Devi

Devi poster for sale.

This is an actual surviving original Bollywood poster of the 1970 Hindi film directed by V. Madhusudhana Rao that starred Nutan in the titular role as “Devi” opposite actor Sanjeev Kumar.

Produced by A.V. Subramaniam and T.M. Kittu under the Olympic Pictures’ banner, Devi (1970) also starred Rehman, Madan Puri, Manmohan Krishna, Mukri, Aruna Irani, Farida Jalal, Lalita Pawar and Sulochana Latkar in supporting roles. Mehmood made a guest appearance in the film.

The story of a poor village girl called Devi (essayed by Nutan) who gets married to a highly educated and wealthy city doctor (played by Sanjeev Kumar), Devi (1970) explored the age old conflict of virtue v/s wealth in Indian marriages.

Printed and circulated during the original first release of the film (somewhere in 1970), this original Bollywood poster was printed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This vintage Devi poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by master Bollywood poster artist V.G. Parchure of Pamart Studio fame, making it highly collectible. The printed signature of movie poster designer V.G. Parchure in the name of his art studio Pamart is seen on the bottom right of this old Devi poster.

Interestingly, in this vintage Bollywood poster, the lead actors have been left out completely. Comedian Mehmood who made a guest appearance in the film as a henpecked husband is seen in a stunning close up portrait on the top. An overpainted still of actress Aruna Irani dancing to the song “Jogan Pritam Ki” sung by Usha Iyer and Lakshmi Shankar is seen at the bottom of this Devi poster.

This illustrated Bollywood poster is set against a brilliant blue background, with it’s title standing out in stark contrast in white with a red border. Typography used in this vintage Devi movie poster is entirely in English, with only it’s title translated to both Devanagari Hindi as well as Urdu.

The soundtrack album of Devi (1970) was composed by hit music composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal, while lyrics were written by Anand Bakshi. It featured memorable songs such as “Shaadi Ke Liye” sung by Mohammed Rafi and “Teri Haseen Nigah Ka, Ehsanmand Hoon” sung by Lata Mangeshkar & Mohammed Rafi.