Poets and Pancakes – Summary
Poets and
Pancakes, is taken from Asokamitran’s book ‘My Years with Boss’. Asokamitran
worked in The Gemini Studios. His duty was to cut out newspaper clipping on a
wide variety of subjects and preserve them in files.
Summary
‘Pancakes’ was the brand name of a make-up
material. The Gemini Studios bought a lot of it. Many well-known actresses must
have used that material. It was used by make-up men to turn decent looking
players into hideous looking monsters. In fact it was because most of the
shooting of a film was done on the sets. The sets and the studios lights
required that every pore of players’ faces was closed. A strict hierarchy was
maintained in the make-up department to make the player look ugly. The chief
make-up man made the hero and heroine ugly. His senior assistant made the
second hero and heroine ugly and so forth. It was the office boy’s job to make
the crowd players ugly.
The make-up department had an office boy.
He was not a boy but a forty years’ old man. He had joined the studios years
ago. He believed that he had a great talent and hoped to become a star actor,
director, screen writer or lyrics writer. But he was frustrated. He blamed his
disgrace on Gemini Studios. The make-up department was at the upstairs of the
building that was said to have been Robert Clive’s stables. The make-up room
looked like a hair cutting salon because it had large mirrors and lights. The
lights gave out intense heat. The person who underwent make-up had a miserable
experience of being scorched like that of being in a hell.
The make-up department presented a picture
of national integration long before AIT began broadcasting programmes on
national integration. In the beginning, the department was headed by a Bengali.
He was succeeded by a Maharashtrian who was assisted by people from all parts
of India.
The nature of author’s job appeared to be insignificant.
He was usually seen tearing newspapers. Everybody would walk to his cubicle and
want to give him some work to do. The office boy would come in to recite his
poems. He Wished to impress the author by his talent and how it was going waste
on account of Subbu.
The office boy was frustrated. Probably he
was jealous of Subbu’s stature. Subbu was very close to Boss. When Boss had any
difficulty in presenting a scene in a film, Subbus could suggest a number of
practical ideas.
Subbu was a good poet too. He could write
poems of high order. But he deliberately suppressed his talent to write for the
masses. He was a novelist too. He had written a novel in which he recreated the
mood and manner of Devadasis of early 20th century. He had created life-like
characters too.
Subbu was an excellent actor. But he never
aspired for lead roles. But whatever minor roles he played, he acted better
than the main players.
Subbu loved all. Several friends and
relatives stayed with him for long periods. But Subbu did not care. He never
gave a thought to the money he spent to support them. But the office boy hated
him. Perhaps Subbu appeared to be a sycophant.
Though Subbu was always seen with the
Boss, he was a member of the story department. Besides writers and poets in the
story department there was a lawyer too. Officially he was known as egal
adviser. But people called him by an opposite name. Once the legal adviser
unwittingly, ruined the career of a talented actress.
One day the actress, who was not seasoned
in worldly wisdom, lost her temper on the sets. She spoke angrily against the
producer. The legal adviser switched on the recording equipment. When she
paused, he played back the record. The actress was dumb founded to hear her own
voice. Though she had said nothing offensive, she never appeared on the stage
again.
The legal adviser wore trousers, a shirt
and a tie. Sometimes he wore a coat too. He appeared off among khadi clad poets
and writers. The poets and writers worshiped Gandhiji though they had no affiliation
to his ideas. But they were averse to communism. They had a notion that a
communist loved nobody. He was an anarchist.
The feelings against communism were
widespread in South India. Moral Rearmament Army was a sort of anti-communism
movement. It visited Gemini Studios in 1952. They were about 200 people
belonging to at least 20 nationalities. They presented two plays ‘Jotham
Valley’ and ‘The Forgotten Factor’ in the most professional manner. The Gemini
family of 600 and the citizens of Madras were greatly impressed by their plays.
Their message was simple but the sets and
costumes were excellent. For many years, the Tamil drama imitated the sunrise
and sunset scenes presented by MRA. The scenes were presented on a bare stage
with white background and a tune played on the flute. But the MRA did not
influence the outlook of the Gemini bosses. The enterprises continued
unchanged. The staff had enjoyed hosting MRA.
A few months later, Gemini Studios
received another guest. It was an Englishman. Nobody knew who he was. Some said
he was a poet. But he was not one of the poets known to them. Some believed
that he was an editor because the top men of The Hindu were taking the
initiative. But he was not the editor of any of the newspapers which the staff
of Gemini Studios had heard of.
The Englishman was welcomed by the Boss,
Mr. Vasan. He read out a long speech talking of freedom and democracy. Then the
Englishman spoke. Nobody could understand what he said. His accent had made it
impossible. But they were baffled. They could not understand the purpose of his
visit. They made Tamil films for simple people who could not be expected to
have any interest in English poetry. The visit of the Englishman remained a
mystery.
The author saw a notice in The Hindu. The
Encounter, a British periodical, was organizing a short story contest. The
author had never heard of the periodical. He wanted to send an entry. He wanted
to have some information about it before he sent the entry. He visited the
British Council Library. There he found copies of The Encounter. He learned
that its editor was Stephen Spender, who had visited the Gemini Studios. After
a few years, the author had retired. One day, he saw a pile of low-priced
paperback edition of The God that Failed. He bought a copy. It contained six
different essays of six different writers. They described writers’ journeys to
communism and the disillusioned return. One of the writers was Stephen Spender.
The whole mystery of Spender’s visit was cleared. Mr. Vasan was not interested
in his Poetry but was interested on his views on communism.
