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 called Prasanta played by Kali Banerjee who sells clothes for children on the streets, struggling to provide for his family. He works tirelessly to fulfill the education of his younger sister Madhumala (nicknamed Mala), played by Manjula Bannerjee. When police evict hawkers from the street and he subsequently falls ill, Mala, who has acquired a degree in physiology and biology has to now look for a job to make ends meet. She seeks the help of a renowned doctor played by Chhabi Biswas who has setup a personal clinical research laboratory in the outhouse of his residential property. Moved by Mala’s plight and amazed to know that Mala’s elder brother is a hawker, the doctor hires her as an administrative assistant. One night, the doctor spots Mala working overnight in his outhouse laboratory and is stunned to know that she is secretly writing a thesis on cancer. When he reads Mala’s thesis, he is so impressed with her talent that he promotes her to the position of clinical researcher, assigning her to work with young doctor Robin in the laboratory. Mala and Robin fall in love. However, there is a big class divide between the two as Robin is from a very wealthy family that desires to see him married to a girl of status. A heartbroken Mala returns home only to find that her elder brother is now terminally ill with cancer. Mala and the doctor take Prasanta to a hospital but despite their best efforts, he passes away. Mala continues to work tirelessly in the area of cancer research, dedicating her efforts to the memory of her lost brother.
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).
