The Ghost Who Talked

List Of Silent Movies

• 1913 Raja Harish-chandra
• 1917 Lanka Dahan
• 1916 Keechaka Vadham
• 1920 Shankuntala
• 1921 Bhakt Vidur
• 1921 Bilat Ferat
• 1922 Pati Bhakti
• 1925 Prem Sanyas
• 1928 Devdas
• 1929 Gopal Krishna

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Indian cinema, having found its voice in silent reels, was still enjoying its burgeoning, hypnotic pull, when sound turned it on its head in the year 1931; in a stroke, its euphoric silence was relegated to a past age. The man who initiated the revolution was an enterprising 46-year-old Parsi by the name of Ardeshir Marwan Irani (1886-1969), who, it seemed, breathed films for a living! The night he saw Universal Picture’s Show Boat (a 40 per cent...