CUET English Chapter For Comprehension-Poets and pancakes

The heat produced by the lights in the make-up room brought about a lot of discomfort to the actors in the make-up room. Hence the writer refers to this pain and trouble as ‘fiery-misery’.

The make-up department of the Gemini studios had people belonging to different states, religions and who spoke different languages. The head of the make-up department was earlier a Bengali who was succeeded by a Maharashtrian assisted by a Dharwar Kannadiga, an Andhra, A Madras Indian Christian, an Anglo-Burmese and local Tamils.

The office boy applies make-up on the players who played the crowd. On the days of crowd-shooting, he would mix his paint in a big vessel and apply it quickly and noisily on the faces of the players. He had joined the studios with the hope of becoming a star actor or a screen writer, director or lyrics writer. He was disappointed because he failed and remained only a ‘boy’.

The author’s only duty was to cut out newspaper clippings on a wide variety of subjects and store them in files. Many of these had to be hand-written. The onlookers noticed him merely tearing up newspapers. Hence, it appeared he was doing nothing at the studios.

The office boy was frustrated because despite getting a good opening, he remained only an office boy. He had had a good formal education and would write poetry also. But his great literary talent was being allowed to go waste. He showed his anger on Kothamangalam Subbu, the No. 2 at Gemini Studios.

Mr. S.S Vasan, the founder of the Gemini Studios, was Subbu’s principal.

Subbu had the ability to look cheerful at all the times. His sense of loyalty made hi turn his entire creativity to his principal’s advantage. With him around, film-making was easy. He was a poet, a novelist and an amazing actor too. He had a generous and a caring nature.

The lawyer was in the Story department. He was officially known as the legal adviser. However, his actions were not useful to anyone. He had inadvertently brought to an end, a budding actress’s career. Hence, he was referred to as the opposite by others.

It was the lawyer’s dress that he wore which made him stand out from the others. He wore a pant, a tie and sometimes a coat also. Others put on a khadi dhoti with a slightly oversized and clumsily tailored white khadi shirt, which looked like everyone’s uniform.

Most of the people at Gemini Studios were followers of Gandhiji and wore khadi. Beyond khadi and wearing of khadi they did not have any particular political affiliations. However, they were all against communism.

The Moral Rearmament Army was a kind of counter movement to international communism. The Big Bosses of Madras like Mr. Vasan simply played into their hands. So the Moral Rearmament Army was welcomed at the Gemini Studios.

The plays staged by the MRA greatly influenced Madras and Tamil drama community. For some years almost all Tamil plays had a scene of sunrise and sunset in the manner of ‘Jotham Valley’ with a bare stage, a white background curtain and a tune played on the flute.

Mr. S.S Vasan was the Boss of Gemini Studios.

Most of the 600 odd people at Gemini Studios were Tamil speakers. The Englishman was addressing them in his own language-English. He had a peculiar accent. Hence, there was a lack of communication between the Englishman and the people at who could not follow what he was saying.

During the Englishman’s speech no one understood what he was talking about. The audience was baffled. They did not know what an English poet was doing in a film studio which made Tamil films for the simplest sort of people. His visit remained an unexplained mystery.

The English visitor to the studios was Stephen Spender. He was an English poet and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and class struggle. He was also the editor of ‘The Encounter’.

The author went to the British Council library to get an idea about the periodical ‘The Encounter’. He read the editor’s name. It was the poet who had visited the Gemini Studios. Thus the author discovered the identity of the English visitor to the Studio.

‘The God who Failed’ was the collection of six essays by six eminent men of letters. In these essays each of them described separately his journey into communism and his disillusioned return. In the last line of the extract the expression refers to communism.

Subbu was always seen with the Boss. His sense of loyalty made him identify himself with his entire creativity to his principal’s advantage, he was considered No. 2 because he seemed so close and intimate with the Boss.

The English poet was addressing the Tamil audience at Gemini Studios in English with a typical provincial accent. He was talking about the thrills and travails of an English poet to a dazed and silent audience. This was the incongruity because his audience could not understand his at all.

The author Asokamitran, in his excerpt ‘Poets and Pancakes’, has recounted the years he spent at the Gemini Studios owned by S.S Vasan in Chennai. In his subtle and gentle way, he has used humour as an effective tool to point out human foibles.

In his typical rambling style, he sets the tone of humour in his narration. He says that there was a great deal of national integration in the Gemini Studios long before A.I.R and Doordarshan began broadcasting programmes on national integration. He makes use of exaggerations to tell that any decent looking person could be turned into a monster with the help of truck-loads of pancakes and ‘locally made potions and lotions’. Irony is used to evoke humour saying that boys and girls were ‘made to look ugly in order to look presentable in the movie. Paint in the studio was mixed in a giant vessel and slapped it on the faces of the crowd players. In the process of applying make-up, every pore on the surface of the face was closed.

Humour is employed by the author in situations when he admits that people thought he was doing nothing when he was seen tearing up newspapers day in and day out. Literary talent was being wasted in a department fit only for barbers and perverts. The author uses satire to expose people in authority. The story department was closed and this was the only instance in all human history where a lawyer lost his job because most humorous situation arises when the concept of Communism gets defined. ‘a godless man with no filial or conjugal love’. The staff at Gemini, opposed the concept and became Gandhiites and Khadiities. There is irony in ‘The God that Failed’, a collection into Communism and their disillusioned return.

Kothamangalam Subbu has been given a lot of significance in the essay ‘Poets and Pancakes’ by Asokamitran. He has been portrayed as a man whom everyone at Gemini Studios held in high esteem. He was born a Brahmin and perhaps due to this virtue rose to the position of No. 2 at Gemini Studios. He had contacts with affluent people. He was cool, calm and composed and even a flop film, in which he was involved, never made him sad or unhappy. He looked cheerful all the time. He was very loyal to his boss and that endeared him to the boss. He was a man who could be inspired when commanded.

He was creative and displayed this skill when effortlessly he could give fourteen alternative ways to handle a particular scene. Subbu was a poet of calibre and had a separate identity of a poet. His success in films overshadowed his literacy achievements. He had composed truly original ‘story poems’ and had authored a novel ‘Thillana Mohanambal’ with lots of characters. He recreated the mood and manner of the Devadasis of the early 20^th century. He was an amazing actor yet never aspired to play lead roles. He loved everyone genuinely and selflessly. He was charitable and improvident yet he had enemies probably due to him closeness with the Boss. The author Asokamitran has portrayed him as an extremely talented, creative and lovable human being.

c) Gemini Studios

d) Chennai

a) 1940

c) S.S Vasan

a) In trucks

b) Stables

a) Hair-cutting salon

b) Bengali

c) The office boy

b) Early forties

c) Tear newspapers

b) Kothamangalam Subbu

a) Subbu

d) Story department

b) The young and aspiring actress

a) Pants, a tie and sometimes a coat

c) Khadi dhoti and khadi kurta

d) Coffee

b) Gandhiites

b) Two hundred members

d) International circus

b) Over and over again

d) Jotham Valley and The Forgotten Factor

d) Sunrise and sunset

c) A poet from England

b) Ananda Niketan

b) Editor

a) With an accent

b) The Encounter

d) The poet who had visited the studio

c) Stephen Spender

c) The footpath on Mount Road

c) The God that Failed

a) Six authors

a) Communism

d) Stephen Spender

a) Gemini Studios

b) An hour