Families in focus

"Fun, vitality, mischief, harmony — there’s more to your family than what meets the eye...We want to capture your family from every angle: standing, sitting, running, jumping, playing, relax­ing, laughing, smiling, teasing...We love to capture real emo­tions so that your portraits are bursting with vitality,” reads the promotional literature from Photo Techniks, a branch of Comart Lithographers Limited. Whether it is the overt bonding between mother and son, or the covert competition between father and son, "we like our photographs to reflect the character of the family members,” says Eddie Poonawala who, fascinated with this concept of family portraiture during his stay in UK, decided to introduce it to Bombay.

Their range of "Model Families” brochures are meant to incite interest in this service introduced five months ago and display the infinite varieties in which families can be portrayed sans distraction of clothing and background props.

From their premises at Prabhadevi where Comart offers a range of services — from photography to prepress to print, an aircon­ditioned studio with accompanying music provides the necessary ambience for the families who seek a photo-shoot. While some come with inhibitions and tend to be camera shy, others look forward to an hour of fun when photographer Mariam Mamaji will shoot about 300-400 photographs of the family in different postures and moods on the digital camera in the digital studio. The family is advised to wear clothing and colors to convey that the members are in sync. Thus we see pictures of entire families in blue jeans and white shirts or white kurtas and churidars for an informal portrait. The formal shots see the subjects dressed in suits and saris. If make-up is desired, the studio will arrange for that facility at an extra charge. (Studio booking is con­firmed on receipt of payment which can vary from Rs 5,000 to Rs 9,000 depending on the family’s choice of day and time.) Following the shoot the family gets an opportunity for instant review when the images are pro­jected on a large screen. The family is expected to shortlist 30-40 frames which they find appealing.

Once they have narrowed down their choice still further and conveyed their final selection of images, for the next two-three weeks the ball will remain in Comart’s court where each picture will be touched up. Blemishes, scars, moles and pimples are removed, dark circles round the eyes dispensed with, tummy tucks ensure that no paunches are visible. Depending on the complexity of the job and the time involved, retouching may attract an additional charge. Correction of images require a more artistic and creative eye which is Khurshed Poonawala’s forte, and as relates his sister Shernaz, "He can make a lady look like Brooke Shields or Frankenstein.” Comart’s expertise in image manipula­tion has served some of the most discerning names in the glamor and film industry, mentions their brochure citing Aishwarya Rai, Akshay Khanna, Fardeen Khan, Hema Malini, Preity Zinta...

Framing and mounting of pictures is also undertaken by Comart. The price of each print which includes photography and image enhancing varies from Rs 600 for 4.5” x 4.5” to Rs 1,700 for 10” x 10”. In fact, for family portraits one foot or more in size, Comart insists on providing their own frames. Prices vary depend­ing on the size, texture and finish opted for to suit one’s wall or desk surface. Within four to six weeks you can hope to take delivery of a "picture perfect family.”

While family portraiture is Comart’s latest foray, they have been doing product photography for many years at their studio. Recently their photographers were specially commissioned by Jet Airways to make a trip to Paris to shoot a revolving airline seat in the interi­ors of an aircraft. Their model was not required to go to Paris. Print tech­nology has made such strides that they were able to position the model on the custom-made chair using their sophisticated computer network in the confines of their Comart office.

For selective corporates specializing in automobiles like Mercedes, Ford, Opel, Tata Motors, banks like Citibank and Hong­kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, garment giants like Garden Varelli and Wellspun, beauty products like L’Oreal, fashion statements like Zodiac, Wills Lifestyle, Titan, home appliances like Samsung, accessories like Orange and Tata Indicom, consuma­bles like Coca Cola, Comart has believed in being more than a service provider. They prefer to refer to themselves as "a crea­tive partner.” As they like to tell their clients: "Minimize your effort... maximize your brand...”

Advertising agencies like Lintas, McCann Erickson, Redi­ffusion, Saatchi and Saatchi, Ogilvy and Mather (O&M) have relied on Comart to promote their client’s products. As testified Piyush Pandey, chairman of O&M Private Limited, "Ogilvy and Mather has been associated with Comart for almost 50 years...Over the years Ogilvy has surged ahead as India’s most creative agency and Comart has backed it with excellent prepress work.” Similar acclaim came from Leo Burnette, national creative director of Lowe, "I have no hesitation in saying that Comart is the best pre-process house in the country. They have been involved in many a landmark print campaign created by Lowe...”

While corporates constitute 45 percent of the Comart business, and advertising agencies another 40 percent, the bal­ance 15 percent comes from publications like L’Officiel, Seven­teen, Man’s World, Reader’s Digest, Hello, Autocar, and art compilations by eminent artists and premier institutions like the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Lalit Kala Akademi.

Recent advances in technology having "deskilled the human factor,” they believe in adopting the five-pillar service ap­proach at Comart to obtain the maximum output from experience/creativity/technology/process/integrated services. There are nearly 175 employees functioning within the matrix structure at the Comart offices in Bombay and Bangalore. Basical­ly the third generation of Poonawalas are now at the helm of the day-to-day functioning: The core business of prepress and offset is in charge of Fred with brother Eddie looking after design, short run printing, photography and three-dimension animation. Neville looks after indoor signage, billboard printing and point-of-purchase displays. Correction of images and retouching is Khurshed’s forte while his sister Shernaz helps with consultation and sales. "We use the second generation for their contacts in business and the benefit of their past experience to move for­ward,” states Eddie.

During their 75 years of operations Comart Lithographers has sought to fulfil founder Faramroze Rustomji Poonawala’s vision to satisfy the industry demand for prepress in offset printing. "With an eye on quality and attention to the smallest detail in everything we do, we have a reputation for dependability and for maintaining the highest ethical standard in business,” notes the company profile. Faramroze was joined in the business by his three sons Dadi (father of Fred and Eddie), Burjor (father of Khurshed and Shernaz) and Cyrus (father of Neville).

With the constantly evolving face of technology, "redundancy and obsolescence” became bywords necessitating frequent scrapping of equipment in the name of progress and substantial monetary loss in the face of keen cut-throat competition, explains Burjor who still retains good knowledge of the business and comes in every day. Since the Indian government "underestimated the poten­tiality of the Indian brain and its ability to handle the latest technology in the world, the advantage is that we skipped a lot of (intermediary) technology and came directly to the digital age,” he maintains. Happy that "the permit raj has gone; that we don’t need to maintain an inventory of raw products,” Burjor points out that contrary to the earlier days when they had to wait for months for banks to sanction loans, "with the opening up of the economy, banks now come knocking at our doors.”

Both financial institutions and business groups are interested in protecting the consumer for "the economy of a country depends on the buying power of the consumer. We are the beneficiaries of the supply chain...” elabo­rates Burjor viewing Comart’s role as "catalysts in the supply chain, effectively communicating the advertiser’s message to potential consumers.”

For further enquiries regarding Photo Techniks contact them at tel: 56543800, 56543827, e-mail: mariam@ comartlithographers.com