Muqabla

Line art painting poster for sale: Muqabla (1979).

Featured here is an actual surviving vintage Bollywood poster of the old 1979 action Hindi film directed by Rajkumar Kohli that starred Sunil Dutt, Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy and Bindiya Goswami in key roles.

Produced by Raja & Desai and presented by Khushman Valia under the Roy Films banner, Muqabla (1979) also starred Ranjeet, Dr. Shreeram Lagoo, Madan Puri, Om Shivpuri, Prem Nath, Sulochana, Roopesh Kumar, Rajan Haksar, Azad, Beena, Hercules, Jitendra Nath and Ram Soni in supporting roles. Superstars Rajesh Khanna and Rekha made a special appearance in the Qawwali song, “O Mehfil Ki Shama.”

Muqabla (1979) told the story of a truck driver called Vinod played by Sunil Dutt (who later changes his name to Vicky). He falls in love with a gypsy woman Champa (Bindiya Goswami). The two are forced to elope as Champa’s wedding has already been fixed by her father (Om Shivpuri), who is also the head of the tribe. Upon hearing the news that her daughter has run away with a stranger, Champa’s father is humiliated in front of his tribe and suffers a fatal heart attack. Champa’s sister Lachho (Reena Roy) vows to find Champa’s lover and murder him to exact revenge for her father’s death. Vinod and Champa get married and start a new life. To make ends meet, Vinod takes up a job as a chauffeur for wealthy businessman Keemtilal (Ranjeet). Champa gets pregnant and suffers complications while going into labor. With his wife in urgent need for hospitalization and surgery, Vinod lands up at his employer’s doorstep to ask for money but is humiliated. Enraged, Vinod beats up Keemtilal and escapes with his money. However, when he reaches home it is too late. Champa has already passed away delivering a son. Vinod suffers a stroke on seeing Champa dead and faints. He is apprehended by the police and hospitalized, while his infant son is handed over to a government orphanage. When Vinod regains consciousness, he is given a life saving pill that he must take in the event of getting another stroke in future. Keemtilal is terrified that Vinod will exact revenge upon him after returning from prison. Hence, while Vinod is still in prison, Keemtilal moves to Bombay and changes his name to Banwarilal. After spending six months in jail, Vinod is released. He changes his name to Vicky and moves to Bombay to track down and murder the man responsible for his wife’s death, Keemtilal. There he meets a smuggler Heeralal (Madan Puri) who makes him a partner in his business. Vicky begins to earn huge sums of cash through his smuggling operation and is able to take back his son and move into a palatial house. Lachho finds out that her sister Champa is dead and arrives in Bombay along with her mother looking for Vinod. She is saved from being raped by the area’s strongman Chhenu (Shatrughan Sinha). The two fall in love and decide to get married. However before they can do so, Chhenu is jailed for five years. In the meantime, Lachho saves a young boy playing outside his home from being run over and is offered a reward by the boy’s father, Vicky. She has no idea that Vicky is actually Vinod, the very man she has been searching for to exact her revenge. Lachho refuses to accept the reward but later breaks in to Vicky’s home to steal a sum of two thousand rupees for her mother’s surgery. Vicky catches Lachho red handed and finds a photograph of her and Champa together in her hands. He is shocked to know that Lachho is his dead wife’s sister. He suffers another stroke and is helped with his life saving medication by Lachho. Vicky offers to pay for her mother’s surgery and visits Lachho’s mom in hospital. On the doctor’s advice, Vicky brings Lachho and her mother to his home so that she can recover completely. Vicky’s son begins to see Lachho as his mother. In the meantime, Chhenu is released from prison six months in advance due to his sincerity and good behavior. He returns back home only to find that his area has been taken over by Vicky’s smuggling operation. Chhenu works for Banwarilal who is Heeralal’s rival. Banwarilal offers Chhenu a reward to eliminate Vicky. Chhenu and Vicky become sworn enemies and fight for territory. The enmity is further complicated by Lachho and her mother living in Vicky’s home. Chhenu confronts Lachho and she reveals how Vicky helped take care of her mother and pay for her operation. When Chhenu is arrested by police inspector Maghav (Prem Nath), he is reformed with his wisdom. Chhenu decides to stop working with Banwarilal and turns police informer, passing on information on his racketeering and smuggling operations. Chhenu begins to reform all his gang members and goes to Vicky’s home to convince him to give up smuggling. However, Vicky refuses and the two war yet again. Chhenu helps police seize Vicky’s smuggling consignment worth one and a half lakh rupees enraging his business partner Heeralal who decides to end the partnership and demands to be compensated for the loss. Heeralal joins hands with his rival Banwarilal and the two begin to plot to exploit the enmity between Chhenu and Vicky to eliminate both of them.

Printed and circulated during the initial release run of the film in theaters (somewhere in the 1979), this Muqabla poster was designed and printed 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 Bollywood poster art studio in Bombay.

The two lead actors, Sunil Dutt and Shatrughan Sinha, are seen in striking close up illustrations in large symmetrical portraits. Line art painting techniques have been used to draw the two faces. The brilliant use of blue and red shades over yellow make the faces stand out in contrast. The two are seen again in semi-abstract stick figure pencil drawings at the center, dancing to the smash hit song, “Teen Batti Wala Govinda Aala.”

Typography used in this line art painting poster is entirely in Devanagari Hindi, except for a translation of the title in Gujarati on the top. The main Hindi title is illustrated in yellow at the bottom in a cinemascope typeface, standing out against a blue background.

The soundtrack album of Muqabla (1979) was composed by duo Laxmikant–Pyarelal, while lyrics were written by Verma Malik. It featured the unforgettable song, “Teen Batti Wala Govinda Aala” sung by two of the greatest singers in Indian cinema, Mohammed Rafi & Kishore Kumar. The song featured Sunil Dutt and Shatrughan Sinha, with Mohammed Rafi singing for Dutt and Kishore Kumar for Sinha. The song is a timeless classic, played every year on the festival of Janmashtami, an annual Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Krishna.

Two decades later, Sunil Dutt’s son Sanjay Dutt danced on a similar song (“Har Taraf Hai Ye Shor”) copying his father’s dance moves in the film Vaastav: The Reality (1999).