Art & Film in Bollywood
Here is something a little bit different: because of my exams, I have not been able to watch any movies, and so I thought that a different type of post would be good to do.
Today, I'll be sharing some of my favourite Bollywood film posters. Bollywood films in the 1950s to the 1980s were advertised through print media; handcrafted posters painstakingly drawn, coloured, and replicated on a wide scale to provide an insight into the movies they were advertising. Bollywood films rely on strong visuals to be appealing, and that has not changed during the several decades that Bollywood cinema has been such a large industry.
The posters that strike me are the ones that focus solely on women, or have women as the dominant entity in the frame. The one on the right is Bandini, a movie from the 1960s that was known to be one of the first feminist movies in the Hindi-language film industry, and industry otherwise so bogged down by antiquated gender stereotypes. Adding to this, the colour purple is very dominant in the poster: not only does the colour have a connotation with femininity, but it is also quite visually striking. The middle poster, Naqab, is especially interesting to me; it is fluorescent in its radiance, and it challenges Muslim stereotypes, which is something quite daring - what is the point of film if it doesn't challenge stereotypes? The same can be said for the poster on the right, Amber. There is also a very strong feminist image: the knife coupled with the drama of the dark blue hues and the dramatic sunset is exhilarating to see, even if just a single frame.
For me, film posters that have also been particularly striking when they are advertising big budget period pieces: The poster on the left is the Pakeezah one (there are several variations). The poster instantly lures you into the main themes of the movie: the strong focus on the colour white and the connotations of purity that come with it are significant because it is the main focus within the film. The poster wraps you into the world of being a courtesan in Mughal India, full of drama. The one on the right is one of the posters for the blockbuster Mughal-e-Azam. If you thought the Pakeezah poster had drama, the Mughal-e-Azam one has so much more. The cannons, the intricate floral designs, all with the background of the vibrancy of Mughal-era India really sells the movie as one of action and exuberance.
