Do Bhai

Do Bhai poster for sale.

Featured here is a rare surviving vintage Bollywood poster of the old 1969 Hindi film produced and directed by Brij Sadanah that starred Ashok Kumar, Jeetendra and Mala Sinha in key roles.

Released under the Dynamo International banner, Do Bhai (1969) also featured Jagdeep, Sheikh Mukhtar, Manmohan, Jayshree T., Asit Sen, Chand Usmani, Hercules, Maruti, Malika and Ratan Kumar in supporting roles.

Written by Salim Khan (credited as Prince Salim), Do Bhai (1969) told the story of two brothers, Ajay (Ashok Kumar) and Vijay Verma (Jeetendra), who are employed as government officers. Ajay is a judge while Vijay is the Superintendent of Police. Ajay gets intimately involved with a woman called Ranjana (Chand Usmani) and gets her pregnant. One day Ajay departs on a trip, entrusting his best friend Mahesh to take care of Ranjana in his absence. However, Mahesh betrays his trust and rapes Ranjana who is pregnant with Ajay’s child. After delivering a daughter, Ranjana is unable to bear the shame and leaves the infant behind at Ajay’s doorstep along with a suicide note in which she recounts what Mahesh did to her and jumps off a cliff. Enraged, Ajay hunts down Mahesh and murders him in a train compartment. The only eyewitness to the murder is Sandhya (Mala Sinha) who promises to keep the secret. Believing that he will never meet Sandhya again, Ajay decides to let her go. However, unknown to him, Vijay has already hired Sandhya as a governess to take care of his daughter Munni. As Sandhya moves into the brothers’ home, she falls in love with Vijay and is now torn to reveal his brother’s dark secret.

Printed and circulated subsequent to the first release of the film (somewhere in the 1970s), this vintage Bollywood poster was issued for publicity of the film in north Indian theaters but never ended up being used.

This Do Bhai poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by a Delhi based Bollywood poster art studio and features striking illustrated artwork.

A beautiful hand drawn illustration of lead couple Jeetendra and Mala Sinha in a romantic pose is seen at the top. Ashok Kumar is seen in a close up portrait at the bottom left, while Sheikh Mukhtar who plays the character of Jwala Singh (Ranjana’s brother) is seen illustrated at the bottom right of this vintage Bollywood poster.

Typography used in this Do Bhai movie poster is a mix of English as well as Devanagari Hindi, with a translation of the title appearing in Urdu as well. The main Devanagari Hindi title appears in red with a yellow border standing our brilliantly against a white background.

The soundtrack album of Do Bhai (1969) was composed by duo Laxmikant–Pyarelal, while lyrics were written by Anand Bakshi. It featured the hit duet, “Geet Nahin Ban Sakte” sung by Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle. The title track “Is Duniya Mein O Duniyawalo” sung by Mohammed Rafi was also popular at the time of the film’s release.

Do Bhai (1969) was remade in Tamil as Justice Viswanathan (1971) and in Telugu as Nenu Manishine (1971).