ASOKAMITRAN

• Born in 1931 in
Secunderabad, Andhra
Pradesh
• His novels and short stories are
marked by subtle satire, a gorgeous
undercurrent of humor and an
engrossing portrayal of people who
thrive in life despite the hardships they
face
• His stories hold up a mirror to many
aspects of contemporary life and deeply
focus on human situations and He spent the starting
tendencies years of his career in
• He is a recipient of Sahitya Gemini Studio of
Akademi Award
Chennai and was
• He was one of the few writers who
entrusted with the
could write in Tamil and English
fluently and wrote several novels and
clerical tasks of
hundreds of short stories in his career cutting and pasting
over six decade newspaper articles. He
• He spent the starting years of his learned a lot about
career in Gemini Studio of Chennai how Gemini Studio
and was entrusted with the clerical operated and depicted
tasks of cutting and pasting newspaper it humorously in his
articles autobiography My
Years with Boss.
 Theme Of The Lesson
• Poets and pancakes is a part summary that has been extracted from the
autobiography ‘My Years With Boss’ by Asokamitran. It shows the
time period when he used to work in the Gemini Studio. It was a very
famous film studio of that time and he got a lot of exposure there.
With the reading of the text we come to know that he used to work as
an office boy whose job was to cut paper cuttings of different topics.
• Through this lesson, we get to know about the working of the
Indian film industry. He also wrote about the makeup department and
we came to know that ‘pancake’ was the makeup material used in the
industry.
• In whole we can say that the author is trying to show us that the
film industry though looks glamorous it has its own fallacies, it also
shows us the struggle that one has to go through before gaining the
name and the fame as an artist or a writer.
 Main characters
Asokamitran The Offi c e Boy
• He is the author of this • He was not really a
lesson and used to work as young boy, but a grown-
an employee of Gemini up man of forty years old
Studio. His job was to cut and was given the duty of
newspaper clippings on crowd makeup. His job
was an easy one still he
different topics and make
feels he was an expert and
a file on it. The other a skilled make-up artist.
members of his staff He blamed Subbu for his
looked down upon his failure to become a hero or
work and felt superior to a star actor.
him always.
 Main characters
K o t h m a n g a l a m Subbu

• He was considered the No.2 at the studio and came from a lower background
than the office boy but being a brahmin he was given more importance than
the office boy. He always looks cheerful as a lark and was loyal towards
Vasan, always being at service for him. He was extremely creative and used
his talent to his own advantage and to make his position strong in the studio.
• He was a talented poet also and sometimes performed better than the lead
actors. He used to write poems in Tamil and so he had made some enemies
also in the studio. He was a brilliant poet and actor and contributed a lot to
the Studio.

Le gal A d v i s o r
• He was a lawyer in the story department of Gemini Studio. He
wore pants and a tie and sometimes an oversized coat unlike
everyone in the department. He possesses cold and lame logic. He
destroyed the career of many actresses by his unrealistic behavior.
 Main characters
Stephen Spender

• He was an English poet, editor, and a one-time

communist who gave a speech about Communism. He
gave a long lecture on communism and also explains
his tough times when he wishes to establish it here.
Later on, people could know about the reason he gave.
Asokamitran, later on, came to know that he was the
Editor of the British Periodical, ‘Encounter’, he
recognized the connection between him and the owner
of the Studio, S.S. Vasan.
 POETS AND PANCAK
ES

A Swedish actress, in 1954 she Gohar Mamajiwala also An Indian actress whose
received an Honorary Oscar for performance was widely
known as Miss Gohar was
her unforgettable screen appreciated in Bimal Roy’s
performances. The Guinness an Indian singer, actress,
Book of World Records named producer and studio Devdas. She won three
her the most beautiful woman owner Best Actress awards for her
who ever lived. She was also acting. She is now an active
voted Best Silent Actress of the politician
country
POETS AND PANCAK
ES

Rati Agnihotri: born on 10 decmber is and

Indian formmer actress.
She has acted in several movies of Hindi, Telugu
and Tamil. Her roles in the cult tragedy film ’Ek
duje k liye’ (1981) and the drama
film ’Tawaif’ (1985) earned her two nominations
for the Filmfare awardfor best actress.
 POETS AND PANCAKE
SH
• The Gemini studio was located in Madras (Chennai).
• The writer recounts his years in the company.
• The make-up department was in the upstairs of a building that was
believed to have been Robert Clive’s stables.
• Pancake was the brand name of the make- up the material used by
the artists in Gemini Studios.
• The make-up room had the look of a hair -cutting salon with
incandescent lights at all angles around half a dozen large
mirrors, the writer speaks about the ‘fiery misery’ ‘of those subjected
to make-up.
• There was a great deal of ‘national integration’ in the department
and a strict hierarchy was maintained there.
• The players who played the crowd were the responsibility of the
‘office boy’ in his early forties, a frustrated person, who turned all
his anger towards Kothamanagalam Subbu.
• The author’s job was to cut out newspaper clippings and store them
in files.
 POETS AND PANCAK
ES

• Most people including the ‘boy’ thought author was doing ‘next to
nothing’.
• S S Vasan (editor of Tamil weekly Ananada Vikatan’) was the owner of
the studios.
• Subbu was No.2. Subbu – a Brahmin, had the ability to look cheerful at
all times, could be ‘inspired when commanded’, was tailor-made for films,
had a separate identity as a poet and actor, had a genuine love for bothers,
was charitable, always seen with The Boss, attached to Story.
• Department. Story Department – assembly of poets and writers wore
khadi.
• A lawyer(legal adviser) – referred to as ‘the opposite’-caused the end of a
brief and the brilliant career of a talented actress, looked ‘alone and
helpless’, a man of cold logic in a crowd of dreamers, close to the Boss, wore
pants, coat and a tie, attached to Story Department, lost his job when the
Story Department was closed down.
 POETS AND PANCAK
ES

• Gemini studios –a favourite haunt of poets, an excellent mess which

supplied good coffee, Congress rule meant prohibition, almost everyone
radiated leisure, wore Khadi and worshipped Gandhi, averse to Communism.
• Visit of MRA (a kind of counter-movement to international Communism) in
1952- presented two plays ‘The Forgotten Factor’ and ‘Jotham Valley’ in a
professional manner impressed Madras and Tamil drama community.
• Another visitor – a poet from England, tall man, very English, addressed ‘a
more dazed and silent audience’, visit remained an unexplained mystery,
staff did not know whether he was a poet or an editor.
• Author’s conviction about prose-writers –‘prose writing is for the patient,
persistent, persevering drudge’, short story contest by a British periodical
‘The Encounter’-found in the British Council Library almost untouched by
readers’, discovered Stephen Spender was the editor.
• The author bought ‘The God That Failed’ years later –six essays describing
the disillusionment of six eminent men of letters with Communism, Stephen
Spender one among them, the author suddenly realized the relevance of his
visit to Gemini studios.
 POETS AND PANCAK
Po s s i b l e 6 m a r k s q u e s t i o n

Q. The author has used gentle humour to point out human foibles.
Pick out instances of this to show how this serves to make the piece
interesting.

Ans: The author Asokamitran, in his extract ‘Poets and Pancakes,’ recalled the years he spent at the
Gemini Studios owned by S.S. Vasan in Chennai. In his subtle and gentle manner, humour has been
used as an effective method to point out human foibles.

He sets the tone of laughter in his usual rambling style in his narration. He said that there was a
great deal of national integration in the Gemini Studios even before A.I.R and Doordarshan began
broadcasting programmes on national integration. He uses exaggerations to suggest that any decent
looking human could be turned into a monster with the help of a truck-load of pancakes and ‘locally
made potions and lotions.’ Ironically, it is used to invoke humour stating that boys and girls were
made to look ugly in order to look presentable in the film. The paint was mixed up in the studio in a
huge vessel and slapped it on the faces of the audience. In the course of applying make-up, every pore
on the surface of the face has been closed.

Humour is used by the protagonist in cases where he acknowledges that people assumed he didn’t do
something because he saw frequent newspaper tears. The literary talent was wasted in a department
only suited to barbers and perverts.

The author uses humour to expose people to authority. The storey department was closed, and this was
the only instance in human history where a lawyer lost his job because the most amusing circumstance
occurs when the definition of Communism is described. ‘A godless man without filial or conjugal love.’
The workers of Gemini rejected the idea and became Gandhiites and Khadiites. Ironically, there is the
‘God Who Lost’ collection of Communism and their disillusioned return.
Q. Write a brief character sketch of Kothamangalam Subbu.

Ans: Kothamangalam Subbu was granted a lot of importance in the essay

‘Poets and Pancakes’ by Asokamitran. He was presented as a man who was
held in high regard at Gemini Studios. He was born Brahmin and may have
risen to the position of No. 2 in Gemini Studios because of this virtue. He had
contact with wealthy citizens. He was cool, calm and collected, and even a
flop film he was involved in, never made him depressed or unhappy. He was
looking happy all the time. He was very loyal to his boss, and that made him
dear to the boss. He was a man who could be motivated when commanded.

He was creative and showed this skill when, effortlessly, he could give fourteen
alternative ways of handling a particular scene. Subbu was a calibre poet
and had a distinct identity as a poet. His success in film overshadowed his
achievements in literacy. He composed truly original ‘storey poems’ and wrote
a novel called ‘Thillana Mohanambal’ with a lot of characters. It re-created
the mood and manner of the Devadasis of the early 20th century. He was an
amazing actor, yet he never aspired to play leading roles. He loved all of
them genuinely and unselfishly.

He was charitable and imprudent, yet he probably had enemies because of his
closeness to the Boss. The author Asokamitran portrayed him as an extremely
talented, creative and lovable human being.
Q. How does the author describe the incongruity of an English poet
addressing the audience at Gemini Studios?

Ans: The audience at the Gemini Studios was not sufficiently knowledgeable
to understand the thrills and works of the English poet, about whom the
visitor, the poet-editor, spoke, in his speech. The studio produced films for
simple people whose limited resources did not give them the opportunity to
develop a taste in English poetry. The audience failed to understand
anything the poet had said, all the more so because of the accent of the
latter. The poet-editor, in turn, looked bewildered to realise that the utter
inappropriateness of his speech was directed at such an audience.

Q. What do you understand about the author’s literary inclinations from the
account?
Ans: Although the author had a very tiresome and unchallenged job in the
studios, his interest in literature and writing is evident in his willingness to
take part in the short storey contest organised by the British newspaper ‘The
Encounter.’ In addition, the author seems to be a keen reader visiting
libraries and buying books on a wide range of topics whenever he can afford
them. The narrative also shows that the author was one of the most
knowledgeable people in Gemini Studios. His idea of how prose writing was
meant not for geniuses but for those with patience and perseverance,
underscores his profound thoughts on literature and creative writing.