Hello, I am Himanshi Parmar, student of MK Bhavnagar University. This blog i have written as a response to Thinking Activity, Which is a Part of my academic Work. Which we get after each unit. In this blog, i am going to discuss about "An Astrologer's day" by R. K. Narayan with the discussion on several important questions assigned by Yesha Bhatt ma'am. To see the questions click here. but before that, here is some important details about The story "An Astrologer's day",R. K. Narayan and short film titled as, An Astrologer's day. Which is Also based on the story of R. K. Narayan.
An Astrologer's Day by R. K. Narayan :-
An Astrologer's Day was written by author R. K. Narayan. It is a thriller and suspense short story. It was the titular story of Narayan's fourth collection of short stories titled Malgudi Days published in 1947 by Indian Thought Publications. An Astrologer's Day was the first chapter of Malgudi Days. Some important themes of the storie are,1)Irony of fate,2)Religion and blind faith,3)Crime and Punishment, 4)Human Greed,5)Karma (tit for tat) etc.
The third-person, omniscient narrator begins by describing a day in the life of an astrologer. The story is about a man working as a astrologer. Who meeting the man named Guru Nayak whom he once tried to kill, and how he make him believe that the person who tried to kill him in past is died.
"He died four months ago in
a far-off town. You will never see any more of him."
He is not astrologer at all. Even he don't have any knowledge about starts and sky, but he pretend that he has and fool people and earn money by fooling them.
"He was as much a stranger to the stars as were his innocent customers".
When he meet Guru Nayak whom he once tried to kill,the person not able to recognize him. So astrologer take advantage of it and charge him more money and told about his past which he obviously aware because they were friends and time and again enemies at that time. So he told to the person about his body scare, how he left to die, how someone attempted to murder him but failed, about his village and threat him by saying that he must stay in his village only, if he travel more then it will be dangerous for him. And the person easily get agree with him and return to his village with the thought that the person once tired to kill him, died very cruelly. And astrologer feel light for that he didn't kill anyone and now he has no danger ever.
"You were left for dead. Am I right ? "
"Ah, tell me more."
"A knife has passed through you once ? " said the astrologer.
"Good fellow ! " He bared his chest to show the scar. "What else?"
"And then you were pushed into a well nearby in the field. You were left
for dead."
"I see once again great danger to your life if you go from home."
"Rub it on your forehead and
go home. Never travel southward again, and you will live to be a hundred."
About R.K.Narayan :-
Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami is generally known as R. K. Narayan. He was born 10 October 1906 and died at 13 May 2001. He is considering as a one of the leading figure of Indian English Literature along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. He was a short story writer, also known for his fictional works. He was received many Notable awards during his lifetime, like Padma Vibhushan, Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, and Benson Medal. During his life time he wrote lots of Mythology, Non - Fiction and Short stories. For example,
Novels -
Swami and Friends (1935, Hamish Hamilton)
The Bachelor of Arts (1937, Thomas Nelson)
The Dark Room (1938, Eyre)
The English Teacher (1945, Eyre)
Mr. Sampath (1948, Eyre)
The Financial Expert (1952, Methuen)
Waiting for the Mahatma (1955, Methuen)
The Guide (1958, Methuen)
Non - Fictions -
Next Sunday (1960, Indian Thought Publications)
My Dateless Diary (1960, Indian Thought Publications)
My Days (1973, Viking)
Reluctant Guru (1974, Orient Paperbacks)
The Emerald Route (1980, Indian Thought Publications)
A Writer's Nightmare (1988, Penguin Books)
Mythology -
Gods, Demons and Others (1964, Viking)
The Ramayana (1972, Chatto & Windus)
The Mahabharata (1978, Heinemann)
Short stories -
Malgudi Days (1942, Indian Thought Publications)
An Astrologer's Day and Other Stories (1947, Indian Thought Publications)
Lawley Road and Other Stories (1956, Indian Thought Publications)
A Horse and Two Goats (1970)
Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories (1985)
Film An Astrologer's Day :-
Here is the film.
The film is based on R. K. Narayan's short story An Astrologer's day. It is a 13:37 seconds short film. Made by Pocket film - Indian short films.here is the information of cast and crew of the film. Film direction and production done by Sushant Bhat. Saumit Deshpande contributed as musician and cinematographer. Characters of the film are,
1) Astrologer: Prithvi Sancheti
2) Astrologer's Wife: Sukanya Bhatt
3)Customer 1: Sidhant Pawar
4)Landlord: Ashish
Here are descriptive answers of all the questions assigned as a task.
1} How faithful is the movie to the original short story?
Movie is quite faithful to original short story, it is very helpful to understand storyline.Themes and sounds are well maintained.but somehow movie is made for audience so it must be made as interesting as audience wanted it to be. And to make it interesting filmmaker made several changes which is not there in original story.
In original story writer described The market so well and crowded.also in story it is mentioned that so many shopes are there and a beautiful description of place where Astrologer sit everyday. For example three name of shopes are given in story, " Bombay Ice-Cream "Delhi Almond," " Raja's Delicacy," where in Movie we don't find name of any shop or even any shope nearby. We just have one person selling Groundnut. Groundnut is also mentioned in story. Description of lighting is also detailed in story where in movie lighting is not so significant. In story we find lighting description like,
"The place was lit up by shop lights. "
"One or two had hissing gaslights,
some had naked flares stuck on poles, some were lit up by old cycle lamps, and
one or two, like the astrologer's, managed without lights of their own."
Where in movie we don't have this much lights but have some like street light, flare light, and light of vehicles.
2) second major change we find is in movie name of Astrologer's wife and daughter is given but in story it is not given. Not even gender of Astrologer's child are mentioned.In movie we have name of Astrologer's wife Usha and also gender of his child is prescribed as a girl named Chutki.
3) Astrologer's outfit is also described different in movie and story.In story Astrologer wear saffron turban where in movie he Doesn't wear that.
4) In story they use "Anna" as a currency, but in movie they use Rupees as a currency.
Excepting this several changes movie is very faithful to story.
2} After watching the movie, have your perception about the short story, characters or situations changed?
Yes, movie help me to understand the story more clearly. And also give clearcut idea that what story actually wants to portray or say. For example while reading story we find that something will happened when guru Nayak and an Astrologer met and that's why Astrologer suddenly started neglecting to deal with Guru Nayak. But we don't know what was it. But in movie, that empty space was filled by putting beautiful scene in which Astrologer see face of Guru Nayak in a Light of cigarette.
Also in movie flashback is interestingly shown. It is a black and white sequence which is easy yo understand while in story it become little complex.
3} Do you feel ‘aesthetic delight’ while watching the movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If no, can you explain with reasons?
No i don't feel aesthetic delight while watching the movie, because one can only feel aesthetic delight if he/she find something great or we can say something that mesmerize. But here there is nothing like that. But i must make a point that, while watching the movie, at the end when Astrologer reveal his past front of his wife, and regret for what he did in past, that scene gives auspicious feeling.
4} Does screening of movie help you in better understanding of the short story?
Yes, screening of movie help me in better understanding of the short story, it helps to understand silence and pause, which not possible to understand by reading story. Also lighting, sound and camera language is very useful in better understanding of story.
5} Does screening of movie help you in better understanding of the short story?
In movie when Guru Nayak and Astrologer met and Astrologer found the face of Guru nayak in light of cigarette, that was the perfect scene according to me. It was like suspense in the movie.
6} If you are director, what changes would you like to make in the remaking of the movie based on the short story “An Astrologer’s Day” by R.K.Narayan?
I would like to change setting and sound in movie. It should be better than it is in the movie.
I hope my blog will be helpful to you and easy to understand. Thank you!
