Parvarish

Vinod Khanna poster for sale: Parvarish (1977).

Featured here is an actual surviving vintage Bollywood poster of the old 1977 Hindi film directed by Manmohan Desai that starred superstar Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role along with Vinod Khanna, while Neetu Singh and Shabana Azmi played their love interests.

Produced by A.A. Nadiadwala and released under the banner of A.G. Films, Parvarish (1977) also starred Shammi Kapoor, Kader Khan, Amjad Khan, Indrani Mukherjee, Heena Kausar, Chand Usmani, Tom Alter, Viju Khote and Ramayan Tiwari in supporting roles.

A blockbuster at the box office, Parvarish (1977) told the story of stepbrothers Amit Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) and Kishan Singh (Vinod Khanna) who are constantly trying to outdo each other. The story begins with DSP Shamsher Singh (Shammi Kapoor) arresting notorious bandit Mangal Singh (Amjad Khan), who uses his wife (Heena Kausar) as a human shield when surrounded by police. In the melee, Mangal’s wife dies after childbirth, not before getting DSP Shamsher Singh to take on the responsibility of her son’s upbringing (Parvarish) and solemnly affirming that he will never let evil dacoit Mangal ever come close to the child. DSP Shamsher Singh and his wife Asha Singh (Indrani Mukherjee) raise Mangal’s child Amit along with their own biological son Kishan. Ironically, the couple’s own biological son Kishan Singh (Vinod Khanna) displays malafide intentions from early childhood, while their adopted son Amit Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) shows exemplary integrity and honesty. So visible is this contradiction that when Mangal is released from prison, he mistakenly believes Kishan to be his biological son. DSP Shamsher Singh refuses to handover custody of Mangal’s son and casts him out of his home. Seeking revenge, Mangal asks Kishan to continue living in DSP Shamsher Singh’s home as their adopted child, until he is old enough to destroy the family from within. Twenty years later, Amit becomes an upright police inspector like his father but Kishan takes to a life of crime, joining Mangal’s cartel, whom he mistakenly believes to be his biological father. Their opposing paths leads the stepbrothers to a crossroad where Amit must fulfill his sworn duty as an officer of the law to bring Kishan to justice. Everything changes when Kishan learns that the man he assumed to be his biological father, whom he idolized all his life, is not notorious criminal Mangal but rather honest cop DSP Shamsher Singh.

Parvarish (1977) is credited with establishing Shammi Kapoor’s entry into character roles.

Printed and circulated during the initial release run of the film in theaters (somewhere in the late 1970s), this old Vinod Khanna poster was originally designed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This Parvarish poster was originally designed in mixed media format, combining both hand painted oil on canvas format as well as photo collage techniques by an art studio in Bombay.

The angry young man of Bollywood, superstar Amitabh Bachchan appears illustrated in a striking hand painted close up portrait on the bottom right. He is seen in his character of a police inspector. A photographic still of Vinod Khanna is seen on the top of the title. The actor is seen firing a pistol while lying down. Shabana Azmi and Neetu Singh, who play love interests of the two actors in the film are seen in still photos at the bottom along with supporting actor Shammi Kapoor.

Typography used in this old Bollywood poster is entirely in English, except for a translation of the film’s title in Devanagari Hindi. The film’s main English title appears in yellow accentuated with a black border, which stands out against a minimal orange gradient background.

The soundtrack album of Parvarish (1977) was composed by duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal, while lyrics were written by Majrooh Sultanpuri. It featured memorable gems such as, “Jaate Ho Jaane Jaana” sung by Asha Bhosle, Aarti Mukherjee, Amit Kumar & Shailendra Singh and “Hum Premi Prem Karna Jaanen” sung by Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi & Shailendra Singh. “Bandh Aankh Se Dekh Tamasha Duniya Ka” sung by father son duo Kishore Kumar and Amit Kumar was also very popular at the time of the film’s release.