The oldest poster on display is from the movie Hunterwali Ki Beti (1943) and the youngest is from the movie Chalti Ka Naam Zindagi (1982). The exhibition “Moments in Motion”, which is up and running at the Heritage Transport Museum, will continue till January 31, 2021. The exhibition has more than 60 posters and over 100 lobby cards spanning over 5 decades on display .
Film posters have been an integral part of cinema since its inception as it became a way of introducing the film in an eye-catching format. Lobby cards were film posters or scenes printed on card stock and were usually displayed in a theatre’s lobby to perform similar functions. Along with show cards and song booklets, they formed an indispensable part of the cultural paraphernalia of cinema.
Transportation and cinema go a long way back. The various means of transport have been part of some iconic cinema moments. Born at the cusp of a new century, cinema has always projected tensions between traditional ways of living and the advent of modernity. Needless to say, with the nation realizing the life-altering capacity of motorized transport, they came to play a key role in cinema. The changing role of transport in cinema was also an indicator of changing attitudes to technology. If the novelty of the trains spawned a number of stunt films centered around trains like Miss Frontier Mail (1936), it shifted to a more complex emotional affect in the iconic scene from Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (1955). In the posters of Fearless Nadia’s stunt films, hand painted images of trains were often found alongside the stunt queen’s iconic posture. The iconography of trains even enhanced the aura of Hindi cinema’s first true blue superstar Rajesh Khanna as he crooned Mere Sapno Ki Rani in Aradhana (1969). Non-mechanized modes of transport, like the humble rickshaw and bullock carts were not left behind either. An impoverished Balraj Sahni pulled rickshaws in Calcutta in Bimal Roy’s stunning tale of rural displacement Do Bigha Zamin (1953), while Dilip Kumar raced a bus in his trusted tonga in the thrilling climax to Naya Daur (1957). While initially symbols of the rapid march of mechanization, cars, motorcycles and trains soon came to denote the speed and dynamism of modern-day life. In the film posters of the 70s and 80s, they were presented in the midst of an explosion of images, anchoring the charismatic image of the hero as well as promising the thrills of the chase. Through the years, film posters have managed to capture the diverse kinds of transportation that became an essential part of the film narrative and therefore, our past.
“Moments in Motion” provides a rare sighting of Indian Cinema and Transportation in an often over looked art form that has become an important fixture in popular culture.
