POETS &PANCAKES�Ashoka Mitran

Kurian Thomas

PGT English

JNV,Chamarajngar

Ashoka Mitran (1931-2017)

• Real Name: Jagadisa Thyagarajan
• Wrote more than 200 short stories,8 novels and 15 novellas.
• Distinguished essayist and critic.
• Won Sahithya Academi Award in 1996.
• His works are known for clarity of thought and simplicity.

My Years With Boss _ Ashoka Mitran

• Poets & Pancakes is an excerpt from the book “ My Years with Boss”, written by Ashoka Mitran.
• He recounts his years at the Gemini Studio and talks of the influence of movies on every aspect of life in India.
• He wrote his experience of working in the Tamil film industry for the Illustrated weekly which was later compiled and published as “My Years With Boss”

pancake

• Pancake is the name of the make-up material that is compressed into a cake and is applied as a make up base with damp sponge. It is a thick ,heavy oil and wax based foundation that provides a great deal of coverage.

• Pancakes provide a lot more coverage than regular cream based make ups, so it is often used for theatrical performance by people who are going to appear on stage or screen, such as models and actors. It creates a water resistant finish and won’t be affected by sweat.

Gemini Studios

• From 1940 to 1969 Gemini studios was the most influential film producing organization of India.
• Ashoka Mitran worked here from 1952 to 1966.
• In 1940 S.S Vasan bought it in an auction.
• He named it after his successful racehorse Gemini.

Greta Garbo

• Greta Garbo was a Swedish –American actress who was one of the most glamorous and popular stars of the 1920s and 1930s.
• She was nominated thrice for the Academy Awards in the best actress category.
• Received an Academy Honoraray Award in 1954 for her captivating and unforgettable screen performances.

​

Miss Gohar ( 1910-1985)

• Gohar Mamajiwala also known as Miss Gohar was an Indian singer, actor, producer and studio owner, who started her film career at the age of sixteen.

Vyjayanthimala Bali (1936)

• Renowned Bharathanatyam dancer, choreographer and parliamentarian.
• Regarded as the first female ‘superstar’. She had a long filmy career lasting more than two decades.
• She was conferred with the Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1982.

Rati Agnihotri(1960)

• Indian film actress
• Major films in Hindi, Tamil and Kannada.
• Popular Hindi films- Ek Duje Keliye, and Coolie

Robert Clive(1725-1774)

• A controversial personality, also known as Clive of India.
• Established the military and political supremacy of East India company in Bengal.
• Laid the foundation of British Raj in India.

​

​

S.S. Vasan

• ‘The Boss’ referred to in this chapter is S.S Vasan, owner of the Gemini Studios, who was also a journalist, writer, advertiser, film producer, director and prominent business man of Madras.
• He was the founder of the Tamil magazine- Ananda Vikatan.

French Window

• French windows are large windows that can also serve as doors and it has one or more panes of glasses set into the whole length of the door

Kothamangalam Subbu(1910-1974)

• Subbu(S.M.Subramanian) was an Indian poet,lyricist,author actor and film director in south India.
• He was awarded Padmashri.
• Wrote the Tamil classic Thillana Mohanambal.
• Was a close associate of S.S Vasan and was considered No.2 at the Gemini Studios.

Thillana Mohanambal

• Novel

• Movie

Thillana Mohanambal

• Tamil novel written by Kothamangalam Subbu, which was also made into a movie in the year 1967.
• Earlier in 1957 it was published in the Tamil Magazine Ananda Vikatan, founded by S.S.Vasan.
• It is the story of Shanmugasundaram, a Nadaswaram player and Mohanambal, a Bharatahanatyam dancer. Unfortunately both could not confess their love for each other. Their families create a challenge in their coming together. The way they overcome the obstacles weave the rest of the story.

Krishna Shastri

• Devulapalli Venkata Krishna Shastri ( 1897-1980) was a Telungu poet, playwright and translator.
• He was popularly known as Andhra Shelly.

Harindranath Chattopadhyay

• Was an Indian English poet, dramatist, actor and musician.
• He was member of the first Lok Sabha from Vijayawada constituency.
• Brother of Sarojini Naidu.
• Received Padmabhushan in the year 1973.

Frank Buchman(1878-1961)

• Franklin Nathaniel Daniel Buchman, best known as Rev.Dr. Frank Buchman was a Ptotestant Evangelist, who founded the Oxford Group, known as the Moral Re-Armament.

Moral Re-Armamment

• Moral Re-Armament or MRA was an international spiritual and moral movement, that in 1938, developed from American minister Frank Buchman’s Oxford Group.
• In 1938 European nations were re-arming themselves for war. It was then the Oxford group felt the need for rearming the nations spiritually and morally and launched a campaign of Moral rearmament in London.
• It was also known as a right wing group.

Jotham Valley

• Jotham Valley is a melodrama of two quarrelling brothers, whose hatred brings misery to all the neighbours, particularly when one brother deprives the valley of water, because he legally controls the water rights. In the end the key of truth opens the hardened heart of the brother and he permits the water to gush forth and the brothers also make up.

The Forgotten Factor

• Another drama staged by the MRA.
• Based on the theme human and ideological clashes during a tense strike.
• An industrial drama.
• Translated to 16 languages and later made into a movie.

The Encounter

• The Encounter was a literary magazine founded in 1953 by poet Stephen Spender and journalist Irving Kristol.
• It was largely an Anglo-American intelectual and cultural journal originally associated with the anti Stalinist left.
• It stopped publication in 1991.

Stephen Spender

• The poet from England who visited Gemini Studios.
• English poet, novelist and essayist.
• He concentrated on the themes of social injustice and class struggle in his works.
• Was the editor of the Encounter from 1953 to 1966.

The God that Failed

• The God that Failed is collection of essays written by six eminent writers of the world who were disillusioned by communism.
• They were Andre Gide, Richard Wright, Ignazio Silone, Arthur Koestler, Louis Fischer and Stephen Spender

Poets and Pancakes is one of the best examples of a chatty, rambling, humourous and satirical style of writing where one thought leads to another and then dealt upon at length. For eg.

• Gemini Studios
• Makeup department
• National Integration
• Office boy
• S S Vasan
• Kothamangalam Subbu
• Legal advisor
• Poets and writers
• Stephen Spender
• Communism and MRA
• The God that Failed

​

Difficult words and phrases

• Stable - place set apart for keeping horses
• Maiden - unmarried young woman
• Fiery - red hot, scorching
• Hideous - extremely ugly, frightful
• Potion - liquid mixture
• Cubicle - a small partitioned part of a room
• Covertly - secretly
• Having hand in - to be involved with something
• Deftly - effortlessly, skilfully
• Sprawling - spreading over large area

Difficult words and phrases

• Improvident - spendthrift, one who does not plan his expenses
• Sycophant - one who shows excessive obedience to gain advantage
• Tirade - long angry speech of accusation
• Struck dumb- shocked
• Coat of mail - protective garment made of linked metal rings or plates
• Homilies - sermon, lecture
• Literati - well educated people interested in literature