The advertisement for film Ajanta Cinetone’s Rangila Rajput (Mohan Bhavnani, 1933) highlighted a “lot of riding, fighting & swimming,” echoing and revising the “100 percent talking, singing, dancing” of the early…

These advertisements pointed to the essence of cinema as an art of images rather than sound, and speculated about the early demise of the talkies and a return to silent films.

Advertisement of Sagar Movietone’s “super talkies” in the Cinema. The advert highlights “clear recording, able direction, scientific singing” etc., as the hallmarks of Sagar’s super talkies. Prominently, the…

A article on talkies produced in Punjab, “Why the Punjab Productions Failed,” assessed the failure of Pakdaman Raqasa.

Fezi Sound System was used for Elephanta Movietone’s 1932 talkie Pakdaman Raqasa or Innocent Dancing Girl directed by Shah G. Agha. Nazir Mohammad himself recorded the sound, and the film was advertised for distributors and exhibitors as one…