Gumrah

Gumrah poster for sale.

Featured here is an actual surviving original vintage Bollywood poster of the 1963 Hindi romance drama produced and directed by B.R. Chopra that starred Sunil Dutt, Ashok Kumar and Mala Sinha in key roles.

Shashikala, Nirupa Roy and Deven Verma played supporting roles in this black and white film, which was a hit at the box office. For her stellar performance as a deceitful blackmailer in Gumrah (1963), Shashikala won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Printed and circulated during the debut release of the film in theaters (somewhere in 1963), this vintage Bollywood poster was originally designed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This Gumrah poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by a Bollywood poster design studio in Bombay. The printed signature of noted Bollywood poster painter Shrikant is seen on the bottom left.

Two stunning large side profiles are seen illustrated prominently in this old Bollywood poster. Actors Ashok Kumar on the left and Sunil Dutt on the right are facing each other, locked in a face-off. Their faces have been hand painted in a brilliant mix of skin tone and green, with beautiful use of highlighting to add radiance. A smaller pleasing portrait of actress Mala Sinha wearing a long bindi is seen below at the center of this Gumrah poster.

The two male portraits are seen encased inside a green gradient background, whereas the bottom is a minimal white, which makes the artwork stand out.

Typography used in this original Gumrah poster is entirely in Devanagari Hindi, with only a translation of the title seen in English. The main Devanagari Hindi title on the top is seen in white with an orange border.

The soundtrack album of Gumrah (1963) was composed by Ravi, while lyrics were written by Sahir Ludhianvi. It featured the unforgettable track, “Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se Ajnabi Ban Jaye Hum Dono” sung by Mahendra Kapoor, who won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer for his performance.

Other memorable songs included “Aa Ja Aa Ja Re (Tujhko Mera Pyar Pukare)” sung by Mahendra Kapoor and Asha Bhosle” and “Aa Bhi Ja (Yeh Hawa Yeh Fiza)” & “Aap Aaye To” sung by Mahendra Kapoor.

The success of Gumrah (1963) inspired a remake in Malayalam called Vivahitha (1970).