Ishaara

Ishaara poster for sale.

Featured here is an actual surviving original vintage Bollywood poster of the old 1964 black and white Hindi film produced and directed by K. Amarnath that starred Vyjayantimala and Joy Mukherjee in lead roles.

Presented under the K. Amarnath Productions banner, Ishaara (1964) also starred Pran, Agha, Jayant, Shammi, Subbiraj, Azra, Murad, Praveen Paul, Sajjan, Pratima Devi, Birbal, Ravikant, Amrit Rana, Hari Shivdasani and Raja Amrohi in supporting roles.

Ishaara (1964) told the story of a woman called Mala (Vyjayantimala) who returns home after completing her education, only to find her father Khemchand (Jayant) completely transformed both financially as well as personally. After starting a private insurance business, Khemchand has amassed massive amounts of wealth and properties. Despite coming from a poor background himself, he has begun to frown upon the poor and downtrodden, considering them unworthy to be associated with. Khemchand desires to get his daughter Mala married to playboy Suresh (Pran), who is the son of wealthy merchant Seth Dwarkadas (Murad). Shortly after Mala arrives at the train station, she is saved from being run over by a truck by Vijay (Joy Mukherjee). A motor mechanic by profession, Vijay lives in a ghetto, doing odd jobs like newspaper delivery to get by in life. Vijay is smitten by Mala and desires to marry her. Only days away from being engaged to Suresh, Mala learns that her younger sister Shashi (Azra) has already had an affair with him. The two sisters confront Suresh and demand that he does the right thing by putting the ring on Shashi’s finger instead of Mala’s at the engagement. However, Suresh lies to his parents that Mala is not interested in marrying him after which they call off the engagement last minute. Vijay is ecstatic that Mala’s engagement has been called off. However, things take a turn for the worse for Mala’s family when the government passes a new resolution to nationalize insurance companies. Khemchand realizes that his private insurance business will now be investigated by authorities and his only option is to flee the country with his children. Khemchand stashes away all his ill gotten wealth with his trusted servant and makes a bid to escape the county with his family. However, the police arrive just when he is about to leave and arrest him. He is jailed for financial fraud and receives a sentence of seven years in prison. In his absence, all his wealth and properties are seized. Mala convinces her family to handover her father’s secret stash of cash to authorities, leaving them penniless. Vijay offers the family his own place to live in. Mala takes up a job as a salesgirl at a women’s departmental store to provide for her family. However, it turns out that the owner of the store is none other than Suresh’s father Seth Dwarkadas who has Mala fired from the job. To make himself worthy for being Mala’s husband, Vijay starts a motor repair garage. Mala searches for a job everywhere but is unable to find one. Vijay offers her a job in his garage and she agrees. The two begin to work together as motor mechanics. However, Suresh creates a rift between Mala’s family by tempting away Shashi and her brother Deep (Subbiraj) with his wealth. When Vijay’s mother (Mridula Rani) goes to Mala’s stepmother (Pratima Devi) to ask for her daughter’s hand in marriage for her son, she is insulted and sent away. Mala promises her stepmother that she will stop seeing Vijay and quits her job at his motor garage. She leaves his home and uses her dancing skills to join a theater troupe in order to become financially independent.

Printed and circulated during the release run of the film in theaters (somewhere in the 1960s), this vintage Ishaara poster was created for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This old Bollywood poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by a poster design studio.

A stunning hand painted illustration of lead couple Joy Mukherjee and Vyjayantimala in a romantic pose is seen dominating the entire span of this poster. The two are seen dressed in overalls, stealing a romantic break from working together at a motor garage. Striking highlights of yellow and shades of blue are seen on their hair. Pastel shades used in both the foreground and background give this Ishaara poster a beautiful vintage feel.

Lettering used in this Vyjayantimala poster is entirely in Devanagari Hindi, except for a translation of the title in Urdu on the top right. The title of the film appears illustrated in simplistic and minimal white in a slanted hand written font.

The soundtrack album of Ishaara (1964) was composed by duo Kalyanji-Anandji, who were assisted by duo Laxmikant–Pyarelal, while lyrics were written by Majrooh Sultanpuri. It featured the smash hit duet, “Hey Abdullah Nagin Wala Aa Gaya” sung by Lata Mangeshkar & Mohammed Rafi. “Dil Bekarar Sa Hai” sung by Mohammed Rafi & Lata Mangeshkar and “Chal Mere Dil Lehra Ke Chal” sung by Mukesh were other popular tracks from the film.