Help - Search - Members - Calendar
Full Version: Celebrating The Arrival Of Talkies
Hamara Forums > Films > Bollywood
harihar
http://www.hindu.com/2006/12/06/stories/2006120605810400.htm

Celebrating the arrival of talkies



# Platinum jubilee to be observed from December 8 to 14
# Exhibition, film screenings will mark the event

BANGALORE: The Film Federation of India and the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce will observe the platinum jubilee of Indian talkies on the theme "75 Years of Sound," here, from December 8 to 14.

The former president of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce M. Bhaktavatsala told presspersons here on Monday that the event, which would be held in association with the State Government, the National Film Archives, Alliance Francaise de Bangalore, Suchitra Film Society, Max Mueller Bhavan, Farishta and WorldSpace, would be inaugurated at Lavanya theatre. The valedictory function would be held at Elgin cinema where the first film with sound effects in India, Alam Ara, was screened in July 1931.

An exhibition organised by the National Film Archives, would be held at the Alliance Francaise from December 9. An audiovisual presentation would also be held for four days beginning December 10, he said.

Select films representing the musical richness of Indian talkies would be screened at Badami House and Suchitra Film Society and DVD/VCD screenings would be organised at Alliance Francaise and Max Mueller Bhavan on all the days, he added.

Courtesy Hindu/Surjit Singh (RMIM)
Pradeep
Thanks Naresh smile1.gif Here is an interesting info on how moving pictures and sound came to India and how sound was incorporated into silent movies. This is from Manek Premchand's yesterday's melodies and today's memories.

In 1896, the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere of France came to Bombay, to demonstrate the Cinematographe, a new 'moving-pictures' invention of theirs. The Cinematographe used a celluloid film of several hundred individual frames mounted on two reels. When the film was manually cranked, the frames produced a fluid-like motion of pictures that could be 'projected' on a large screen nearby. The film could be rewound as often as one needed, run on the projector and shown on a screen again. It appears simple and easy today, but in those days it was mind-boggling. The moving pictures looked like photographs in a stop-motion camera; it was so crude yet it was a wonderful start. The Cinematographe was received very well in India, just as it had been elsewhere, right from its first showing in Paris on 28th December 1895.
After this breakthrough, many short-length 'films' were made, mostly running into a few minutes and in India mostly made by foreigners. At this time, a restless and inventive young man called D.G.Phalke went over to England to study film-making with special focus on photography. On his return he made the film,"Raja Harishchandra" which was released in 1913. This film is recognized as India's first feature film because it was the first time an Indian director had made a film that ran a decent length. This picture ran for 40 minutes, was 3700 feet long, and consisted of four reels.

And then came sound

Many more films started being made in India, and the audiences were lapping up the experience of this new entertainment form. With time however, it was felt that something was missing - there was no sound. And so a new novelty was introduced: live music accompanied films. This was a trend being followed in various countries abroad. Films were shown in pitched tents in the early days, and now musicians would be part of such tent experiences. There would be a screen at one end of the tent, and a projector at the other. Sitting below the screen and facing it would be typically three, four or even five musicians. A master-of-ceremonies would announce the sort of film you were soon going to watch, the lights would dim, and if it was a story of cops and robbers, a chase on horseback would be accompanied by the beat of the tabla, a violin would play while a soft romantic scene was being viewed and so on. This is how sound was 'incorporated' into silent films.

The Talking Films' (talkies) come to India

The first 'talkies' that were screened in the USA were "Don Juan" that had music but no speech in 1926, and "The Jazz Singer", with music and speech in 1927; in England it was Hitchcock's "Blackmail" in 1929. In 1931, the first Indian 'talkie', "Aalam Ara", was made in Bombay by Ardeshir Irani at his Imperial Film Company. Wazir Mohd. Khan who acted as a Faqir (mendicant) in the film sang the first song of Hindi cinema: De de khuda ke naam pe pyare, taaqat hai gar dene ki. He was accompanied by a harmonium and tabla only. The music directors were P.M. Mistry and B. Irani, and the film had six more songs.
Soon after, sound films were being made everywhere. In 1932, for example, Prabhat in Poona brought out "Ayodhyache Raja" (in Marathi), and "Ayodhya Ka Raja" (in Hindi), and so on.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.
Invision Power Board © 2001-2024 Invision Power Services, Inc.