Deewaar

Spectacular hand painted vintage Bollywood movie poster of one of the greatest Hindi films in Indian cinema, Deewaar (1975) for sale.

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

Printed and circulated during the first release of the film, this old Bollywood movie poster was originally designed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This poster was originally designed on a hand painted canvas by the greatest and highest paid Bollywood movie poster artist of all time, Diwakar Karkare. Deewaar is credited with being poster artist Diwakar Karkare’s finest rendition ever, making this poster highly collectible.

Deewaar established superstar Amitabh Bachchan as the angry young man of Indian cinema. In the poster, artist Diwakar solidifies this by adapting a skilful technique to paint over Amitabh’s portrait using a knife. The knife overlay adds a degree of roughness and texture to Amitabh’s portrait, giving him a macho and angry look true to his character in the film. His face is painted in red to reflect his angry mood. The other characters of the film appear seamlessly intertwined together lending drama to this brilliantly hand painted old cinema poster.

Artist Diwakar Karkare’s original signature appears over the hand of actress Nirupa Roy’s portrait on the left of the poster.

The typography used in this poster is completely in English.

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).