Deewaar

Rare original vintage publicity poster of one of the greatest Bollywood movies ever made, Deewaar (1975) for sale.

This is an actual surviving old movie poster of the 1975 action Hindi film that featured the biggest superstar of Indian cinema, Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role. Deewaar (sometimes also spelled as Deewar) is considered one of the most iconic movies ever made in Indian cinema and finds mention among the cult films of Bollywood.

Printed and circulated a few years after the first release of Deewaar (somewhere in the early 1980s), this original movie poster celebrates Deewaar’s phenomenal success at the Filmfare Awards (where it bagged seven awards in different categories). This movie poster was intended for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

The poster was originally designed on a hand painted canvas by the greatest and highest paid Bollywood movie poster artist of all time, Diwakar Karkare.

In the poster, artist Diwakar uses a knife to over paint Amitabh’s in order to give him a rugged or macho look. Smaller photographic still images of Shashi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Parveen Babi and Nirupa Roy appear alongside.

The typography used in this poster is completely in English, with a translation of the title in Devanagari Hindi on the top.

Deewaar (The Wall), is a cult 1975 Hindi film directed by Yash Chopra and written by Salim-Javed. Starring the greatest superstar of Indian cinema Amitabh Bachchan, Deewaar tells the story of two impoverished brothers (played by Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor) who struggle to survive on the indifferent streets of Mumbai after the passing away of their father.

One of them, Shashi Kapoor chooses the path of good, becoming a police officer. Amitabh on the other hand turns into a mafia don and amasses quick wealth and success. This creates an obvious divide or enmity between them, inspiring the title of the film. Deewaar is believed to be based loosely on the real life of one of Mumbai’s iconic gangsters, Haji Mastan. For preparation of his character as a gangster in the film, it is further believed that Amitabh Bachchan met Haji Mastan in person to study his mannerisms.

Deewaar is widely credited for establishing Amitabh Bachchan as the “angry young man” of Bollywood. Actress Parveen Babi was seen as the new age woman in Indian cinema, whose character appears as a liberated woman smoking and drinking, living-in with her lover – defying all traditional norms of the time. The brilliant storyline and dialogues of the film established Salim-Javed as the most sought after writers in Indian cinema. It is believed they were paid as high as actors in subsequent films they worked on, thanks to the success of Deewaar.

Deewaar bagged numerous awards, and is credited as a must see film in Indian cinema. The music of the film was composed by RD Burman. The track “Keh Doon Tumhe” was a chartbuster.

One of the dialogues from the film, “Mere Paas Maa Hai” is regarded as one of the greatest dialogues ever in Indian cinema and has inspired countless spoofs over the years.

Danny Boyle, who described Deewaar as being “absolutely key to Indian cinema”, cited the film as an influence on his Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008).