24 August,2011 11:28 AM IST | | Promita Mukherjee
A Delhi gallery is exhibiting them from August 27 to September 17
Seedy theatres that teemed with men of all ages. And furtive glances around to spot and avoid familiar faces. Not too many years ago, that was what morning shows meant. With the arrival of multiplexes, most of these halls have been torn down, and the phrase 'morning show' has acquired a different connotation - that of cheaply priced tickets at otherwise expensive plexes.
Pic/Mid Day
However, the desire to watch porn hasn't abetted one bit. So now you have Internet downloads instead of scantily clad women gyrating on screens in dicey places - often sourced from foreign shores - and porn is often watched alone as opposed to a hall-full of curious teenagers and horny middle-aged men. In such a scenario, a Delhi art gallery is coming up with an exhibition titled Morning Show on Indian adult movie posters.
Pic/Mid Day
The first-of-its-kind exhibition will be held at the W+K Exp, an art gallery in south Delhi's Sheikh Sarai, and starts on August 27. The posters have been taken from the collection of V Sunil, the executive creative director of Wieden + Kennedy Delhi.
"Earlier, men would bunk classes and go for morning shows. Now all that has changed with everything available on the Internet," said Sunil who will be putting up about 20 such posters on display. While some belong to Sunil (he has about 40-50), others were sourced from friends.u00a0u00a0
Grown-ups only
The exhibition isn't centred around a particular theme. The posters belong to movies from the 80s and 90s that come with names like Sarfira Ashiq, Pyar Ki Ek Raat, Kaam Tantra, Tera Tota Meri Maina. "There isn't much nudity in the posters," pointed out Sunil.u00a0u00a0u00a0
The former advertiser would rather focus on the art form that makes up these posters. "There is a language running through them. The use of words and the art direction is intriguing. The use of techniques like cut and paste and random imagery add to the appeal," he says.
B movie heaven
While traditional Bollywood movie posters have found a fan following of their own, adult movie posters have so far been largely ignored simply because of the embarrassment that is associated in them in a country that still considers sex to be a taboo. It remains to be seen whether Indians have matured enough to overcome the embarrassment and visit the gallery.
