Old Bangla movie poster for sale: Agnisambhaba (1959).
Featured here is an actual surviving original vintage Bengali cinema poster of the 1959 black and white Bangla drama directed by Sushil Majumdar that starred Kali Banerjee, Chhabi Biswas and Manjula Bannerjee in key roles.
Produced by Art and Culture Pictures, Agnisambhaba (1959) also starred Nripati Chattopadhyay, Nirmal Kumar, Tarun Kumar, Kamala Mukherjee, Banani Choudhury, Amar Mullick, Premangshu Bose, Master Tilak, Master Debashis, Master Somnath, Aparna Devi, Asha Devi, Santha Devi, Dilip Chowdhury, Shyam Laha, Haridhan Mukherjee, Ajit Chatterjee, Mani Srimani, Dhiraj Das, Preeti Majumdar and Shailen Mukherjee in supporting roles.
The film told the touching story of a poor hawker selling clothes on the pavement played by Kali Banerjee who struggles to provide for his family. He desires to get his young sister, played by Manjula Bannerjee, married. However, when police evict hawkers from the street and he subsequently falls ill, his sister has to look for a job to make ends meet. She seeks the help of nuclear physics researcher played by Chhabi Biswas in the city.
Printed and circulated during the release of the film in Kolkata theaters (somewhere in the 1960s), this old Bangla movie poster was designed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.
This Agnisambhaba poster was originally designed in hand drawn format by a poster design studio in Kolkata and features striking artwork.
The three lead actors are seen in black and white bust sized portraits, each encased in a differently colored box. Chhabi Biswas is seen in a hand drawn portrait on the top, encased inside a yellow box. Manjula Bannerjee is illustrated smiling at the center inside a red box, while Kali Banerjee appears hand painted against a green background.
Typography used in this old Bangla movie poster is entirely in Bengali, with the title appearing in a very creatively designed and stylized font in red. The background of this Agnisambhaba movie poster is black, while the lettering appears illustrated in both white as well as red, creating a contrast.
A line at the top announces Agnisambhaba as “The first Bengali film to win an award at an international film festival.”
The soundtrack album of Agnisambhaba (1959) was composed by Kalobaran Das. It featured a Bengali rendition of the cult Bollywood song “Ichak Dana Beechak Dana” sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Mukesh in the film Shree 420 (1955).
