Last year’s centenary celebrations of Indian cinema were definitely hard to miss. Yet, much as one wished to celebrate the 100-year-old history of the Indian celluloid with screenings of noted films of yesteryear, one had to make do with only 6,000 films, as that was all the archives at the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) offered. In fact, the first talkie of the country, Alam Ara is lost and is without a trace, making it unavailable to posterity.

Still from the restored version of the dance-drama Kalpana that starred Uday Shankar as seen here. Pic Courtesy/Dungarpur Films.