The first showman of Indian cinema

Ardeshir Irani was a writer, director, producer and cinematographer in the silent and early talkie era.Widely regarded as the first showman, Irani made as many as 158 films (mukies and talkies) in a career that spanned 25 years.He not only made films in Indian languages like Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Urdu but also in German, Indonesian and Persian.

Irani was born to a Parsi family in Poona (now Pune) on December 5, 1886. He ran Alexander Cinema in Mumbai, where he was fascinated with the art of film making. It was in 1917, he plunged into making silent films. His first feature was ‘Nala Damayanti’ which was released in 1920.

His partnership with Bhogilal Dave was legendary and the duo made 17 films before parting ways. Bhogilal Dave, a graduate from New York School of Photography was former manager of Dadasaheb Phalke. Their noted contribution was ‘Veer Abhimanyu’ which starred Fathima Begum as one of the leads. Later, Irani partnered with BP Mishra and Naval Gandhi and the trio produced15 films in a span of two years and most of them were romantic comedies. Irani later found Imperial Films and he has made 62 films under the banner.

Irani was the Indian representative for the Universal Studios, which made him to keep updated with the latest changes in the film technology. The established filmmaker, realised that sound is the future of the cinema and produced and directed, first Indian talkie, ‘Alam Ara’. The film which released on March 14, 1931 was a stellar success and earned him the moniker, Father of Indian Talkies. The film was so popular that theatres screening the movie had to employ police to control the crowds.

Based on a Persian play Joseph David, the story centres on an imaginary, historical royal family in the kingdom of Kumarpur. It is a love story between a gypsy girl (played by Zubeidaa) and young prince (Master Vithal). Like the film, its music was also an astounding success. ‘De de khuda ke naam pe’, crooned by Wazir Mohammad Khan was regarded as first song of the Indian Cinema. As the play back system was yet to set foot in India, Irani recorded the songs live. Universal Studios’ Jerome Kern directorial ‘Snow Boat’ (1929) reportedly inspired Irani to make ‘Alam Ara’. He followed ‘AlamAra’ with ‘Kalidas’ in Tamil. He produced and directed the first Persian talkie, ‘Dokhtar-e-Lor’ in 1933. Irani was also credited with producing first Indian English feature, ‘Noor Jahan’ (1934). He also produced and directed first Indian colour feature ‘Kisan Kanya’ in 1937.

He created a new trend of shooting under artificial lights. During the shoot and sound recording of ‘Alam Ara’, the outside disturbances interfered with the dialogue of the film and a miffed Irani, changed the location to the studio and shot it under artificial lights. He was also credited for introducing actor like Prithviraj Kapoor and Mehboob Khan

The showman, who gave a new courageous outlook to filmmaking in India, passed away on October 14, 1969. Ardeshir Irani provided such a wide range of choice for stories in films that till date, there are films being made which have a theme relating to one of the one hundred fifty-eight films made by him.

By Aditya Parankusam