This was bound to happen in a country which although has an extremely rich heritage spanning back to thousands of years and having countless landmarks representing its complicated mix of numerous cultures and traditions still has a very poor record in creating an up to date and constantly evolving system armed to preserve the precious evidences of the past.
So the sad fact of India having lost its first ever film with dialogues and songs for ever is a sort of irony when we regard the present day hype due the new found global status of Bollywood which is now spreading its charm all over the world.
The film titled as 'Alam Ara' created way back in 1931 by Ardeshir Irani told a love story of a prince and a gypsy girl.
The last remaining copy of the forefather of all the present day Hindi movies was stored at the National Film Archives at Pune.
Five years ago a massive fire at the film archives destroyed the last copies of films like 'Raja Harishchandra and Achyut Kanya including the last one of 'Alam Ara'.
Extensive efforts followed to find out whether a copy of the movie existed in any part of the world, but now it has been revealed that not even a single print exists.
Majestic Cinema in Mumbai had screened the movie when it was released on March 14.
Prithviraj Kapoor, Zubeida, Master Vithal and L.V.Prasad were the actors of 'Alam Ara' which was made after being inspired by Rodgers and Hammerstein's Show Boat by Universal Pictures and was based on a Parsi play written by Joseph David.
