tagline ‘All living. Breathing. 100 per cent talking’.
The film is a love story between a prince and a gypsy girl, based on a Parsi play written by Joseph David, who later served as a writer at Irani’s film company. The story centres on an imaginary, historical royal family in the kingdom of Kumarpur. The main characters are the king, Sultan Saleem Khan, and his two warring wives, Dilbahar Begum and Naubahar Begum. Their rivalry escalates when a fakir predicts that Navbahar will bear the king’s heir.
Dilbahar, in a fit, attempts to have an affair with the kingdom’s chief minister, General Adil Khan (Prithviraj Kapoor). The affair goes sour and a vengeful Dilbahar imprisons him and exiles his daughter, Alam Ara or Alamara (Zubeida). In exile, Alamara is brought up by Gypsies. Upon returning to the palace at Kumarpur, Alamara meets and falls in love with the charming young prince Jahangir Khan (Master Vithal). In the end, Adil is released, Dilbahar is punished and the lovers marry.
The film has long been lost and was not available as far back as 1967 according to the National Film Archive of India, Pune. There is no known copy of the film today and the National Archives of India says that they do not possess a print – and couldn’t locate one as far back as 1967. It was incorrectly reported that the last known prints in Pune’s film archives were damaged by a fire in 2003, when in fact no copy was ever possessed by the film archive. According to PK Nair, founder director of the National Film Archives of India (NFAI), Pune ‘The report that Alam Ara print was destroyed at the NFAI is incorrect.’
Alam Ara was recorded as the first Hindi film of Bollywood. For the first time a total of 78 actors recorded their voices for the film. Google celebrated the 80th anniversary of the film’s release by means of Google Doodle on March 14, 2011. A 2015 calendar was released exhibiting posters of some of the first Indian films, including Alam Ara.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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