Jagte Raho

Jagte Raho poster for sale.

Featured here is an actual surviving original Bollywood poster of the old 1956 black and white Bollywood film produced by and starring the greatest entertainer of all time in Indian cinema, Raj Kapoor (also known as The Show Man of Indian cinema).

Written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and directed by Amit Maitra and Sombhu Mitra, Jagte Raho (1956) was also released in Bengali as Ek Din Raatre. It was the last Raj Kapoor film to feature Nargis, who made a special appearance in the song “Jaago Mohan Pyaare” sung by Lata Mangeshkar.

Raj Kapoor became a superstar in the Soviet Union after the release of his first film Awaara (1951) dubbed in Russian as “Bradagya.” Thanks to his already established popularity, Jagte Raho (1956) was a blockbuster at the Soviet box office, with 33.6 million tickets sold.

Distributed by R.K. Films, Jagte Raho (1956) won the prestigious Certificate of Merit at the National Film Awards, making this old Jagte Raho poster, highly collectible!

Printed and circulated during the film’s release run in north Indian theaters (somewhere in the 1960s), this old Raj Kapoor poster was designed and printed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This Jagte Raho poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by a poster design studio in Delhi. The printed signature of the artist in the name of his art studio is seen on the bottom right.

A striking hand drawn portrait of Raj Kapoor is seen in the foreground. A cityscape appears illustrated behind him. The background of this Jagte Raho poster is black, true to the film’s setting which has been largely shot in the night.

The blank, helpless expression on Raj Kapoor’s face captures the essence of the plot of the film – A poor villager (Raj Kapoor) finds himself struggling to survive the harsh and indifferent city life.

Jagte Raho (1956) won the Crystal Globe Grand Prix award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in Czechoslovakia in 1957, which is announted on the top of this vintage movie poster.

The soundtrack album of Jagte Raho (1956) was composed by Salil Choudhary, while lyrics were penned by Shailendra and Prem Dhawan. It featured the timeless classic, “Zindagi Khwab Hai, Khwab Me Jhuth Kya Aur Bhala Sach Hai Kya” sung by Mukesh. “Main Koi Jhoot Boleya” sung by Mohammed Rafi and S. Balbir was another popular song from the film.