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Making Brides To Order By - Rina Mukherji Rina Mukherji has spent more than one a half decades (17 years to be precise) in the Indian print media. She has written on practically every topic under the sun- business, politics, science, gender issues, child rights, the environment, films, literature, public health and human rights so far. She has worked for several national newspapers in Mumbai and Kolkata, and freelanced for nearly all major newspapers and magazines in the country. She also holds a doctorate in African Studies, and has several academic articles to her credit

Walk off Rashbehari Crossing towards Southern Avenue in South Kolkata, and you will chance upon Shishir Studio- a landmark that few parents of eligible girls on the look out for suitable bridegrooms do not know of. Seemingly ordinary, the studio is not too different from what you come across in most metropolitan Indian cities or towns. Yet, it is quite atypical.

At a time when the number of camera-wielding families has multiplied, with every new kid on the block aspiring to document every family event, Shishir Studio is an institution that has withstood the test of time. Set up by artist and painter Shishir Kumar Roychowdhury in 1941, the studio specialized in touch-ups and portraits right since inception. The worst of women ended up looking beautiful in a Shishir Studio portrait, thanks to manual touch-ups that made the homeliest of women glamorous. This has ended up being the unique selling proposition of the studio, thus getting it to proudly declare: ek chobitey biye (Just one photograph guarantees a wedding) in hoardings all over Kolkata and elsewhere.

In keeping with the dictum, the studio maintains hairdressers and beauticians and dressing rooms for both men and women clients. Clients are offered a package that includes make-up, hairdressing and dressing-room facilities at a nominal fee. The effect that the professional help has on the ugliest of women has to be seen to be believed. They emerge winsome and glowing for a shoot; what make-up cannot correct, is worked on by computerized photo-editing in the studio.

Arun Roychowdhury, who presently runs the studio, has many humorous anecdotes to regale friends and acquaintances about how ugly brides were palmed off to eligible professionals on the basis of the single set of snaps that he clicked for them. Asymmetrical faces, defective eyes or less than perfect looks have been worked on to deliver dream women for eligible bridegrooms all over the globe. His anecdotes truly justify the claim-ek chhobitey biye (A single photograph that guarantees a wedding).

While it may be quite normal to seek a presentable spouse, the very basis of Shishir Studio’s claim to fame must be questioned. Why do people want their spouses to be beautiful? Isn’t it more important to look out for compatibility and maturity for a successful marriage? Besides, why should parents give in to such demands?

In fact, I have often wondered on the inadequacies of the English language too, which talks of marriage as ‘settling down.’ Isn’t settling down to be equated with launching oneself successfully in a career or profession instead?

But then, girls like Sanjali Chatterjee would rather go on with their parents who do not see any point in letting their professionally qualified and well-employed daughters enjoy a life of blissful spinsterhood. Besides, there are the likes of Sushmita Basu who think nothing of making a trip to Kolkata from Maithan (near Asansol) to have their (marital) dreams fulfilled, at the behest of their parents. These mothers and fathers would like their offspring well-settled in marriage, notwithstanding a thorough overhaul of their daughter’s facial features courtesy photo-shop and touch-ups, to the extent that she might even prove totally unrecognizable to family, friends and consequently, her prospective spouse/in-laws. (Of course, some not ‘so’ handsome boys are also using the services of the studio to up their ante in the marriage market, thanks to ambitious parents!) It is fraud and deception being used as the basis of a lifelong relationship mainly because parents view marriage as the be-all and end-all in life for their offspring!.

A woman’s outward appearance may have been of utmost importance in another day and age, when she was no more than a piece of furniture that had no say in the household or the world outside the home. Today, it is time to question the mores that made such rules the mainstay of our existence.

Women must defy being judged by their physical attributes alone, especially when more and more lady CEOs have started taking over boardrooms and running the world on equal terms with men.

Until then, of course, the Shishir Studios of the world shall make hay!

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