Kala Pani

Dev Anand poster for sale: Kala Pani (1958).

Featured here is a rare vintage original Bollywood poster of the hit Hindi thriller, Kala Pani (1958).

Directed by Raj Khosla, the film starred Dev Anand, Madhubala and Nalini Jaywant in lead roles. Agha, Mukri, Kishore Sahu, Nazir Hussain and Mumtaz Begum played supporting roles in the film.

Kala Pani  was based on A.J. Cronin’s 1953 novel, “Beyond This Place.” Madhubala is regarded as the most beautiful actress in Indian cinema of all time, and is also referred to as the “Marilyn Monroe of Bollywood.” Her role in Kala Pani as fearless journalist “Asha” earned her the praise of critics.

At the 6th Filmfare Awards, Dev Anand and Nalini Jaywant won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress for their performance in the film, making this Kala Pani poster, highly collectible.

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

The artwork of this Kala Pani movie poster was originally made in hand painted oil on canvas format by a poster design studio in Delhi. The Evergreen star of Bollywood, Dev Anand is seen captured in a superbly illustrated close up portrait prominently in this old Bollywood poster. Actress Nalini Jaywant who plays the role of prostitute Kishori in the film is seen behind his shoulder.

The typography used in this Dev Anand poster is completely in English with a translation of the title appearing at the bottom in both Devanagari Hindi as well as Urdu.

Kala Pani was  a remake of the Bengali film Sabar Uparey (1955) which starred Uttam Kumar. The soundtrack album of the film was composed by the greatest Bollywood music composer of all time, S. D. Burman, with lyrics written by Majrooh Sultanpuri. One of the songs from the film, “Achha Ji Main Haari, Chalo Maan Jao Na” sung by Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi became a rage throughout the nation and is fondly remembered and played till today.