Mumbai: Development to rob Girgaum of yet another photo studio

The group of men who surround 80yearold Mahendra Jayantilal Sanghavi on a Tuesday evening are not politicians waiting to be immortalised through oil portraits They are residents discussing the future of their homes with the owner of Thakurdwars Vanguard Art and Photo StudioMahendra Jayantilal Sanghavi right and his nephew Bharat 58 at Vanguard Studio PicsSuresh KarkeraThe discussion turns clamorous A staffer looks at us waiting and suggests Come tomorrow today is not a good day The 89yearold studio one of the few surviving in Mumbai and certainly a proud member of the oldest club readies to be lost to the new urban fiend of redevelopment The project is currently under negotiation Sanghavi is hopeful of opening shop once a tower replaces his address of Sitaram Bhuvan but its unlikely to carry the same vibe The mosaictiled floors woodfinished cabins and carved false ceiling will be a thing of the pastCalled Excelsior Photo Enlarging Co when it opened doors in 1927 its proprietor and Sanghavis father Jayantilal Chhabildas changed its name to Vanguard on the suggestion of friend Yusuf MeherallyIn the mid 90s several prominent leaders dropped by at the Thakurdwar outpost to get their portraits madeLike the socialist leader famous for the Independence slogan Simon go back several prominent nationalist leaders dropped into the 2000 sq ft studio sitting around for hours while a team of photographers took pictures Artists later made oil portraits of the sameToday the studio runs sans artists and photographers Sanghavi elder brother Harshvardan 85 and their children shifted focus to printing ID and visiting cards lamination and digital mixing of photographs to keep the business afloatIndira Gandhi at the studio in 1959Jayantilal Chhabildas who hailed from Morvi in Kathiawar set up the studio against his familys wishes My father was fascinated with art When my grandfather a manager of a mill in Surat learnt that his son wanted to turn entrepreneur he asked him to leave the family home recalls SanghaviA photographer Jayantilals association with the Congress worked in his favour He was a social worker and freedom fighter and enjoyed a rapport with political leadersThe photograph of Subhash Chandra Bose that was taken at the studio and a typed letter signed by him where he expressed his satisfaction with the pictures takenOn Jayantilals insistence national icons including Khan Abdul Gafar Khan and Babu Genu Jawaharlal Nehru wife Kamla and daughter Indira Gandhi also came by the studio to get themselves photographedBut its a picture of Subhash Chandra Bose thats close to Sanghavis heart and for a reason The day Bose was photographed the lane outside was echoing withNetaji ki jai His supporters from Bombay had gathered outside the studio on that hot afternoon in the 1930s A friend of the family warned Jayantilal of facing arrest by the British for encouraging frenzy But he wasnt one to cower in the face of fearThe crowd outside was so large that we were forced to shut the doors My father clicked a few photographs of Bose including one in traditional Bengali attireA few months later Bose left India Sanghavi claims this may have been Boses last photoshoot in the countrySanghavi pulls out a typed letter signed by Bose expressing his satisfaction with the pictures takenIt wasnt long before the Congress party hired Vanguard for all its official photography And each time a new president was elected they arrived here for a shoot Sanghavi an apprentice to his father remembers Indira Gandhi also came in 1959 wearing an ivory cotton sari with a heavy borderVanguards prominence is best gauged by the photo of Mahatma Gandhi that hangs in all government establishments The picture taken by one of the studios photographers was officially selected in 1949 by the then Government of Bombay for display at all government officesThe era of conventional photography is over says Sanghavi remorsefully Your cell phones do the job now so why have a photo studioIn 1984 Sanghavi set the wheels of change in motion by introducing new businesses Demand for oil portraits was next to nilNow if the studio dabbles in photography it is on the special request of a privileged few associated with the Sanghavis for decades And he refuses to put a price on the paintings Not a single one is up for sale he says And with most things around him not as they were his political affiliation also seems to have worn out when he says I am an Indianhellipthat is my identity