Lucknow: Nostalgia for Bollywood’s golden era filled Kokoro Art Gallery on Sunday as IAS officer and vintage ephemera collector Suboor Usmani opened his solo exhibition, ‘Bioscope: Karwaan Guzar Gaya’, featuring around 70 film postcards charting the visual journey of Hindi cinema. The show will remain open to the public till Aug 20, from 11 am to 6 pm daily.Curated by Vandana Sehgal, principal, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, AKTU, the exhibition spans from the classic Pukar (1939) to the contemporary Dhurandhar (2025), presenting postcards that map how Bollywood’s promotional art evolved with time. The display traces a shift from hand-painted portraits and dramatic typographic layouts to photographic collages and, eventually, digitally produced imagery, while reflecting changing technologies, artistic practices, social values and popular visual imagination.Postcards and posters on view include Ram Raj (1943), Anarkali (1953), Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Pakeezah (1972), Swades (2004), Rang De Basanti (2006) and Dhurandhar (2025), offering visitors a cross-generational snapshot of changing aesthetics and storytelling.“I always had the habit of getting to know about the history of movies and collecting postcards. Most of them are sourced from antique sellers and flea shops, while many have been gifted,” Usmani said.Sehgal noted that Bollywood posters developed a distinctive visual language that became part of everyday Indian cultural life. Visitor Mansi Didwania described the exhibition as “walking through memories of cinema,” adding that each postcard captures the design and emotions of its era.
