Alam Ara

Alam Ara is a 1931 Indian Hindustani-language historical fantasy film directed and produced by Ardeshir Irani. The story is about a king his two wives, who are childless. It is the first ever Indian Talkie. The film was made by Irani after he saw the American part-talkie Show Boat. It was made on a budget of ₹40,000 (equivalent to ₹10 million or US$140,000 in 2020). Principal Photography was done in the city of Mumbai. Alam Ara was released on 14 March 1931 and performed well at the box office.
== Plot ==
A king and his two wives, Navbahaar and Dilbahaar, are childless. Soon, a fakir tells Navbahaar she will give birth to a boy but she must find a necklace tied around a fish's neck—which will appear once at the lake of the palace—if she wants her son not to die on his 18th birthday. The boy is named Qamar. Beside that, Dilbahaar has an affair with the palace's senapati, Adil. The king finds out about this, and Dilbahaar tells him it was Adil who seduced her first. Therefore, the king arrests him and evicts his pregnant wife, Mehar Nigar, from the palace; Nigar gives birth to Alam Ara and dies when a shikari tells her about her husband. The shikari later adopts Ara.
Dilbahaar is jealous of Navbahaar and knows about her agreement with the fakir. When the necklace appears on Qamar's 18th birthday, she secretly replaces it with a fake one, which makes Qamar die. His family, however, does not bury his body and starts looking for the fakir to find what was wrong. As a result, Qamar lives again every night when Dilbahaar removes the necklace from her neck and later dies when she wears it in the morning. Apart from that, Ara knows about her innocent father's suffering, vowing to release him from jail. On her visits to the place one night, Ara sees the alive Qamar and falls for him. Everyone in the palace subsequently knows about Dilbahaar's foul play and finally gets the real necklace, with Adil being released. The film ends with Qamar and Alam Ara living happily together.
== Cast ==
* Master Vithal as Qamar
* Zubeida as Alam Ara
* Prithviraj Kapoor as Adil
* Muhammad Wazir Khan as a fakir (cameo appearance)
OtJilloo, Sushila, Elizer, Jagdish Sethi, L. V. Prasad, and Yaqub also play some other supporting roles.
Category:Movies