Sound Cultures in Indian Cinema
The Media Lab : Jadavpur University

The first module of the ‘Sound Cultures in Indian Cinema’ database documents the ‘moment of 1931’. The advent of sound in 1931 generated various discourses and had a big impact on the institution and practices of cinema in India. Exhibited in this database are articles, reviews, news snippets, advertisements, inventories, etc. from the popular film magazines of the 1930s from Bombay, Calcutta and Lahore. Besides, materials from limited edition texts, commemorative monographs and newspapers are presented.

The mode of presentation of the digital archive with 900 odd items, is tailored to allow multilateral access points to the history of sound in Indian cinema in the 1930s, e.g., from the perspective of technology and techniques of sound, uses of equipment and their problems, contributions of sound technicians, reviews of talkies, etc. The archival items are presented individually and under ‘collections’ that are equally navigable. The items come with searchable metadata including publication details, synopses and tags. The tags appended to each item help establish lateral connections with similar items.