NON-FICTION: THE HIDDEN VOICES OF FILM - Newspaper
The people of the Subcontinent have always been interested in listening to light music, geet, ghazal, qawwali, folk songs and Sufi music. Prior to the advent of ‘talkie’ films, going to watch live theatre was a popular means of entertainment and such venues usually took on performers who could not only act, but also sing. The first subcontinental talkie film was Alam Ara; it premiered in March 1931 and had seven songs in Urdu. Both the film and its music were hugely successful and set a trend for the next seven decades, of featuring at least seven or eight songs in every film. Nowhere els...
Source: dawn.com