Sound and Music of Hindi Talkies: The First Four Years

Surjit Singh

Everybody knows that the talkie era in India was begun by Imperial Movietone, Bombay on March 14, 1931 when the first full-length feature film Alam Ara (called ‘All Living, Breathing 100% Talking’ in a contemporary ad) was released in the Majestic Cinema, Girgaum. Not so well known is the fact that since early 1929, Calcutta’s Madan Theatres have been making and releasing short items consisting of songs, dances, scenes from stage plays and musical audio-visual recordings. The sound reproduction of Alam Ara was ‘patchy’, and the hero Master Vithal did not speak at all. However, the talkie (with its seven songs and some dances) was so successful commercially that it led to a deluge of singing-dancing musicals that still continues 75 years later and has defied movie critics at home and abroad!

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