India's first talkie film Alam Ara lost forever

New Delhi: India's first talkie film Alam Ara, made in 1931 is lost to us forever it seems.

An Information and Broadcasting official has said that no prints are now available with the National Archives of India.

The last existing prints were destroyed in a fire at Pune's National Film Archives five years back.

A search was conducted across the country but no print of Alam Ara could be found.

The film directed by Ardeshir Irani is a love story between a prince and a gypsy girl.

It was through Alam Ara that Indian cinema first found its voice on March 14. The talkie premiered at the Majestic Cinema in Mumbai.

But India's first talkie film seems destined to stay silent forever as no copy or print of the film can be traced anywhere in the world.

The film, which starred master Vithal, Zubeida, LV Prasad and Prithviraj Kapoor is seen as the film that gave direction to Indian cinema.

The film was shot mostly in the night to avoid capturing the noises of the day. Alam Ara was made using microphones that had to be hidden from the camera's range.

While on one hand Alam Ara is credited with having ushered in the new talkie era in Indian cinema, it is also the movie that rang the death knell for silent films.

Meanwhile, the unavailability of even a single print of Alam Ara sheds much light on the urgent attention that needs to be paid to the restoration of Indian classics.