Mumbai, Feb. Feb 26 (IANS): Closed for nearly two years owing to the Coronavirus pandemic, the National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) raised the curtains again to the public, with the Union Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, L. Murugan, paying a visit, here on Saturday.

Murugan went around the museum, spread across two buildings, the Gulshan Mahal and a new building at Pedder Road in south Mumbai, and was given an overview by the Director-General of Films Division, Ravindra Bhakar.

During the long closure, the NMIC also underwent comprehensive restoration work before it threw the doors open for the public from Saturday.

The development comes ahead of the 17th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) starting in May at the NMIC's state-of-the-art auditoriums.

The one of its kind in India, the NMIC was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2019.

The heritage Gulshan Mahal with more than eight exhibit halls trace the origins and history of Indian cinema, from the silent, black-and-white to the new era, while the new building houses interactive displays, including children's cinema, and Gandhi & Cinema sections.

Among the highlights on display are film properties, a hand-cranked camera used by the Father of Indian Cinema, Dhundiraj Govind alias Dadasaheb Phalke, vintage film equipment, posters, copies of major films, leaflets, sound tracks, trailers, film transparencies, old cinema literature, film making and distribution statistics, in a systematic chronological manner to trace the history of film-making in the country.

On display is the historic first film show by the Lumiere Brothers in Mumbai in 1896, a huge collection of artefacts including the armour donned by Sivaji Ganesan in the film "Veerapandiya Kattabomman" (1959) and the red coat worn by M.G. Ramachandran in "Adimai Penn" (1969), among many others.