Harishchandra Taramati

Prithviraj Kapoor poster for sale: Harishchandra Taramati (1963).

Featured here is an actual surviving vintage Bollywood poster of the old 1963 Hindi film produced and directed by B.K. Adarsh that starred his wife Jaymala as queen Taramati and one of the founding fathers of Indian cinema, Prithviraj Kapoor as King Harishchandra.

Based on the ancient Hindu legend of Raja Harishchandra, the film chronicled the story of honest king Harishchandra, his wife queen Taramati and their son Rohitashva played by Master Babloo.

A remake of Indian cinema’s first ever feature film, Raja Harishchandra (1912), Harishchandra Taramati (1963) was presented under the Adarsh Lok banner and also starred B.M. Vyas, Helen, Ulhas, Nazi, Tiwari, Babu Raje, P. Kailash and Saraswati in supporting roles.

Printed and circulated during a subsequent release run of the film (somewhere in the 1960s), this vintage Harishchandra Taramati poster was printed for publicity of the film in north Indian theaters but never ended up being used.

This Prithviraj Kapoor poster was originally hand painted on canvas by a movie poster art studio in Delhi. A striking hand painted illustration of the legendary actor in his character of a king is seen at the center. He is flanked by actor Ramayan Tiwari who plays sage Vishvamitra on the right. Actress Jaymala is illustrated on the left appearing as queen Taramati holding her dead son, Prince Rohit in her arms (played by Babloo).

The background is split into two parts, with earth below appearing sky blue and heaven above in crimson. Typography used in this old Prithviraj Kapoor poster is entirely in Devanagari Hindi, with the title appearing in red accentuated with a yellow border.

The soundtrack album of Harishchandra Taramati (1963) was composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, while lyrics were written by Kavi Pradeep. It featured the classic song, “Toot Gayi Hai Mala Moti Bikhar Chale” sung by Kavi Pradeep.