Ajibi Lab Series No.3: A. H. Mahver, Longing, 1966

Welcome to Ajibi Art Lab

The third in the Ajibi Art Lab series in which we introduce one work from our 2900 collections with detailed information is the graphic poster of the film Longing (Armaan), which was released in Pakistan in 1966 and achieved a major commercial success.

Every single collection of the museum is a precious witness of a specific country or a region, and the time it was created. In Spring 2018, Ajibi launched a new section dedicating to the single work from our collection. This section seeks to discuss the work in the level that goes beyond the framework of a regular permanent exhibition by adding panels and resources helpful to understand the artist’s thoughts and the background of the work.

From “seeing” to “interpreting” – Please enjoy a new way of experiencing our collection.

A. H. Mahver (Pakistan) Longing (Armaan) lithograph on paper, 1966

The film, Longing (Armaan) (1966) was produced in Karachi, Pakistan, and became the number one box-office hit for seventy-five weeks, and achieved a major commercial success across South Asia. This film poster was done by a painter, A. H. Mahver, who specialized in film poster illustration, and the two figures in the poster are the main actor, Waheed Murad, and main actress, Zeba. The forest in the back depicts the mountain-side of Murree, a summer retreat town in northern Pakistan. The faint moss-green color of the poster seems to indicate the tragic love that takes place in this forest. The poster was printed in lithographic technique, which is best to reproduce the gradation and the softness of the original color.

Fukuoka Asian Art Museum collects approximately 100 Pakistani film posters from the 1960s-90s. It was through Durriya Kazi, a contemporary artist from Karachi that we came to include the film posters in our collection. Durriya Kazi herself was a collector of the film poster. She was fascinated by the popular culture, which delivers the energy of the people in their everyday life, and used such elements in her own work as she collects and studies the film posters. With her support, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum organized the exhibition Arts of People IV: Lollywood! Pakistani Film Posters in 2006, and collected a part of what we introduced through the exhibition.