DAWN OF THE TALKIE ERA IN INDIA

The idea of producing talking pictures in India was first conceived by Ardeshir M Irani of the Imperial Film Co, Bombay, and Alam Ara was launched by him sometime in the latter half of 1930. Madan Theatres Ltd, of Calcutta, and Shri Krishna Film Co, Bombay, were also in the race.

On 4th February 1931, Madan’s released their two talkie shorts at Calcutta and at the Empress Theatre, Bombay. On the very next day Krishna released their talkie varieties called Krishnatone at the Rialto Talkies, Bombay. Madan’s exhibited only two items whereas Krishna’s ran into eight items. The Indian Spotlight found its tongue in the first week of Feb 1931 and these two companies stole a march over the Imperial.

14th March 1931 was a red letter day in the annals of Indian motion picture industry as on that day India’s first full length talkie in Urdu Alam Ara, produced by the Imperial Film Co, Bombay, was released. Shri Krishna Film Co, Bombay, was the second in the race and India’s first full length Hindi social Wife or Ghar Ki Lakshmi was released by it. It was immediately followed by Madan Theatres Ltd Calcutta’s Shirin Farhad which beat Alam Ara’s record and created quite a furore. The overwhelming success of Shirin Farhad was mainly due to superior recording on costly RCA sound system and the melodious songs of the singing duo Kajjan and Nissar.

Shri Krishna Film Co was also responsible for the production of India’s first Telugu talkie Bhakta Prahlad with Surabhi Kamala Bai and VV Subba Rao in the lead. This was also released in 1931. It was directed by HM Reddy, who hailed from Karnataka.

It was again Krishna which came out with Hatim Tai, a fantasy, which was the first and India’s only talkie serial and released in four instalments in 1933. It ran into over 48,000 feet in length and was quite a record.

The pioneering efforts of these three companies, namely, Imperial (Ardeshir M Irani), Shri Krishna Film Co (Maneklal B Patel), both of Bombay, and Madan Theatres (brothers JF and SJ Madan) Calcutta, laid a solid foundation for the growth of the production of talking pictures in India and also paved the way for production companies of such eminence as New Theatres (Calcutta), Prabhat Film Co (Poona) and Bombay Talkies, Ranjit, Sagar, Minerva, Wadia, Prakash and others, of Bombay, to come to the forefront.

KRN Rao

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