Picture Gallery: Courtroom drama features Khairani Road bindery
Court has received the National
Film Award. The courtroom
drama, which is slated for a release on 17 April, is about a trial which unfolds in a lower court. It captures one of Khairani Road’s master binders, Sahil Print Arts’ shopfloor.
A special Picture Gallery dedicated to this street in Mumbai, which produces “well-bound textbooks” - against all odds.
Words: Rushikesh Aravkar
Chaitanya Tamhane, director of Court : During the scripting process, I was trying to think of a space in which the protagonist of the movie, Narayan Kamble, could exist and which would reflect his inner life. He is a cultural activist and a political writer in the film. I remembered a photo feature by PrintWeek India called 'Binders of Khairani: Masters of the lost art', written by Rushikesh Aravkar. It was Ramu Ramanathan who had pointed me towards this wonderful piece.
Tamhane says, "Suddenly the binding facility at Sahil Print Art (in the picture) seemed like a beautiful and evocative location to set the scene in. The depth, the texture, and the various activities that I saw in that room, fascinated me on a visual as well as a thematic level. It became the perfect hideout for Narayan after he has been released from jail, and where he would print his subversive and provocative book, 'A History of Humiliation'."
Khairani Road, located in Saki Naka comprises of 12 book binding firms
Court's main protagonist Narayan Kamble, played by Vira Sathidar, getting his book readied at Sahil Print Arts
A still from the movie Court. Click here to watch the trailer.
Masters of book binding
Sahil binds some of the magazine titles of Times of India and Hindustan Times
A pile of hard work
Packing the bound books for delivery
Skilled craftsman, busy folding the printed sheet
The book binders create books out of the printed forms that were supplied to them
The binders of Khairani are skilled and have years of experience
Manufacturing books with value-additions - in record turn-around time
Mastering the self-taught trick of folding
Sorting the sheets to form a perfect signature
A perfect example of precise binding
A well bound catalogue and magazine
Binding shop in action
The entrance of Imtiyaz Book Binding Works facility
Self-taught workforce
A Sadana cutting machine
The facility at Imtiyaz Book Binding Works: once more than 30 craftsmen worked here
Imtiyaz Choudhary: "quite optimistic about the future of books"
A FoldWel semi-automatic folding machine
The operator preparing the manual cutting machine
A skill comparable to the millions of hand-weavers in India
The manual process of cutting the printed sheets
The top jobs of Imtiyaz Book Binding Works
Catering to the new market with innovative print applications
The original Perfecta programmable cutting machine ensures precise work
Welbound's single-clamp perfect binder makes it way in a manual world
Stacked book blocks - prim and proper
Aftab Khan of Afreen Book Binding displays his work
The book blocks kept ready for binding
The unpaved, rough, streets leading to Imtiyaz Book Binding Works
Printed sheets being folded to signatures on a folding machine
Drilling the books for riveting
A two-colour Heidelberg Sordz press at Shri Rajesh Art Printers
A display of finished books at Shri Rajesh Art Printers
