An exhibition of posters at the Osian’s Cinefan festival tracked the transition of Bollywood

Beginning with the silent era when men acted as women in films like Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra, to the psychedelic magic of Dev.D, the Osian’s poster collection at the 11th Cinefan festival at Siri Fort was a visual crash course in Indian cinema. The exhibition, which ended on Saturday, was a journey from the 1930s to the present, through a series of posters, lithographic artwork and offset prints. Even the black-and-white lobby cards captured the classic era.

The show was curated to highlight the important moments in Indian cinema while paying tribute to some of the greats. The intense era of Guru Dutt and Meena Kumari unfolded in shades of black and white, while nationalist zeal explodes in Eastman colour with faces like Dilip and Manoj Kumar playing the deshbhakt.

Another section paid tribute to the dancing divas of the 1960s — Shammi Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman— the bombshells of the 1970s and 1980s—Helen, Rekha, Hema Malini— and, of course, jumping jack Jeetendra. Mithun Chakraborty, however, was absent from the lineup.

The collection brought alive car chases between heroes and villains shot in the confines of the studio, and transported the viewer to a time when a rain-drenched Raj Kapoor looked deep into the eyes of the gorgeous Nargis Dutt. It also rolled in the period when the epic drama Mughal-e-Azam unfurled on screen, the grandiose sets, replete with charging elephants were frozen in time along with images of a long-haired Dilip Kumar romancing a cherubic Madhubala.

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