Poets and Pancakes Important Questions – Class 12 English Flamingo Chapter 6

In this post we have given the Important Questions of Class 12 English Flamingo Chapter 6 Poets and Pancakes (by Asokamitran). These are useful for students preparing for their Class 12 board exams.

इस पोस्ट में कक्षा 12 अंग्रेज़ी (Flamingo) के पाठ 6 Poets and Pancakes के महत्वपूर्ण प्रश्न दिए गए हैं। यह उन सभी विद्यार्थियों के लिए उपयोगी है जो इस वर्ष कक्षा 12 की बोर्ड परीक्षा देने वाले हैं।

Very Short Answer Questions (1 mark)

Q1. What was “Pancake”?

Ans: Pancake was the brand name of the make-up material that Gemini Studios bought in truck-loads.

Q2. Who founded Gemini Studios?

Ans: S.S. Vasan, who is called “The Boss” throughout the chapter.

Q3. Where and when was Gemini Studios set up?

Ans: It was set up in Chennai (then Madras) in 1940.

Q4. What work did the author do at Gemini Studios?

Ans: He cut out newspaper clippings on many different subjects and kept them in files, writing many of them out by hand.

Q5. Name the novel written by Kothamangalam Subbu.

Ans: Thillana Mohanambal, a long novel with dozens of finely drawn characters.

Q6. What did people at the studio call the legal adviser?

Ans: He was officially the legal adviser, but everybody called him the opposite, that is, an “illegal” adviser.

Q7. When did the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) army come to Madras?

Ans: In 1952.

Q8. Who was the English visitor to Gemini Studios?

Ans: He was Stephen Spender, the English poet who was the editor of the British periodical The Encounter.

Short Answer Questions (2 marks)

Q9. Why does the author jokingly call the make-up department an example of “national integration”?

Ans: Its staff came from many regions and communities. It was first led by a Bengali, then by a Maharashtrian helped by a Kannadiga from Dharwar, an Andhra, an Indian Christian from Madras, an Anglo-Burmese and local Tamils. The author says, with gentle humour, that this was national integration long before A.I.R. and Doordarshan began broadcasting programmes about it.

Q10. What made the office boy frustrated, and whom did he blame?

Ans: He had joined the studio years earlier hoping to become a star actor or a top writer, director or lyricist, but was stuck applying paint to crowd players. He felt his literary talent was being wasted. As the author notes, a frustrated person usually aims his anger at one person, and the office boy blamed Kothamangalam Subbu for all his troubles, humiliation and neglect.

Q11. What does the rat-and-tigress episode tell us about Subbu?

Ans: A producer did not know how to film a scene in which a rat kills a tigress underwater but then pities and looks after her cubs. Subbu at once suggested four ways of doing it, and when the producer was not satisfied, he gave fourteen more ideas within a minute. It shows that Subbu could be inspired whenever he was asked to be.

Q12. What happened to the actress after the lawyer played back her recorded outburst?

Ans: Hearing her own angry voice played back left her speechless (“struck dumb”). She was a girl from the countryside who had suddenly reached a position of importance without the worldly experience that usually comes before it. She never got over the fear of that day, and her short but brilliant acting career came to an end.

Q13. Why did the Story Department close down?

Ans: The text does not give any reason. It only says that one day The Boss shut the department. The author jokes that this was perhaps the only time in history that a lawyer lost his job because the poets were sent home.

Q14. What was the khadi-clad poets’ idea of a Communist?

Ans: They imagined a Communist to be a godless man without love for his parents or his wife, who would not hesitate to kill his own parents or children, and who was always spreading unrest and violence among innocent people. The author shows this as a vague idea common all over South India at that time.

Q15. How did the MRA’s plays influence Tamil drama?

Ans: Although the plays carried only simple moral lessons, their sets and costumes were excellent. Madras and the Tamil drama world were so impressed that for some years almost all Tamil plays included a sunrise-and-sunset scene in the style of Jotham Valley, with a bare stage, a white curtain behind and a tune on the flute.

Q16. How did the author first come to know that the English visitor was Stephen Spender?

Ans: Some time later he saw a tiny notice in The Hindu about a short story contest run by the British periodical The Encounter. He went to the British Council Library to look at a copy, and on reading the editor’s name he felt a bell ring in his heart: the editor was the same man who had visited Gemini Studios.

Short Answer Questions (2–3 marks): Extract-Based

Q17. In the passage about the rat and the tigress, how does Subbu react when the producer says his ideas may not be effective enough, and why does the author credit him with giving the studio “direction and definition”?

Ans: Subbu does not argue or give up; within a minute he offers fourteen more ways of showing the scene. Because he could solve such problems so quickly, the author feels film-making was easy with him around, and so he says that if anyone gave Gemini Studios direction and definition in its golden years, it was Subbu.

Q18. Why was the MRA group called “an international circus”, and how did Gemini Studios respond to its visit?

Ans: It was a teasing remark made by someone, not a real description. The author adds that they were not good on the trapeze and knew animals only at the dinner table, but they staged two plays very professionally. Gemini Studios was their warmest host in India, and the six-hundred-strong Gemini family, with other citizens of Madras, watched Jotham Valley and The Forgotten Factor again and again.

Long Answer Questions (4 marks)

Q19. The author uses gentle humour to point out human foibles. Give examples and show how this makes the piece interesting.

Ans: Asokamitran laughs at ordinary human weaknesses in a kind, light way rather than mocking them harshly. He calls the make-up department’s mixed staff “national integration” long before A.I.R. and Doordarshan began their programmes on it, giving a plain fact a sly larger meaning. He says Subbu’s one advantage was being born a Brahmin, adding “a virtue, indeed!”, which quietly shows he does not think birth is a real virtue.

He also says the office boy’s long lectures made him wish for crowd-shooting all the time, and he jokes that the closing of the Story Department was perhaps the only case in history of a lawyer losing his job because the poets were sent home. Such small touches of irony keep the reader smiling and make a simple memoir lively and entertaining.

Q20. Why was Kothamangalam Subbu considered No. 2 at Gemini Studios?

Ans: Subbu was always seen beside The Boss, although on paper he belonged to the Story Department. He was a man who could be inspired on command: for a difficult rat-and-tigress scene he gave four solutions, and fourteen more in a minute when asked. He was a poet who wrote for the masses, the author of the novel Thillana Mohanambal, and an actor who did better than the main players in every supporting role. He could not work alone, but his loyalty made him put all his creativity to The Boss’s use. That is why the author says that if anyone gave direction and definition to Gemini Studios in its golden years, it was Subbu.

Q21. How does the author bring out the incongruity of an English poet speaking to the audience at Gemini Studios?

Ans: The Boss fought against half a dozen pedestal fans to read a long speech full of general words like “freedom” and “democracy”, and it was clear that he knew very little about his guest. Then the poet spoke, but his accent made it impossible for anyone to follow him, and he could not have had a more dazed and silent audience. The whole event lasted about an hour.

The audience left completely puzzled, wondering why an English poet had come to a studio making Tamil films for simple people whose lives gave them no chance to enjoy English poetry. The poet himself looked baffled, as if he too felt how out of place his talk was. The visit remained an unexplained mystery.

Q22. What do you learn about the author’s literary inclinations from this account?

Ans: Though his job was only to clip and file newspapers, Asokamitran was deeply interested in literature. He believed that prose-writing was not the work of a genius but of a patient, persistent and hard-working “drudge” who is not put off by rejection slips. He noticed a tiny notice in The Hindu about a short story contest in The Encounter and went to the British Council Library to check a copy before sending his entry. When he recognised Stephen Spender’s name, he felt a bell ring in his heart and felt he had found a long-lost brother. All this shows a sincere, personal love for writing.

Q23. Explain the title “Poets and Pancakes”.

Ans: The author does not explain the title, so this is one reading. “Pancakes” stands for the practical, glamorous side of film-making at Gemini Studios: make-up bought in truck-loads, a strict hierarchy and the creation of screen illusion. “Poets” stands for the literary world that keeps touching it: the office boy who is a bit of a poet, Subbu who is a real poet working happily in the film world, the poets who made the studio their favourite meeting place, and finally an English poet-editor who leaves everyone confused. The humour and the thoughtfulness of the chapter come from these two worlds meeting without fully understanding each other.

Q24. Sketch the character of the lawyer in the Story Department.

Ans: The lawyer was clearly an outsider. While the others wore khadi dhoti and loose white shirts, he wore pants, a tie and sometimes a coat that looked like a coat of mail. He was a man of cold logic among dreamers and a neutral man among Gandhi’s followers, and he often looked lonely and helpless. He was alert and quick-thinking, as seen when he secretly recorded the actress’s outburst, but this cleverness accidentally ended her career. Even his own film, which he was allowed to make like others close to The Boss, did not amount to much. He comes across as a capable but isolated man whose one clever act did real harm without his meaning it.

Q25. What picture of the political attitudes at Gemini Studios does the chapter give?

Ans: The people at Gemini Studios were not politically thoughtful. Most of them wore khadi and worshipped Gandhiji, yet they had no real understanding of political thought. Their dislike of Communism was only a vague, borrowed fear of something godless and violent, an idea common across South India then. The studio warmly welcomed the MRA in 1952 and later an English poet-editor about whom even The Boss knew little. The author says the big bosses simply played into MRA’s hands, though he is not sure of this, since nothing about them changed. Only years later did he learn that MRA opposed international Communism and that Spender had turned away from it.

Q26. How does the chapter connect the MRA visit with the mystery of Stephen Spender?

Ans: At first these seem to be two separate events: the MRA’s visit in 1952 and the confusing visit of an unknown English poet a few months later. The common link is Communism. Some years later the author learnt that MRA was a kind of counter-movement to international Communism. Much later, a cheap copy of The God That Failed showed him that Spender was one of six writers who had described going into Communism and returning disillusioned. Then the warm welcome given to Spender was no longer a mystery: The Boss may not have cared much for Spender’s poetry, but he did care about “his god that failed”.

Long Answer Questions (5–6 marks)

Q27. Describe Kothamangalam Subbu’s character and his importance to Gemini Studios.

Ans: Kothamangalam Subbu is the most fully drawn character in the chapter, a man of many talents. He could be inspired whenever asked: when a producer could not imagine how to film a rat that kills a tigress and then cares for her cubs, Subbu gave four ideas at once and fourteen more within a minute. He wrote original story poems in folk style, choosing to write for ordinary people although he could handle more complex forms. His novel Thillana Mohanambal recreates the world of the early 20th-century Devadasis through dozens of finely drawn characters.

He was also a fine actor who never wanted lead roles but did better than the main actors in every supporting part. At home he was very generous: dozens of near and distant relatives lived in his house, and he hardly seemed to notice that he was supporting them. His loyalty made him identify completely with The Boss and use all his creativity for him.

The author points out that Subbu’s start in films was harder, not easier, than the office boy’s, since there were no established studios when he began. His critics felt his film success overshadowed his literary work, and he had enemies for reasons the author cannot pin down. Still, the author says that if anyone gave direction and definition to Gemini Studios in its golden years, it was Subbu.

Q28. Trace step by step how the author solves the mystery of the English visitor.

Ans: The mystery begins when Gemini Studios clears a shooting stage to welcome “a poet from England”, and the staff are then told he is not a poet but an editor. The Boss reads a long speech full of words like “freedom” and “democracy” but clearly knows little about the man. The visitor’s talk cannot be followed because of his accent, the audience stays dazed and silent, and after about an hour everyone leaves confused. The visit becomes an unexplained mystery.

The first clue comes by chance some time later. The author sees a small notice in The Hindu about a short story contest run by the British periodical The Encounter. Before spending money on postage, he checks a copy at the British Council Library, and on reading the editor’s name he hears a bell ring in his heart: it is Stephen Spender, the visitor to Gemini Studios.

The final piece comes years later, when he buys a fifty-paise footpath copy of The God That Failed and finds Spender among six writers describing their disillusionment with Communism. Now the reaction to Spender at Gemini Studios is no longer a mystery: The Boss may not have had much to do with Spender’s poetry, but he did with “his god that failed”.

Q29. Is “Poets and Pancakes” both entertaining and thoughtful? Discuss.

Ans: Yes, the chapter is both. It entertains through a series of small comic incidents: the mixed make-up staff called “national integration”, the office boy’s misplaced anger against Subbu, the legal adviser whom everyone called the opposite, the lawyer losing his job because the poets were sent home, and the pun in the last line about Spender’s “god that failed”.

Beneath the humour there is real substance. The chapter gives a detailed picture of how a big Indian film studio worked in the 1940s and 1950s, from its strict make-up hierarchy to its unusual Story Department. It also quietly follows a serious historical thread: the studio’s vague fear of Communism, its warm welcome to the MRA, which the author later learnt was a counter-movement to international Communism, and its brush with Spender, who had himself turned away from Communism.

The chatty, rambling style, in which one memory leads naturally to the next, lets Asokamitran move easily between light comedy and thoughtful reflection on the larger world outside the film studio.

Q30. Compare the world of “Pancakes” with the world of “Poets” in the chapter and show how they interact.

Ans: The “Pancakes” world is the practical, glamour-making machinery of Gemini Studios: the make-up department with its truck-loads of make-up, its strict order from the chief make-up man down to the office boy, and its single aim of creating an illusion on screen. The “Poets” world is more reflective: Subbu’s folk-style poems and his novel, the writers of the Story Department, the poets who made the studio their favourite haunt, and finally a famous English poet-editor whom nobody at the studio understands.

One reading is that the two worlds keep colliding. The office boy works in the pancake world, is a bit of a poet, and dreams of rising in films. Subbu belongs fully to both, thriving as a poet inside the film business. The English visitor’s confusing reception shows the literary world arriving at the studio and finding no one ready for it. Through gentle comedy, the chapter shows a busy, unreflective film world and a serious literary and political world brushing against each other without either fully understanding the other.