Movie Posters Go Minimalist, Rediff Style!

What is a minimalist poster?

You've seen some being forwarded all across various social networks, posters which try to capture the gist of a film very simply indeed, posters with just one item front and center, an item that encapsulates the spirit of the film. Mostly amateur Photoshop efforts, some of the minimalist posters you see are astoundingly clever, while some others, trying too hard to interpret a dialogue into a graphic, prove much less effective.

In my book, a minimalist poster should visually capture a part of the film that is unmistakably key to it all, instead of just a line from the film. If the most memorable thing about the film can be boiled down to one, simple visual, there we go.

Here are 10 attempts for minimalist posters. Do let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Dabangg

It was either this or the moustache, really.

But the mooch is mere here without Salman Khan while this jar of ointment, unseen in the film but immortalised by the lyric pictured on Malaika Khan Arora, fits poster requirements perfectly.

As Shah Rukh Khan said, it's all about making sattar minutes count, baby.

Okay, he didn't say it quite like that but the point is you remember just how he did say it.

The ridiculously yellow suit was an option, sure, but Aamir Khan's career choice in this Ram Gopal Varma entertainer is even better. And with ticket 'blackers' or scalpers now made extinct by multiplexes and pre-booking, the poster harkens to a simpler time.

He's not a hero, he's the anti-hero.

No better way to say it than spell it out loud and clear, while using that choli from the song Madhuri Dixit ensured we'll never forget.

Boy and girl meet, get married, but don't tell their parents.

Much of the romance is, therefore, conducted by dropping coins into payphone slots. The communication over distance metaphor also works well thematically for the film.

Pretty much everything about Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge is iconic by now, but the only thing that any other film hasn't dared to recycle -- unlike Khan's wardrobe, for example -- is the cowbell, an accessory with significant plot import.

Not just a prop for Shahid Kapoor to pose with as Duniya Mein Logon Ko played in the background, the guitar was a huge, huge part of Kaminey, a drug-carrier that sets the whole mad night into motion. And what everyone's fighting for.

Food worth vowing with.

In this genre-rejuvenating romance, the scruffy leading man looks to college canteen staple food that he swears on. 'Bread pakode ki kasam' says way too much about the hero. And the film.

In Nagesh Kukunoor's finest crafted film, young Iqbal practices cricket mostly alone with his sister, without any fielders around to simulate the real thing. Enter, then, bulls who stand around the field sporting iconic nicknames.

Yet another song reference, but this -- like the other two on our list -- work because the songs in question are actually bigger than the films, despite them being superhits. For many, Sridevi's song about her nine bangles is all they remember from Chandni.