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Suboor Usmani's collection of vintage cinema posters traces Bollywood's journey from 1930s to now
Suboor Usmani, an Indian Revenue Services officer, has collected gems dating back to over late ‘30s and showcased in the exhibition Bioscope in Lucknow
Film posters have been an integral part of film promotions and have evolved big time in the digital era. Suboor Usmani, an Indian Revenue Services officer, has collected gems dating back to over late ‘30s and showcased in this ongoing exhibition Bioscope: Caravan Guzar Gaya at the Kokoro Art Gallery.
From Pukar (1939) and Ram Rajya (1943), to original hand painted posters of Aan (1952) and Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Amitabh Bachchan’s first voiceover credit in Mrinal Sen’s Bhuwan Shom (1969) before Saat Hindustani to recent Dhurandhar.
“I’ve added interesting trivia to every poster. I’m a quizmaster and won Siddharth Basu’s Mastermind India show in 2002. Like Ram Rajya (1943) is the only film Mahatma Gandhi had watched. I got my hands on this poster at an antique shop in Mumbai. In fact, it was damaged and lying discarded and with Don (1978) I got Ram Rajya free,” says Usmani.
The collector says every poster have a story to be told. “We all know about film Razia Sultan (1983) which starred Dharmendra and Hema Malini but very less people know that Nirupa Roy has also played a role of Razia Sultan in 1961 film,” he says.
Curator Vandana Sehgal said, “Every poster is nostalgic and has a beautiful trivia attached to it. We can learn how the posters have evolved over a period of time from hand painted posters to digital prints. There were so much hard work and manpower used in those days.”
Earlier, former bureaucrat Navneet Sehgal and Lucknow Film Forum founder Renuka Tandon inaugurated the exhibition.
What: Bioscope: Caravan Guzar Gaya
Where: Kokoro Art Gallery
When: On display till August 20.
Entry: Free
