By Hindustan Times
A movie slated to release. Held breaths. Anticipating fans. Feisty forecasts. Such electric reactions from a work of paper and one glimpse. Let me introduce to you a poster- an under-rated, oft-forgotten and rather powerful medium for any movie to have seen light of the day. Posters have been
appetizing viewers ever since movies may well be made, right from the primary Indian film Alam Ara to the most recent Rowdy Rathore. They keep the mystery every movie seeks to create before releasing. They bring about a way of novel entertainment, of seeing loved actors, of new fashion, of seeing emotions magically unravel at the 70mm screen.
What you might be reading at the moment spurts from a contemporary Bollywood trend of posters hitting the scene. In the course of digitization and technological ease, the skill of poster-making faded, along side most of the painter-artistes who were the designers of what's now called a film's print promotion campaign. Indian posters were known for larger-than-life, pertinent, bold portrayals of actors. With a boldly lined cleavage of the heroine to the bulging biceps of the hero - our posters used vibrant colours, heavy strokes, highlights and flashy expressions. It was not only the heaving bosom of the heroine or the scowling hero that jumped out of the poster, there glared a nonchalance and flamboyance, symbolizing the approaching of-age of the Indian cinema and the society.
In the last one year, Rockstar, The Dirty Picture, Ishaqzaade and most recently Rowdy Rathore roped in professional artistes to color a poster which might be publicized because the main still of the movie. The posters revoked nostalgia and curiosity, adding to the glitter of the flicks that ultimately touched sky with superhit success. This variation in promotion strategy doesn't just benefit the movie but revives the lost art of posters. Posters understand a film thematically, in-depth with the nuances the characters bring along. One fleck of frown, one dismayed face, one pair of longing eyes- a lot of these nitty-gritties are our first rendezvous with the movie’s gamut of grandeur, emotion, tragedy, love, humour and loss.
“Since the film marks Akshay Kumar’s comeback as an action hero, we thought we'd exploit the ’80s angry young man avatar for him. We incorporated almost every vintage element in these posters to do justice,” reveals Shikha Kapur, one among Rowdy Rathore’s co-producers.
Posters have today become something of art and are recommended by art curators as vintage and collectibles. Posters have provided the platform for artists like MF Hussain to rise to eminence. The art of posters, as art curators interpret it, is lost to the photographic, HD digital quality stills, which can be easy to design and distribute, but seem lackluster. Creating posters to publicise modern entertainment is a lucrative method to conserve the long lost art.
Posters was the art of the average man. Posters was essentially the most appropriate style to depict the exaggeration and extravaganza that Indian films are. Posters have had a journey in their own within the Indian cinema with a history sprawled over 80 years. Posters strive to be immortal. Good posters achieve immortality. Bad posters are condemned to the slinging spit of paan and pee. Notorious ones are like crackers on a Diwali night - they fire, they burn after which they're consigned to the greyness of trivia.
Movies fill in where life disappoints. Everything associated with a movie, be it the actors, the songs, the dancing, the destinations—it all has elements of dream and delirium. It's the bridge between our lives as they exist and lives that may be. A poster, is the most productive blueprint of what cinema stands for- exaggeration, melodrama and fantasy. Even at the present time of video teasers and publicity blitzes, the poster is what remains when the morning comes. Bollywood is again spiling colour, and we're only looking ahead to more!
