Osian's Auction Catalogue The Greatest Indian Show On Earth | September 2014

The Greatest Indian Show on Earth LEADING HEROINES AND THE CLASSIC FILMS 1949 – 1972 NARGIS AS FOCUS 70 Nargis and Contemporaries in LUX SOAPS CALENDAR FEATURING VARIOUS HEROINES FROM HINDI CINEMA.1950 & 1954 Each Offset Print on Paper / CAL a. LUX 1950 Calendar Size 13.8 x 9.4 in (35.0 x 24.0 cm) b. LUX 1954 Calendar Size 14.6 x 9.2 in (37.0 x 23.3 cm) Provenance Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata ` 6,000 – 9,000 US$ 100 – 150 GBP 60 – 90 Lot of 2 Full image on p.120 71 Nargis & Raj Kapoor in AWARA.1951 Directed by Raj Kapoor Poster paint on canvas / ART 39.4 x 28.3 in (100.0 x 72.0 cm) Provenance Private Collector, Mumbai ` 18,000 – 27,000 US$ 300 – 450 GBP 180 – 270 Poster Art & Design S. Rehman Full image on p.121 72 Nargis in MOTHER INDIA.1957 Directed by Mehboob First Release 6 Sheeter Offset Lithography Poster / POS 122.0 x 60.4 in (309.9 x 153.4 cm) Provenance Private Collector, Mumbai ` 90,000 – 1,35,000 US$ 1,500 – 2,250 GBP 900 – 1,350 Full image on pp.122-123 “Mother India was a watershed in the annals of our film history. It came at a time when India was taking fledgling steps forward towards unity, development and carving out its own identity in the comity of nations… Like Naya Daur in its own manner, Mother India that released in the same year, showed the shades of a changing nation. The film was able to blend shades of patriotism with romance, good old valour with the problems of development in an emerging nation. Of course, there was the evil moneylender too as the symbol of all that is wrong with rural India.There was a clear message of socialism: the State provided development with a water canal, private enterprise hoarded goods, reduced the poor to being at the mercy of unscrupulous moneylenders... The film was nominated for the Academy Award as the Best Film in Foreign Language besides winning five Filmfare awards.” Ziya Us Salam, reprinted in Ziya Us Salam (Editor).’Housefull: The Golden Age of Hindi Cinema’. New Delhi: Om Books International 2012 ; p.55. Mehboob Khan signed Nargis after she had decided to finally break from Raj Kapoor and R.K. Studio’s in 1956 after their last film together Jagte Raho. With her marriage to Sunil Dutt in March 1958, the Raj-Nargis romance had dissolved into history. 119