Shirin Farhad

Old fashioned film poster for sale: Shirin Farhad (1956).

This is an actual surviving original vintage Bollywood poster of the old 1956 classic black and white Hindi film produced and directed by Aspi Irani that starred Bollywood’s eternal beauty queen Madhubala in the lead role as princess “Shirin.”

Pradeep Kumar played her love interest “Farhad” in the film, while Ameeta, P. Kailash, Kamal, H. Prakash, Jagdish Kamal, Shakuntala, Bela, Uma Dutt, Ram Avtar, Ashabai and Baby Leela were supporting artists.

Shirin Farhad (1956) is widely regarded as one of the biggest hits of both Madhubala and Pradeep Kumar’s film careers, making this old fashioned film poster, highly collectible!

Released under the Super Pictures banner, Shirin Farhad (1956) was based on the Shahnameh – an epic poem written by Persian poet Ferdowsi which is considered the national epic of Persia. It tells the story of two childhood sweethearts, one a princess (Shirin) and the second a commoner (Farhad). As they come of age, their friendship is frowned upon and ultimately prohibited due to vast the difference in their status, with Farhad being banned from entering the palace to see Shirin.

Printed and circulated during a subsequent theatrical release run of the film (somewhere in the 1960s), this classic old fashioned film poster was designed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

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

The Marilyn Monroe of Bollywood, Madhubala is seen in a stunning hand drawn rendition on the top. The sadness in her gaze has been captured brilliantly by the poster artist. Her palace is seen illustrated below along with a few men on horseback. Actor Pradeep Kumar is seen in another superb hand painted portrait holding a farming pickaxe on his shoulders.

Dark toned brush strokes are seen in the background on the top half of this old fashioned film poster, while the bottom remains a minimal and simplistic white. The Devanagari Hindi title is seen in a striking yellow font on the top against contrasting black, while the English title at the bottom is seen in black with a yellow border. The title is seen translated in Urdu as well on the top.

Typography used in this old time movie poster is a combination of both English as well as Devanagari Hindi. One of the most memorable songs from the film sung by Lata Mangeshkar, “Guzra Hua Zamana Aata Nahin Dobara, Hafiz Khuda Tumhara (English translation: “Times That Are Past Do Not Come Back Again, Goodbye Forever”) is seen written on the top of this Shirin Farhad poster.

The soundtrack album of Shirin Farhad (1956) was composed by S. Mohinder and became a hit during the film’s release. “Hazaron Rang Badlega Zamana” sung by Mohammed Rafi was another memorable song from the film.