June 9, 2009

Bollywood Posters Galore - An Alternate Career for Rum?

Shamelessly nicking the idea from the great BollywoodDeewana, I had to share some of my favorite hand-drawn Bollywood posters also! There's something so pop-art about posters, with the vibrant colours and flattering or unflattering painting of the stars, and exagerations such as guns inserted into a poster of Kora Kagaz!

1. Don - this poster is just fabulous, the mad colours and the great depiction of Amitabh too, and here's a gun that fits with the theme of the movie!2. Kabhi Kabhi - this poster is lovely, I love how it shows the different stages of Amitabh during the movie as a hearbroken poet and a stern moustachioed father, and a poor looking Shashi, the side painting are beautiful too, Raakhee with Shashi and Amitabh

3. Muqaddar Ka Sikandar - this image I had printed on a t-shirt and everybody loved it! The funky title letters, and the gritty green colouring work well to show the tone of the movie too, and of course Amitabh on a bike needs to be there as he's the headliner4. Jaani Dushman - This isnt quite painted, but it combines the stills and drawing, but it looks ghoulish and hilarious as that movie ranks as one of the biggest star casts in such an awfully bad/yet trashily good film! I love that the beast looks more scarier than it is in the movie too!

5. Mera Naam Joker - the big Citizen Kane-esque opus of Raj Kapoor's ranks as one of my favorite Bollywood movies, and the posters is pretty cute too, the "Rosebud" of the movie is the joker a thinly veiled alter ego of Raj, and the poster has got the clownish letters and the sad clown reaching out. It also has the circus feel to as well as showing the three loves of the joker too.
6. Pyaasa - the famous image here, what I like about this poster is the simplicity: its got the three main characters and funnily drawn Mala Sinha and the Hindi all around it. The lyrics i think are written at the side of their faces which makes it nice. 7. Silsila - this one I would love in my room! It's simple and it shows basically the plot of the movie in two basic iconic images in the film. I like how gorgeous the ladies look in their face off, the artist really captured their angry faces.
8. Guide - the iconic pose, I really want to order this from somewhere, the yellow tone and lovely expression on Dev's face and the little poof is featured in the poster too!
9. Bobby - this is my funkadelic pyschedelic favorite poster of all time, true the Barsaat and Mother India are iconic and wonderful. But as a mad kid, I ADORRREEEE this poster it is so colourful and funky that i made it a poster on my wall and on my t-shirt! I think all the colours are vibrant and capture the rash and impetuous love in the movie!
10. Dharmatma - something from the King of my funkadelic heart Feroz Khan! Lol imagine this crazy poster as the poster for the actual Godfather. Michael Corleone meets his Indian funky alter ego in this poster that highlights some of the characters, and the best moments in the film!
Th-Tha-thats all folks! A part 2 will definitely follow, I have sooo many other favorites!

6 comments:

NidaMarie said...

Thanks for sharing these, Rum! They are all so detailed and spot-on with the facial features, aren't they? I haven't seen most of these and can tell just who each actor actually is...As for one for my room, I'd go with the "Silsila" one as well..There's a similar one to that at my local museum, we have a floor with exhibits from different countries, and the one from India is a village and marketplace with vintage, hand-drawn posters of Bollywood films! Its my favorite part of the whole museum ;)

Daddy's Girl said...

These are great... thanks for sharing them. I love the 'Guide' poster - it's beautiful... and the 'Bobby' one as well - I want that on a T-shirt too! And OMG, sorry, this is off-topic but how could I only just have noticed your appreciation of Dharmendra's English dialogues?! (here DG grins sheepishly and wafts off into Dharmendra-inhabited fantasy-land...)

bollywooddeewana said...

Vah vah, kya baat hai, i loved your selection as well, i was actually going to include the Pyaasa one and Jaani Dushman one in mine as well, you know what they say Great minds think alike ;0) great point about the exaggeration, sometimes if not guns, its scantily clad women, i guess anything to draw the crowds in

Rum said...

Nida - I love when museums feature poster art, its brings a whole new audience to discover the funkyness of hand painted bollywood posters!

Daddy's Girl - nice to have you back! I love Dharam's dialogues especially in Shalimar where its very enunciated and hilarious English

Bollywooddeewana - thanks! There are so many guns and skimy dressed gals on the posters from the 70's!

Arjun said...

Wow! You have got an amazing collection of posters. I love many of these like Pyaasa, Mera Naam Joker and Guide

dunkdaft said...

Loved this post. Especially Guide And Pyaasa. Iconic ones.

And as a kid, I was so frightened to see the Jaani Dushman poster on its LP cover. :)