Not currently on display at the V&A

Anokhi Ada (1948)

Film Poster
1948 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

In this love triangle, the narrative revolves around the heroine's loss of memory. She has two suitors, one before her loss of memory and the other after. One is a professor and the other an adventurer. The poster artist, Bide Viswanathan, went on to design the Mother India film booklet. A characteristic of his work is his attention to detail. He uses all the key elements of the love triangle and brings them together in a beautifully detailed painterly design, which includes a drawing of a cupid to reinforce the theme of love.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleAnokhi Ada (1948)
Materials and techniques
Lithograph on paper
Brief description
Indian film poster.
Physical description
In the foreground is a female portrait. On a smaller scale and filling the area around the portrait are images of two men and woman in a green sari. The English title is in the top right hand corner and just below that is an image of cupid firing his arrow - thus indicating the theme of the film. The entire image is framed in a pale green boarder and the poster is executed in a very painterly manner with delicate brush strokes and attention paid to colour and shading. This care and attention is typical of the artist Bide Viswananthan. The Hindi title runs across the bottom of the poster inside the green border.
Dimensions
  • Height: 76cm
  • Width: 51cm
Production typeMass produced
Gallery label
In this love triangle, the narrative revolves around the heroine's loss of memory. She has two suitors, one before her loss of memory and the other after. One is a professor and the other an adventurer. The poster artist, Bide Viswanathan, went on to design the Mother India film booklet. A characteristic of his work is his attention to detail. He uses all the key elements of the love triangle and brings them together in a beautifully detailed painterly design, which includes a drawing of a cupid to reinforce the theme of love.
Credit line
Given by Mehboob Productions (Private) Ltd., Mumbai, India
Subject depicted
Summary
In this love triangle, the narrative revolves around the heroine's loss of memory. She has two suitors, one before her loss of memory and the other after. One is a professor and the other an adventurer. The poster artist, Bide Viswanathan, went on to design the Mother India film booklet. A characteristic of his work is his attention to detail. He uses all the key elements of the love triangle and brings them together in a beautifully detailed painterly design, which includes a drawing of a cupid to reinforce the theme of love.
Associated object
Bibliographic reference
Rachel Dwyer & Divia Patel, Cinema India: the Visual Culture of the Hindi Film, Reaktion Press, 2002.
Collection
Accession number
IS.24-2001

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdAugust 8, 2001
Record URL
Download as: JSON