Nav Durga

Rare Bollywood movie posters for sale: Nav Durga (1953).

This is an actual surviving rare vintage original Bollywood poster of the 1953 mythological Hindi film that starred Usha Kiran, Mahipal and Sulochana Chatterjee in lead roles.

Produced by Wadia Brothers and released under Homi Wadia’s Basant Pictures banner, Nav Durga was directed by the pioneer of special effects in Indian cinema, Babubhai Mistry.

The film was based on the nine avatars of Goddess Durga as per Hindu mythology, namely Shailputri, Brahmcharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandmata, Katyayani, Kaalratri, Mahagauri, and Siddhidatri.

Printed and circulated during the first release of the film in theaters (somewhere in the 1950s), this rare Bollywood movie poster was printed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This Nav Durga poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by a movie poster design studio in Bombay. The printed signature of Bollywood poster painter D.G. Pradhan is seen on the bottom left of the poster.

Set in a circle prominently, Goddess Durga is seen at the center, with her nine avatars appearing around her. Stunning hand painted close ups of the three lead actors, Mahipal, Usha Kiran and Sulochana Chatterjee are seen at the bottom of this rare Bollywood movie poster.

Lettering used in this poster is entirely in Devanagari Hindi, with a translation of the title seen in Urdu at the bottom. The main Hindi title appears in bright yellow against a soothing green background on the top.

The soundtrack album of Nav Durga was composed by S.N. Tripathi and featured gems like, “Aai Bahar Kiye Solah Singar Sakhi” sung by Geeta Dutt and “Chham Chham Naache” sung by Geeta Dutt and Mohammad Rafi.