Class 12 English — Chapter 6: Poets and Pancakes

What you'll learn

• ▸The Make-up Department at Gemini Studios
• ▸Hierarchy in the Make-up Department
• ▸The Character of the 'Office Boy'
• ▸Kothamangalam Subbu: The Many-Sided Genius
• ▸The Story Department and the Legal Adviser
• ▸Anti-Communist Sentiment at the Studios
• ▸The Visit of the Moral Re-Armament Army (MRA)
• ▸The Mysterious Visit of Stephen Spender
• ▸The Author's Discovery and Resolution of the Mystery

Chapter Summary

--- PAGE 1 --- 12074CH06 6 Poets and Pancakes About the author Asokamitran (1931-2017), a Tamil writer, recounts his years at Gemini Studios in his book My Years with Boss which talks of the influence of movies on every aspect of life in India. The Gemini Studios, located in Chennai, was set up in 1940. It was one of the most influential film-producing organisations of India in the early days of Indian film-making. Its founder was S.S. Vasan. The duty of Asokamitran in Gemini Studios was to cut out newspaper clippings on a wide variety of subjects and store them in files. Many of these had to be written out by hand. Although he performed an insignificant function he was the most well- informed of all the members of the Gemini family. The following is an excerpt from his book My Years with Boss. Notice these words and expressions in the text. Infer their meaning from the context. * blew over * was struck dumb * catapulted into …

Practice Questions from this Chapter

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1. Describe early film making. Get Solution →
2. Explain the purpose of greasepaint. Get Solution →
3. Analyze the art of screenwriting. Get Solution →
4. What was the brand name of the make-up material that Gemini Studios bought in truck-loads? Get Solution →
5. Who was the founder of Gemini Studios? Get Solution →
6. What was the author Asokamitran's main job at Gemini Studios? Get Solution →
7. The make-up department was located in a building believed to have been whose stables? Get Solution →
8. In the make-up department's hierarchy, who was responsible for applying make-up to the crowd players? Get Solution →

Did you know?

• 💡 Cosmetics were first used over 6,000 years ago in ancient Egypt for rituals.
• 💡 The world's first motion picture camera was patented in 1888.
• 💡 Many early film studios relied heavily on natural sunlight through large glass roofs.
• 💡 The oldest known epic poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, is over 4,000 years old.
• 💡 William Shakespeare invented hundreds of words that are still used in English today.

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