Poets & Pancakes
Q1.
What does the writer mean by ‘the
fiery misery of those subjected to make-up?
Ans. The makeup room had a lot of hot bulbs always burning inside and a
number of mirrors to reflect the heat. It was really very difficult and
miserable for the artists to sit there for make-up. There were no cooling
systems in those days. So the artists had to bear all that.
Q2. What is the example of
national integration that the author refers to?
Ans. The members of the make-up department were from various parts of
India. Anyone could be the head of the make-up room. Once there was a Bengali
as the head of this department. He was succeeded by a Maharashtrian. His
assistant was a Dharwar Kannadiga. So it was the best example of national
integration.
Q3. What work did the
‘office boy’ do in the Gemini studio? Why did he join the studios? Why was he
disappointed? Or Who was the office boy? What was
his duty in the make-up department? How did he join the studios? Why was he
disappointed and frustrated?
Ans. The office boy was a forty-year-old man. He wanted to become a star
actor, a top screenwriter, or a lyric writer. His duty was to apply make-up for
the crowd players for shooting. So he remained unsatisfied and criticized
everyone he felt jealous of.
Q4. Why did the author appear to be doing nothing at the studios? (2011)
How was the author’s job odd in the eyes of the other staff? How
did they respond to this?
Ans. Asokamitran’s
job at the Gemini Studios was to collect information from newspapers and
magazines and to paste the cuttings in files for reference. The other members
of the studios always advised him to do a better job.
Q5. Subbu is described as a many-sided genius. List four of his special
abilities. Or Who was Kothamangalam Subbu?
How did he make all the other staff hate him?
Ans. Kothamangalam
Subbu joined the Gemini Studios as a clerk and remained the same in the
records. But in practice, he soon acquired the status of the No.2 at the studios
because of his amazing genius and different skills. He did any work for his
boss and ignored the rest. This made the rest of the staff envy him.
Q6. Discuss Subbu’s identity as a poet. Why was he not known as a
poet?
Ans. Apart from
being an amazing director of movies, Subbu had the identity as a poet. The
world of his time and later never recognized him as a poet yet he was a great
unknown poet. He wrote poems in the simplest Tamil language and was able to
recreate the classical poems in his own style.
Q7. Subbu was excellent as an actor too.
Discuss.
Ans. Subbu was a
good actor. He was able to act better than the lead actors yet never wished to
take any lead roles in any movie.
Q8. In spite of all the good qualities
and readiness to be a host at any time, Subbu had only enemies. Why?
Ans. Subbu was good to everyone he met. He always spoke with them nicely. He fed his relatives. He excelled with everyone in the Gemini Studios. But he
was hated by most of them just because he was so close to the boss of the
studios.
Q1. What was the hierarchy observed at the Make-up Room in Gemini
Studios?
Ans.
A strict hierarchy in the Makeup Room
The writer says that a strict
hierarchy was observed in the make-up department. The job of the chief make-up
man was to apply make-up on the faces of the chief actors and actresses. The
senior assistant applied makeup to the faces of the second-number hero and
heroine, and the junior comedian did makeup to the main comedian and others of the
same rank.
The responsibility of the ‘office
boy’ was to apply makeup material on the people who were playing the role of the crowd. He
would mix paint in a giant vessel and slap it with a brush on the faces of the
people hurriedly. It was done to hide every pore or patch on the face to make
it look presentable according to the set-up norms. The mention of a separate
office boy in the make-up room shows the large size of the Gemini Studios.
Q2. Write something about Ashokamitran’s job at the Gemini Studios.
Ans. Ashokamitran says that his duty
in the Gemini Studios was to sit in a small room. The writer would sit in his
desk and make cuttings of the important news-items and collect them in a file.
People usually thought his job to be insignificant. So some people would take
pity on him and deliver to him a long lecture on the necessity of getting a
real job.
Even the ‘boy’ in the make-up
department made Ashokamitran aware of the fact that his literary talent was
being wasted on that petty job. The writer would every time pray for crowd shooting. It means that only
crowd-shooting could save him the boy of the makeup department.
