The importance of archiving

The loss of Alam Ara is the loss of one massive slice of history

On March 14, 1931, Alam Ara, India’s first- ever talking film, was released. It is a historic film, not least because of the pioneering efforts of those involved in making it. Having no soundproof stages, the film had to be shot almost entirely at night when the noise from the nearby rail tracks would be minimal; actors sang their own songs to live music; and large, bulky mikes were hidden close to the actors to be able to record the sound. The great tragedy of the film, however, is that it has been lost forever since no print of the first-ever talking film made in India has survived.

This is not just the problem of Alam Ara. India has a poor record in preserving most of our heritage films. According to experts, more than 1,500 silent films were made in India, of which only about five can be found in the National Film Archive of India. The state of regional films is even worse. Of over 100 films made in the silent era in erstwhile Madras, it is believed that only one remains.

India has a rich film tradition, and the loss of archives is not just a loss of an image but of an era of culture and history. Films are more than just entertainment; they are a record of our culture, a testimony to the evolution of society, and sometimes even time capsules of our fraught histories. Archiving is one of the most important ways of preserving our history and heritage — not just so that future generations may take pleasure from old films, but so that we may learn from that which has already been built; for we may only look into the future by standing on the shoulders of giants.