POETS AND PANCAKES WORKFILE

DON BOSCO SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL, EGMORE

STD 12 ENGLISH CORE

POETS AND PANCAKES

• ASHOKA MITHRAN

THEME

"Poets and Pancakes" takes us behind the scenes of Gemini Studios, a famous film studio in Chennai. The chapter shows the daily life and activities at the studio, focusing on the various roles people played in making movies.

It shows that what people see on screen is just for the sake of the camera and the actors acting or people involved in the film are different in reality with different lives of their own.

Read the following extracts and answer with reference to the context:

1. “The rat fights the tigress underwater and kills her but takes pity on the cubs and tends them lovingly – I don’t know how to do the scene,” the producer would say and Subbu would come out with four ways of the rat pouring affection on its victim’s offspring. “Good, but I am not sure it is effective enough,” the producer would say and in a minute Subbu would come out with fourteen more alternatives. Film-making must have been and was so easy with a man like Subbu around and if ever there was a man who gave direction and definition to Gemini Studios during its golden years, it was Subbu. Subbu had a separate identity as a poet and though he was certainly capable of more complex and higher forms, he deliberately chose to address his poetry to the masses.

2. List any two sensory details present in this extract.

3. What was Subbu’s role in Gemini Studios?

4. A producer

5. A director

6. A scriptwriter

7. A poet

8. Complete the sentence appropriately:

The phrase ‘he deliberately chose to address his poetry to the masses’ means ______________________.

1. Explain any one possible inference that can be drawn from the line “Filmmaking must have been and was so easy with a man like Subbu around”.

2. What does the term ‘golden years’ mean in this context?

3. The years when Gemini Studios made a lot of money

4. The years when Gemini Studios produced high quality films

5. The years when Gemini Studios won many awards

6. The years when Gemini Studios had many stars

7. Which of the following headlines best suggests the central idea of the extract?

8. The scene of a Rat and a Tigress

9. The poetry of a Scriptwriter

10. The Talent of Subbu

11. The producer of Gemini Studios

Answer the following questions in about 50 – 80 words:

1. Why did everybody in the studio think of giving the author some work to do?

2. Who was Subbu’s enemy? Why?

3. What were the positive qualities of Subbu that the writer admired?

4. Why is the Englishman’s visit to the Gemini Studios referred to as an unexplained mystery?

Answer the following question in about 120 – 150 words:

1. Kothamangalam Subbu was a ‘many-sided genius’. Elaborate.

*****************************************