At 17, Indian cinema could only be seen, not heard. That was in 1930, the last year when only silent films would roll their way into the theatres. Only a year later, Indian cinema was to break its silence and begin talking, also singing and dancing. And uttering the first words would be Ardeshir Irani’s Alam Ara, the love story of a prince and a gypsy girl, starring Master Vithal and Zubeida. Cinema started talking in all languages, in its 18th year: Bhakta Prahlad spoke in Telugu, Kalidasa in Tamil and Jamai Shashti in Bengali.