Ek Supera, Ek Lutera, 1965
Set of 3 showcards, c. 1960, 49cm x 37cm
Gelatin silver print and poster paint on textured board with hand-lettering.
Ek Sapera Ek Lutera is a classic tale of love, vengeance, and murder. The role of the tragic hero is played by Feroz Khan and his love interest is played by KumKum, a Bollywood beauty who acted in over 60 films before disappearing from the spotlight.
"Showcards of the 1960s tend to be more risqué than those of the prior decade. These depict are erotic couples in bed and a sexualized female figure with loose wet hair and a bare shoulder as if just returning from a bath. The scenes in which a female lies supine on the bed unaware of the intruder both heightens the woman’s innocence and makes a voyeuristic encounter with her body permissible in the eyes of the audience. In such ways, film advertisements test the boundaries of public morality. It is possible that showcards, confined to the area around cinema theatres, could be more explicit than the billboards or posters that would have occupied public spaces in the city.
The film Ek Sapera Ek Lutera (1965) was produced by Dimple Films and directed by Naresh Kumar. Music by Usha Khanna. Colour, Hindi, starring Feroz Khan, Kumkum and Sunder."
--Text by Dr. Deepali Dewan and Alexandra McCarter, based on Deepali Dewan, ed. Bollywood Cinema Showcards: Indian Film Art from the 1950s to the 1980s. Showcards from The Hartwick Collection. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum Press, 2011. Copyright of and reproduced here with the generous permission of the Royal Ontario Museum.
Literature
Deepali Dewan, ed. Bollywood Cinema Showcards: Indian Film Art from the 1950s to the 1980s. Showcards from The Hartwick Collection. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum Press, 2011, p. 76, Cat. no. 22.