This archival essay on early sound cinema in India brings together advertisements for film and film equipment, and various contemporary editorials and essays from film periodicals. It uses these materials to sketch key conflicts and discourses that surrounded the emergence of the talkies, especially around the function of foreign equipment salesmen, agents and technicians, the development of indigenous manufactures, and the shifting connotations of sound in cinema.
Advertisement of Audio Camex. (1931). Filmland, 2(83) (Puja Special), 7.
2.
Advertisement of Indo-American Film Distributing Co. (1932). Filmland, 3(127) (Puja Number), page unknown.
3.
Author Unknown. (1931a). List of members. Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 16(4), 466–491.
4.
Author Unknown. (1931b). The Cinema, 4(11–12), 30.
5.
Author Unknown. (1933a). Hot from the Indian studios, Film World Weekly, 1(31), 15–16.
6.
Author Unknown. (1933b). Through our lens. The Cinema, 7(1), 21.
7.
BarnouwErik. (1980). Shards of the silent era. Cinema Vision India, 1(1), 100–102.
8.
BurnapR.S. (1930). Report of the secretary. Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 14(4), 467.
9.
“Judas.” (1936). Buck up Deming! Filmindia, 2(1), 11, 21.
10.
Deming Jr.Wilford. (1980). Talking picture in India. Cinema Vision India, 1(2), 19–21.
11.
DharapB.V. (1980). Some important film makers in the silent era. Cinema Vision India, 1(1), 26–37.
12.
DreherCarl. (1931). Recording, re-recording and editing of sound. Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 16(6), 756–765.
13.
Filmland (1932, December 10). Advertisement of Csystophone Sound Film Equipment. 3(133), 6.
14.
GargaB.D. (1980). The making of Alam Ara. Cinema Vision India, 1(2), 11–12.
15.
GhoseK.P. (1932). Tiny concerns of India. Filmland, 3(127) (Puja Number), 27, 43–45.
16.
GomeryDouglas. (1985). Economic struggle and Hollywood imperialism: Europe converts to sound. In WeisElisabeth and BeltonJohn (Eds), Film sound: Theory and practice (pp. 25–36). New York: Columbia University Press.
17.
IraniArdeshir. (1931). Alam Ara [Motion Picture]. India.
