College Girl

College Girl movie poster for sale.

Featured here is a vintage Bollywood poster of the old black and white Hindi romantic drama directed by T. Prakash Rao that starred Vyjayanthimala in the titular role along with Shammi Kapoor.

Produced by B.L. Rawal under his Rawal Films banner, College Girl (1960) also featured Om Prakash, Nana Palsikar, Tabassum, Raj Mehra, Purnima, Randhir, Achala Sachdev, Leela Mishra, Kumud Tripathi, Vinod Sharma, Sarita Devi and Mohan Choti in supporting roles.

A women empowerment film, College Girl (1960) opened with a statement from India’s first prime minister: “The greatest revolution in a country is the one that affects the status and living conditions of it’s women,” which he wrote in his foreword in the book titled Women of India (1957). The plot of the film revolved around a brilliant student in Amritsar called Kamla (Vyjayanthimala) who stands first in her 10th grade school exams among 10,000 students in the entire state of Punjab. With dreams to become a doctor, Kamla desires to enroll in a college in order to pursue her degree under a government scholarship. Her father is an illiterate traditional healer called Hakim Ram Prasad (Om Prakash), who thinks educating girls is a waste of money. Patriarchal and orthodox, Hakim Ram Prasad believes that for a virtuous woman, her college is her in-laws’ home. Unable to convince her father to send her to college, Kamla turns to her father’s friend Dr. Ratan (Raj Mehra) for help. Together, the two convince Hakim Ram Prasad that Kamla is not enrolling in a college but rather a tailoring school where she will learn stitching, a skill that would be invaluable in her married domestic life. Dr. Ratan has moved to Amritsar along with his son Shyam (Shammi Kapoor), who is a sports champion and hates studying. Kamla and Shyam, who are exact opposites of each other, both enroll in the same college. Opposites attract and the two fall in love. Will Kamla be able to hide her secret college life from her father until she completes her education?

Printed and circulated during a subsequent release run of the film (somewhere in the 1960s), this College Girl movie poster was printed for publicity of the film in north Indian theaters but never ended up being used.

This vintage Bollywood poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by a poster art studio in Delhi and features quirky artwork.

A stunning full length hand drawn illustration of the lead couple Shammi Kapoor and Vyjayanthimala is seen at the center. The two have their backs pressed against each other and Shammi Kapoor is seen holding Vyjayanthimala’s hand in a romantic pose. A soothing pastel sky background is seen behind them, which makes the artwork standout in contrast.

Typography used in this Vyjayanthimala poster is primarily in English, with the title translated to both Devanagari Hindi as well as Urdu. The main English title appears in a diagonal running font in white, highlighted against a dark blue background. A white box at the top that contains the names of the lead couple as well as the producer’s logo appears as an envelope or letter.

The soundtrack album of College Girl (1960) was composed by the legendary duo Shankar-Jaikishan. It featured memorable songs such as, “Pehla Pehla Pyar Ka Ishara” sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi.